We virtually set ourselves the problem of penning this evaluate with out mentioning Hyperlink’s Awakening. However as certain as a retro-styled 2D RPG consists of hackable bushes, Castaway had so many similarities to the Nintendo traditional that it could have been inconceivable. Regardless of our desire for a brisker tackle the components just like the latest Kudzu, in equity, Canari Video games (Lunark) makes no try to hide Castaway’s inspiration. The shocking reality is that — even with all of the similarities: the pushing puzzles, the hookshot, the waking up on the seaside, the equivalent audio cues, and the virtually cloned enemies (all the way down to their very animations) — Castaway reminded us of different SNES and Recreation Boy video games much more.
Castaway is a really quick recreation. It took us round half-hour to beat the three bosses that symbolize the principle threats on ‘The Island’, the story mode, and to rescue our cute little canine that was kidnapped throughout the opening cutscene. We spent about an hour on the secondary mode, ‘The Tower’, the place we battled our method by 50 flooring of accelerating issue. Dependancy took maintain a little bit as we rolled right here and there, choosing up gold cash from fallen enemies and unlocking new powers – shields, sword buffs, even a protecting orb circling the character like in a side-scrolling shooter. We appreciated that this mode was a crafted expertise, with no signal of randomly generated ranges.
Nonetheless, all through each recreation modes there solely 4 essential enemy varieties, all a variation on the theme of a four-legged crab-type creature — from an ordinary pink one to a tower-headed, orb-firing blue variation — and three bodily equivalent bosses (although their assault patterns are every distinctive, they usually present three very completely different fights). So there’s not a lot in the way in which of selection.
The graphics are crisp, vibrant, and pleasingly animated with out pushing the boat out – bees flutter across the island, the water dips and falls. The music hits some barely lesser notes – the principle theme is an okay Zelda homage, and the tunes within the caves have been a little bit plodding. We didn’t love both, however they do their jobs. The sport runs effectively for essentially the most half with simply the smallest trace of slowdown in The Tower after we’d boosted our run with not one however two protecting orbs and there have been numerous enemies on display.
In Castaway’s defence, a strong speed-running mode is accessible from the beginning. Aside from that, pacifist and invincible issue settings (alongside regular and unfair) open the sport up for youthful children and inexperienced gamers.
The factor is, Castaway most reminded us of inferior Zelda clones from again within the ’90s. There’s simply one thing concerning the slowness of the character that we discovered a bit irritating. The general simplicity of each gameplay choices makes it troublesome to completely advocate to anybody apart from die-hard style followers. There are not any NPCs to speak to, no quirky alligators, villagers, or owls so as to add selection to the expertise – all that’s left is an extremely quick and unoriginal, if fairly, motion RPG.
