Welcome to our review of a new action platformer on Nintendo Switch called Castle of Heart.
Castle of Heart is a classic action platformer at the genre’s best… and most challenging, with plentiful of new twists on the formula to experience. The players take control over a cursed knight, turned to stone by the evil sorcerer’s spell, but ready to prove that love and courage can conquer even the darkest magic.
The brave hero must travel all the way from the petrified village to the dark ruler’s castle, mastering 20 levels set in 5 distinct environments – full of enemies who require different strategies to face them successfully and sudden gameplay changes, which translate to exciting, dynamic action sequences. The selection of progressively more powerful additional weapons, from flaming grenades to powerful magical arsenal, as well as power-ups, will help him in his quest.
But remember – the body of stone has its limits! It disintegrates permanently as the knight loses the energy, which he can supply only by defeating his enemies, and if the process reaches the critical level, he may lose one of his arms and the ability to wield additional weapons with it.
This game does just about everything right in the increase of difficulty section. You can just feel it becoming harder and harder along the way. Not forgetting the time limit of having to grab the red energy or you crumble. At first, you are fighting off basic enemies on your way to the castle. I had quite some hardship facing the first flying enemy, a bat, I could never get the timing just right, but he turned out to be little trouble when you are suddenly faced by small dragons.
As you progress, you also manage to get better weapons, again with the time limit in mind, because as the game often reminds you, only the sword can be used when an arm is lost. So as great as your weapon may be, it is lost when you run out of time. While this all adds to the challenge, it can get a little tedious that you are at your “weakest” at the end of your life.
Another point I disliked in a way, the way you turn around to fight off other characters, while in pure action, it is not something that bugged me. On the other hand, it did bug me when I was doing nothing. It just did not feel smooth enough to me, but seeing you are a being of stone in the game, this might be not purely coincidental but very much on purpose.
My entire gameplay is a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to every aspect of the game, I loved parts, I hated others. I love the number of temporary savepoints in the levels. They are so useful as this game is challenging from more than one point of view. I also loved sliding down roofs, riding carts, …
I did not like the steep difficulty you sometimes face or the weak side of you when you are at your end. I understand the reasoning behind it, I really do. You need to always perform at your best! Only by being the best, can you save your love!
In conclusion, this game is something you should definitely consider if you are into the harder action platformer and not if you are the casual gamer. The difficulty level might scare you away from actually enjoying this game. But if this is what gets you going, do buy this one! It is well worthy of your time. The variety of weapons, the never-ending action and flurry of enemies will keep you busy for a great time.
My rating for this game, based on liking the genre is 80%
