Do you remember the times when a box of cereal came with a game and you got all excited? Well Castle on the Coast feels a bit like one of those games.
George the Giraffe
The Valley Children’s Hospital in California does great work providing medical services to children. To make things a bit more kid-friendly they have a mascot in the form of a colourful giraffe named George. This giraffe offers distractions and solace in times of need. With the help of Big Heart Productions and Klabater, the hospital can now offer its mascot in a digital form through Castle on the Coast. Instead of only offering the game to children staying at the hospital, the game is made available for everyone around the world, hopefully bringing joy to many more children.
Forgiving platformer
In Castle on the Coast, you play as George in a retro feeling 3D platformer taking place in a magical castle. You’ll need to perform crazy platforming feats in order to collect all the necessary trinkets scattered around the castle. The look and feel is definitely PS1/N64 era 3D platformer. Sadly, the controls also feel from that era meaning they aren’t the most controlled controls I’ve experienced. While being so important in a platformer, the jumping feels a bit off. Luckily the game is extremely forgiving and thus suitable for children. The not so smooth platforming aside, Castle on the Coast intentions to bring a colourful world to life is fully met.
When I say colorful, I truly mean colorful. It’s like a rainbow exploded into the game. Adult me thinks it’s all a bit over the top but I’m sure – based on the drawings of my own child at a younger age – kids will adore the cacophony of color. The summon of color has to be the warp tunnels taking you to a parallel universe. These take the phrase ‘taking you on a trip’ to a whole new level.
Collectathon
The developers of Castle on the Coast, describe their game as a Collectathon. At first, I wasn’t sure what to expect but now I can safely say they weren’t exaggerating. The game is filled to the brim with collectibles. Opening up new areas in the game is done through “paying” access through these collectibles so collecting everything is a must. Besides gaining access to new areas, the collectibles can also be used to buy new outfits. Every new area is filled with new crystals to collect and other trinkets to gather.
Besides the platforming, Castle on the Coast is a game about exploring and figuring out some small and easy puzzles. Some areas will be blocked because you haven’t collected the right collectables yet, so more exploring will be needed in order to progress. Some areas will have to be figured out before you can continue. The typical “boxes on switches” puzzles are just one of the types of challenges presented through the game.
Conclusion
In the intro, I mentioned the cereal analogy because I feel this game has all the right intentions but ultimately doesn’t compare to many others in the genre. I think children who have a link with George the Giraffe and the hospital will enjoy giving this a try but many others will just want to go back to their usual Mario, Yoshi and Ratchet featured games.
