Castle Fantasy Review

By , on March 22, 2010


Castle Fantasy
Download on the AppStore
4 out of 5

PROS

  • Beautiful artwork and animations
  • Fun, simple hack'n'slash gameplay.

CONS

  • Classic frustrating genre tropes like character knock-back has survived in this game.

VERDICT

Castle Fantasy brings a lot of polish and great classic gameplay that will keep fans busy for age, but if you're not sure this is the game for you there's always Lite version to convince you.


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Castle Fantasy by Croquis is a great new release for action-platformers on the App Store. While its controls still leave a lot to be desired, almost everything else is polished and kept simple making this a perfect addition to any hardcore gamer's collection.

As with most standard side-scrollers the controls make use of virtual buttons to move side-to-side, jump, attack or shoot. Quirks such as only being about to double-jump while jumping up can throw off experienced platformer fans, but after a few play-throughs the controls are solid and only suffer minor delay issues. The gameplay is as pure as the genre gets, with the hero pushing forward through inhospitable terrains towards the inevitable level boss.

If ever there was a reason to get Castle Fantasy it would be for the graphics. The 2D artwork goes beyond simple single-frame animations with luscious movement filling the screen over cleverly design 3D backgrounds. It's hard to complain about a lack of added gameplay features when the main game can take some time to master, but sound options or leader boards would bring the app more in line with even basic releases.

If you're sitting on the fence, it's well worth checking out the Lite version which was released with the title. Despite suffering from the use of standard controls, Castle Fantasy is gorgeous to watch and lots of fun to play with enough strategy to keep action platformer fans satisfied.

Screenshots

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