Review: Castle in the Darkness (New Gamer Nation)

New Gamer Nation writes: "Don’t be fooled by the colorful sprites and catchy chiptune music of retro action platformer Castle In The Darkness—it’s a trap! It is actually a quite punishing game with spikes in difficulty, and I mention spikes literally here because they will be the main cause of repeated death screens which a lot of times will feel cheap and unfair and most often result in leaving you cursing at the screen, but the challenges aren’t impossible to overcome with a lot of patience and a lot of practice, plus you have checkpoints and infinite lives to encourage you to keep trying. The game shows off its retro flare with its cool 8-bit and 16-bit inspired sprite artwork, backgrounds, fast paced chiptune music and controls which properly pays homage to the look, feel and sound of classic action platformers from the NES era like Mega Man, Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden and Metroid, but the game also includes more contemporary game play elements, like the seemingly impossible puzzle-like jumps and instant death-by-spike-traps featured in modern indie titles like Super Meat Boy, Spelunky, VVVVVV and 1001 Spikes. Oh, and to make things more challenging, there is no map to help guide you in any way whatsoever through the large interconnected world full of hidden paths and secrets that includes a forest, caves, temples and ruins."