Castle In The Darkness, developed by Matt Kap, and published by Nicalis of Cave Story fame. In it, you are the lone surviving royal knight, and it is your quest to find the princess and save the kingdom from the hordes of invading monsters. Sounds familiar, I’m sure. The story is minimal, but still manages to throw a few unexpected twists at you. The writing, such as it is, is funny and incorporates many tropes, gags, and in-jokes from gaming history. Much of it is conveyed visually and will be recognized immediately by any seasoned gamer.

I know it will be compared a lot to Shovel Knight, and they are similar in some ways, but this does not feel like a clone at all. Whereas Shovel Knight leans more toward the Mega Man/Mario 3 end of the platforming spectrum, Castle In The Darkness draws more inspiration from Castlevania:SOTN and Metroid. There is no map, as NES era games often did not. That might be a problem for some, but I haven’t had much issue with it yet. The music is great and always complements the overall aesthetic of each area. The art style is great and really captures the NES’ essence. It is clean and consistent throughout. I never saw a single out-of-place sprite.

There are a ton of bosses. Most of them are pretty varied and interesting. Some I killed in one life fairly easily, but a few required 5+ attempts. When you defeat one, you are rewarded with lots of coins and a heart that increases your total health.

During your adventure, you will find Armor, Weapons, Magic, and Relics throughout your quest. Some are needed to proceed, and others are optional. Killing enemies causes them to explode into coins for you to collect. These can be used for purchasing new equipment from NPCs. Mostly though, it seems new gear is found in chests. Plenty of stuff can only be found in cleverly hidden secret areas.

The controls are tight and not the least bit floaty. I used a controller, but keyboard controls worked well for the short time I used them. I see some people on various forums and websites complaining of cheap, unavoidable deaths. Yes, you will die frequently, but in my experience, each one is my own fault. This isn’t like I Wanna Be The Guy where the goal is to make you rage quit hilariously for YouTube hits. There are crumbling platforms and spikes falling from the ceiling, but you always have a chance to get out of the way if your reflexes are up to the task. And once you’ve seen it, you know. It helps that save points are fairly common and are often placed very near boss fights and difficult platforms.

There are a few technical issues holding it back, though. Each time you start the game, it opens in 2X windowed mode regardless of how you had it set previously. It’s a bit of a pain to have to change it to fullscreen when ever I want to play. I’ve only had one crash (right after springing off a crumbling block), but some are reporting more serious bugs. Hopefully these issues will be fixed quickly. In my case, these have only been a minor nuisance. While writing this, the game was updated, so this complaint might already be moot.

For the price, I can hardly believe how good this game is. There is a ton of content. So far, I’ve got 3 hours and 25% complete. New Game+ and 100% completion give it even more longevity.
Seriously, just give it a chance if you like Metroidvanias even a little. It’s cheap enough to be a no-brainer in my opinion.