Dark Castle Review

The evil Black Knight rules the land with an iron hand of death and destruction. Someone must stop his reign of terror before the world is cast down into the hellish pits of dispair and misery. Guess what... that job is yours!

Grabing what courage you can muster, and a bag full of rocks, you're off to kill him and make the world safe for you, and other courageous warriors who don't plan things out carefully or remember to take really

good weapons. Its your show now. You up for it? Teach that evil black knight a lesson.

Dark Castle is a really good idea, with a mediocre execution. Borrowing ALOT, and I do mean ALOT of play elements from games like PRINCE OF PERSIA, it tries to mesh it togther with a story so hamstringed, it would make even Roger Corman wince. Still, if you're in it for the adventure, there is that. This game does provide some amusing and entertaining moments, but is hampered by its overal gameplay. Scenes like you see to the left where our hero runs off the edge and in classic cartoon fashion pauses and looks shocked before falling are cute, but due to

control oddities, and lack of response, it'll get annoying as it'll be a common occurance. Not only did this one borrow gameplay from Prince of Persia, but it brought over the control snags and needlessly complex combat systems with it. As you can see in the image below, they even "borrowed" gameplay elements from classics like Donkey Kong, complete with small apelike creatures and Kong-ish sound effects.

Control is really where this game suffers. Aiming your rocks is nearly useless as it often automatically resets itself, even in the middle of a fight. Movement is so disjointed and sloppy that you may question wether or not you're actually playing the game, or just another helpless victim. Nasty! Makes for a ton of frustration, and broken controlers. Sound is low tech, but ok. Very clanky basic effects harken back to the old Apple II computer days. They'll make you turn on your music within about 20 minutes. tops.

Overall, the designers had good intentions, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Honestly though. its not bad for an early CD-i title, but not worth the stress. A fair title for the occasional play, but long term exposure may turn you off to the action/adventure genre completely. Best to play only brief periods at a time, very very brief.