Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault Review (Switch 2)

Moonlighter was a very much underrated indie game that created a great little loop of exploration and selling junk wrapped in a rogue-lite package. The original was a pixel art, top-down game that took inspiration from the original four-door, sealed room dungeon layout of early Zelda games. You dive in, survive as many rooms as possible then brought you loot back to sell in your shop.

Moonlighter 2 hasn’t moved far in terms of the core ideas, but a lot else has changed. You are still hunting for loot and then selling it in your shop. But now the game has moved to a 3D environment. Instead of doors leading off from a dungeon you now have sort of floating platform like arenas. You must kill all the monsters present and then you can move to the next, you’ll normally have a choice of two or three paths and aside from fighting there are opportunities to find power ups or other treasures along the way.

We found that the arenas did lack some of the character the original games rooms had and the colours are quite soft which can make it difficult to see everything on the screen. A fair few times we were being attacked by something we just didn’t see which isn’t ideal. They are also quite samey in each of the core areas which means after a few runs it can get a tad dull unless you’re progressing to other places.

Luckily the combat system is robust. You get a selection of different weapons to wield and upgrade, and they all carry weight and give a good level of feedback so at least you know you are hitting things. You also have a gun with a limited number of shots (recharged by melee attacks), which adds flexibility for taking on flying enemies and those just out of reach. Each weapon also has a chargeable special attack and when enemies are stunned you can also smash them over the edge of the island or into other creatures. It all works well and provides a satisfying experience.

When you inevitably die, you’ll be sent back to your hub down with any relics and items you have found along the way. These can then be sold in your shop with the money going towards any number of upgrades and perks. There’s a whole meta game in there about how to best store your objects in your backpack as well with certain ones ‘burning’ others or adding bonuses to them. It’s another system that works well, even if it does get a little repetitive after a while.

As you progress, you’ll expand your arsenal and shop, and more and more areas of the town will open offering different services. It’s a potentially addictive loop; however, we did find progress slow. We had run after run where little progress was made in the early going. It doesn’t quite get the balance right with difficulty to progression and that may see some players leave the game before they have really got into it. Once you start making breakthroughs though it finds its feet and you’ll be lost to it for hours.

Overall, this is a welcome return for the series. The new direction has worked well in most ways and if you get through some initial slowness you’ll be drawn in for hours on end. Even when things do get a bit repetitive there is enough charm present for players to see it through. For fans of the original, or those who need yet another Rogue-like this should be high on your list to check out.

Overall 8/10

Aggelos 2 review (Switch)

It’s a good few years ago now that we played the first Aggelos. It was a fun game that was heavily influenced by the Wonder Boy franchise and was presented in an 8-bit style. As is the trend with indie games like these the sequel has decided to step up to the 16-bit way of doing things. As such, you can kind of think of this as a Mega Drive successor to the Master System original. Although there’s a few more colours on display here and the sound is much better.

In the beginning things seem much the same as before. You are setting off in a sort of Metroidvana world, although it is much prettier and much more open, looking for new power ups and bosses to defeat. There is a handy X on your map which points the way to your next objective and going off the beaten track normally rewards you with something worthwhile. You also get to stay fairly powerful with not only your sword in hand but a projectile attack which turns the game into a sort of run n’ gun at times. You’ll start to pick up items quickly as well which turns the game more into an open adventure.

An example of this is two things you pick up very early on. First off, you’ll get your angel wings back which let you float at a steady level for a short time. This makes movement much quicker and allows for some devious puzzles to solve, normally involving spikes. The second thing of importance you’ll get is the grappling hook. This allows you latch onto most surfaces and can be deployed over and over meaning you can climb and reach higher areas. This effectively acts as a bundle of different upgrades you normally get in Metroidvanias in one item.

The game also throws a few twists at you. Just when you think you are settling into a perfectly playable but slightly generic adventure it introduces the dark world. At one point you will find that you change from the light side to the dark. This transforms your character and changes your attacks and special moves. Most importantly it means you can travel through the various dark portals around the world into a dark version of the map with new enemies and layouts. You can change back and forth at will and allows of Ikaruga like puzzles to be deployed, something we certainly weren’t expecting.

What’s especially impressive is that everything fits together so quickly and the game runs incredibly smoothly. You are given a lot of things early on, but everything is introduced effortlessly and you never feel overwhelmed. It also means there are multiple ways you can approach the game in terms of moving around and combat which adds flexibility.

Overall, Aggelos 2 is a really good fun, solid game that lacks any real flaws. There’s a lot of thought that has gone into this and it comes into its own as well as keeping the influence of its retro forebears and adding new twists to them. The difficulty is pitched about right as well. If there’s one criticism it is perhaps that despite all this it just seems to lack that small touch of magic that would elevate it to classic status. That said, if you are a fan of Wonder Boy or these types of games it is pretty much essential.

Overall 8/10

Apidya Special Review (Switch)

It seems now people have worked out how to get the Amiga emulating properly across platforms there is no stopping the surge of games being remade and ported. We’ve already had a host of cartridges for the Evercade and even new games made for the Amiga, but now we have the classic horizontal shoot’em up Apidya, rebuilt from scratch with the original team involved and given the ‘special’ treatment. It certainly won’t be long before we will all be expecting the Amiga versions of games in all these compilations that are releasing on an ever-increasing basis.

For those not fortunate enough to know their Amiga history, Apidya is an insect-based side scrolling shooter where you pilot a bee through various urban environments, shooting other bugs and the occasional giant mammal. This gives the game a unique look compared to the usual sci-fi themes generally seen in these games as you zoom through grass and other more naturalistic environments.

There is a plot about an evil lord cursing someone to be a bee buts let’s not worry too much about that. This is close mechanically to something like Gradius. You pick up powerups which can be cashed in for bombs or more speed much in the same way as the classic space shooter, just instead of enemy ships you are shootings ants and butterflies. It’s crushing tough just like Gradius as well, though there a couple of options players can use to help them out.

The special edition has been rebuilt from scratch with 24-bit pixel graphics which do look pretty good on the Switch screen. The game still plays much the same so don’t worry. This isn’t an R-Type 3 situation. You now have ability to play the game in widescreen as well the original look and aspect ratio. Before starting a new game, you can change the difficulty settings, alter your number of starting lives and most helpfully, change if the level resets to the start upon death or not. But that is about it. The maximum number of lives you can go up to is five and you still have only three continues. The game does save when you complete a level but that will only let you continue with the same number of lives and continues you had when starting it. There are also no quality-of-life features such as rewinds. This is one for the shooter purists out there.

One thing we did find an issue was the colour palette. This isn’t because of something that has been changed in the new version though. As the game is naturalistic in its design there are a lot of greens and blues present and anyone who is remotely colour blind is going to struggle to see oncoming fire and even some of the creatures. It makes an already tough game even more difficult.

In terms of if the game still holds up then the answer is a resounding yes though. It still has an aesthetic that sets it apart from everything else out there. Taking on a giant praying mantis or a mole entrenched in its hill may play off traditional pattern-based tropes, but the new unique design and look helps keep everything fresh. The controls are tight as well and when you die its because of your error rather than something being off.

Overall, Apidya is game more than worth giving a second life to. It’s going to be difficult for newcomers to get into due to the crushing difficulty but fans of the multitude of other shooters found on the system should adjust quickly and find something unique and enjoyable here.

Overall 8/10

Barbarian Saga: The Beastmaster Review (Switch)

Well, it’s been at least five reviews since we’ve looked at a Metroidvania game, so it seems only fitting to give Barbarian Saga a proper look. The game is heavily influenced by the swords and sorcery films of the late 80’s such as Conan the Barbarian and Beastmaster (as your character actually is both a barbarian and a beastmaster). After being forced to fight in a gladiatorial arena you decide to break free and with your demonic soul sucking sword, try to free the realm.

We would love to give you some more details of the plot, but the game is borderline nonsensical due to some poor writing and even worse translation. We often thought that whole sections of dialogue must be missing as characters spoke. This isn’t helped by the amount of text there is. Sometimes showing things is a lot better than reams and reams of text to get through.

The confusion goes for navigation as well as the map only gives you quite basic details with each area somewhat hard to distinguish from the next. There are also no markers or direction points, no way to check the progress of ongoing quests, or even a way to check on the controls for new moves you’ve learned. In a game world this big that is a problem. Even Hollow Knight let you put down marker stones.

The thing that most stands out about the game is how absolutely gorgeous it looks. It has a hand drawn art style and the environments and characters are beautifully illustrated. The cut scenes are equally top draw to look at. Unfortunately, when in motion everything seems blurry and a little undefined. Frequent frame rate drops and juddering also hinder any real ability to enjoy the lavish visuals as they jerk around the screen.

Another let down is that while the game initially seems to let you explore anywhere, you’ll soon find that it is continually funnelling you down a pretty narrow path. A lot of the environment leads you to dead ends without anything of value really being there. Metrodivania games have continually refined and moved away from the idea of pointless wandering in recent times but here there is a lot of level here just for the sake of it. You do get fast travel unlocked from the very beginning at least which is something.

Combat is decent enough. You have a strike and a block and new moves can be learned by finding broken weapons and giving them to the appropriate person. A lot of the new attacks don’t really do too much different though and with the frame rate issues the block can be tricky to initiate properly. Enemies are also varied and interesting to encounter and have a wide range of attacks and patterns. Bosses don’t let the side down either with a challenging yet logical approach to defeating them, the game certainly does some things right.

Overall, Barbarian Saga: The Beast Master has some really nice ideas. The look of the game is beautiful. If it could be updated so that when moving, it doesn’t look like a stop motion movie that would be go a long way to improving things. There is a wider issue with the general level design though and the text translation makes it almost nonsensical. With more time this could have been something a lot better but as it is it’s hard to recommend.

Overall 5/10