Game: Kingdom of Arcadia
Genre: Action, Platformer, Adventure
System: Nintendo Switch (also coming to PS4, PS5, and Xbox)
Developer|Publisher: Ratalaika Games, Spoonbox Studio | eastasiasoft
Age Rating: EU 7+ | US Everyone
Price: US $5.99 | UK £5.49 | EU € 5,99
Release Date: April 14th, 2021
Review code provided with many thanks to eastasiasoft
Coffee Game Time
Kingdom Of Arcadia is a simple run of the mill action platformer with a fantasy design attached to it. A game with retro style graphics where you play as a boy with a sword, running round castle style levels hitting nasties with said sword and trying not to rage quit when you fall in the spike pit. Does it bring anything new? Let’s find out.
Dad’s Garage
You know sometimes it’s not the best idea to go looking through your father’s things. Maybe you’ll find that old stamp collection, that old magazine you wish you didn’t see or maybe some old darts trophies. In the case of young Sam he finds his Dad’s old arcade machine. I mean it’s an arcade machine, why would you not plug it in and play it?
Unfortunately for Sam it’s not the fun game of Pac Man he may have been expecting. Instead he’s actually sucked into the game becoming the pixelated hero of the adventure. To get home he must save Arcadia by getting various magical rods from the typical video game environments you’d expect to see in a fantasy game. The premise is quite amusing and between areas Sam will exchange some witty commentary about the situation with the wizard, recalling the experiences he’s had in the levels and the bosses he encountered.
Raid the Castle
The game is a 2D action style platformer. Just complete each of the five levels in a world and finish it off with a boss fight. Sam can jump and use a sword to swipe away at the bad fiends. You also have a limited supply of projectile weapons to use which are particularly useful against enemies that are on the other side of the room. The levels are a decent size and allow for a little bit of room to explore, you can look for treasure chests and secret rooms behind cracked walls. Here you will often find coins, these can be spent at the shop which is accessed between levels or upon death. You can upgrade your armour for more health, your sword and projectile to increase damage. Upgrading these will also change Sam’s cosmetic appearance, which is always a nice touch. If you die you actually keep all the coins you’ve accumulated so if you’re finding the game a little tricky you can grind for more coins by defeating enemies in order to make the experience more manageable.
The game is quite prone to its frustrating moments. It doesn’t shy away from having you avoid some tricky hazards, like moving spikes while avoiding enemy projectiles from across the room. The boss fights are larger than life beasts which require you to memorize their pattern and find the right moment to strike. I found this quite irritating since the window to avoid some of their projectiles was quite small. So if you are prone to gamer rage you have been warned.
Sometimes the game varies things up a bit by having you use a balloon to access higher areas or ride on a mine cart, but for the most part you’re just exploring the maze like levels while hitting things with your sword.
The Sam Look
The graphics are a typical retro design. Sam has this sort of derpy look about him but at the same time its kinda endearing. After all he is a kid a little out his depth here. The castles you explore are your typical video game settings like ice area, sand area and green area. It doesn’t feel very arcade considering the premise of the game. A shame as playing more homage to this style would have been a good fit here. Alas the graphics are ok and there is a serviceable soundtrack to accompany it.
Bouncy Jumps
The controls are also fine. Sam has this bouncy like animation when he jumps about and the sword play leans into button mashing territory particularly on the bosses, since mashing it hard will help that health bar just drain a little quicker. Its performance was fine in TV and handheld modes. I encountered one glitch when I went back to replay levels. There was a lift that just decided it wanted to stay on the ground floor and not move up. But on restarting the level (with all my gold still in tact) this appeared to fix itself.
Home in Time for Diner
Kingdom of Arcadia will probably take around five hours to complete in total. There is a hidden monster to find in every level. The game gives you a bronze medal when you achieve 100% and to go for silver and gold you need to play again. To me this wasn’t a big incentive to replay. Again with the arcade premise it feels like some sort or high score thing would have suited here.
I found the best way to enjoy this game was in small bursts of 30 minutes, as going too long leaned a little too much into frustrating territory. Sometimes you just gotta walk away to fight another day.
Plain and Simple
Kingdom of Arcadia is not the most original platformer out there. It’s a simple formula that has been done before and doesn’t bring anything new to the action platform genre. Not bad but not wonderful either. It does play well and comes at an appealing budget price. Just right to pass the time or maybe make a nice little gift for a friend that needs a mood boost.
It would have been nice to see more depth added to the formula but if the game has taught me one thing it’s that you really should not go snooping in your Dad’s garage.
Final Verdict: I Like it
