Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Dec 5, 2021

  This may appear to be a blatant Wonder Boy ripoff on the surface, and it kind of is, but I assure you it's a fundamentally improved work, and arguably holds up better than any of the classic games in the series it was inspired by, escaping their Master System trappings while keeping what made them great. Add in a generous dash of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and you get one of the best platventures I've played in years, even rivaling Monster Boy in the Cursed Kingdom. For starters, the maps are much more varied. The Wonder Boy series, fun as it is, has a lot of same-y endless corridor type areas, particularly in Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap. Aggelos does away with that by featuring smaller, more geographically varied screens with enemies that are a bit more active and interesting than your standard fare. The game also smartly gives you the downstab ability early, mixing up combat a bit and allowing you to daringly get the drop on enemies. The game map flows together nicely, with the usual nice touches I enjoy in games like this, like a series of interconnecting caves and areas that connect with one another. The dungeons are very Zelda like in the sense that they involve solving puzzles and obtaining keys, finding the "dungeon item" (in this case, elemental magic), and then solving more puzzles. What is key to me, however, is the fact that they removed the annoying "juggling" aspect of taking damage that was prevalent in the Wonder Boy games. In the classic series, an enemy would often rush you, and you would have to wait to hit the floor before you could start controlling your character or taking damage again. With some enemies, particularly bosses, this meant you could be held up above them as they dashed back and forth, or bounced into other enemies who would then bounce you even further back, sometimes off the screen (negating your progress on that current screen) or careening into lava. What's left is solid hack and slash action with some light "RPG" elements such as a simple array of swords and armour to equip along the way. There's a bit of variance in attack range and the odd effect here and there (the lightning sword does extra damage underwater, the samurai sword hits multiple times, etc). It's tried and true, and it works. The magic system is very well thought out and enjoyable, too. There are four elemental spells, each of which have both attack and transportation qualities. Some of these are quite creative: the Fire magic, for instance, allows you to create two portals that can be used to warp from one area to another; useful for clearing short distances, but even this warping ability has an offensive element to it, as any enemy caught in your fiery wake will take massive damage. Used with skill and finesse, this ability alone can decimate bosses. The added Hard Mode is intense, perhaps unfairly so, but it's exhilarating, particularly the last battle, which is already a visual overload thanks to the cool looking visual aesthetic present in the final boss and its minions. At the time of writing this review, I have not quite made it to the final battle on Hard, but I've completed it on the Switch and it certainly gave me a run for my "grew up on the NES and doesn't even consider Battletoads that hard" money. Last but not least, the charm is just practically gushing out of this game. It sounds like a Master System classic, and while not every track works all that well, the main Field theme is very catchy and hits a nostalgic nerve for a time that feels familiar but never existed. The graphics are simple, definitely a step above the Master System roots and more aligned with the Genesis titles, but I think that was the right decision here. Big wide-eyed monsters, vivid colours everywhere, and some great backgrounds await you. The dragon boss featured prominently in the game's marketing is the real standout, with his rubber-looking tummy scales. Too cute. This is a fantastic game, even if you've never played a Wonder Boy or Zelda II for that matter. It's just the right level of challenging on the regular difficulty, and provides a masterful challenge on Hard Mode if you're so inclined. It's also fairly lengthy, clocking in at a good 10 to 15 hours on a first playthough. If you're even the least bit interested in old-school Metroidvania games before Metroid met Vania, do not hesitate to pick this up. This is what Wonder Boy games looked and felt like as a kid, and I say that in the most complimentary way possible.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 12, 2022

  Aggelos just barley skims by with a positive. its a fun little zelda2 clone but i had a few issues with the gameplay for me to give it a solid thumbs up. first off the map sucks. it does not show anything useful and there is no metrovania map system. this makes backtraking a pain. second most of the game is easy until some late game areas where they just filled them with enemies and projectiles but are manageable. 2 of the bosses had a bit of a difficulty spike but then later ones felt easy. i'm not sure if it was level and/or gear but the squid was rather hard but doable if played defensively. the next boss i felt was a bit much. it was a dragon that takes up 1/3rd of the screen, with you on platforms over lava and his last phase has to much unavoidable damage. the final boss does something similar but instead of taking up the screen with a giant hit box it just fills the screen with clutter. third with how many magic puzzles they have they should have given you more than 6mp (all spells use 1mp) or have some type of fast regain during puzzle parts. it's not perfect but Aggelos was still fun. it also didnt have 1 hit spikes and had no death pitfalls. 6/10
• gamedeal user

  Apr 28, 2022

  Captures the feel of Master System and Wonder Boy games great. It's a bit imbalanced at times, but overall feels very authentic.
• gamedeal user

  May 4, 2022

  Game is fun, Monster World/Wonder Boy like gameplay. BEWARE **Controller issues!** NO D-PAD with NS-Magic for NSwitch adapter in Green (xbox) mode. Use XPadder (paid) or other joy to keyboard software to mitigate that. OR Use the adapter in light-blue or white mode. Prettu sure, almost any Xinput controller will freak out.
• gamedeal user

  May 16, 2022

  Its more difficult than it is fun Also i dont understand why you would make a platformer without dpad controls.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 25, 2022

  The dev team said they were working on D-pad support 4 years ago. Still, there is none. It doesn't matter at all if the content of the game is good, and I couldn't tell you if it is. Playing retro run and jump platformers without D-pad support is a garbage experience. There are too many incredibly good games in the genre you could play instead.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 3, 2022

  Controller support is pathetically garbage. It doesn't matter if the presentation and gameplay are good. When you aren't allowed to play the game comfortably then there's no reason to spend money on it. Neither my dpad or analog sticks work for inputs, and the keyboard controls don't even work somehow. Plus when i go to screen options it doesn't let me exit while keeping the desired screen size- I'm forced to close the game and play at the default size. I'm not saying the game didn't have effort or passion put into it. I'm saying when a game is unplayable due to unuseable controls then it's a flat out bad game.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 12, 2022

  Although I like the style of game I cannot give it a good review since the style of game is an action platformer with horrible controls due to keyboard controls not being configuable and controller controls being absolute ass when it comes to the movement due to the fact it is bound to a analog stick rather then a D-Pad which this game should be default to. If it weren't for those facts I could have fully recommended this game because the game has a decent story and good music, yet controls are where this game majorly lacks.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 4, 2023

  Two words: TRASH CONTROLS. Trash controller support. D-PAD DOES NOT WORK, on a 2D platforming game!?!? Trash keyboard customization (or lack thereof). This is the by the book way to ruin an otherwise decent game. Sure it starts playable enough even though I'm forced to use analog stick. Then eventually you will reach frustrating rooms designed to make you waste time with floaty controls on tight platforming challenges. Devs have commented on the D-Pad issue that they would try to fix it. This message was posted in 2018 and yet D-Pad doesn't work in year 2023. Be warned.
• gamedeal user

  May 20, 2023

  I really wanted to like this game but unfortunately there are just so many other games in this genre that are better and more worth your money. The graphics are cute and it has most of the standard metroidvania bells and whistles. I like the design of the world and the enemies and the bosses are good. They have patterns but they dont repeat exactly and that makes for more challenging boss fights than in some other new metroidvanias. The game is rather short for a modern metroidvania but i guess that could be put down to the "retro" tag. What can not be put down to the retro tag is the lack of native dpad support. That is an unforgivable offense when it comes to games like these. Yes you can reconfigure the controls in steam but even reconfigured for usng dpad the controls are just not accurate enough for some of the more challenging plattfroming wich makes it more about luck and frustration than skill at some points (the trials!). At times the save spot locations are horrible too making you go a long way past alot of enemies to get to a difficult boss. Doing this 5-10 times is extremely frustrating. All in all I did enjoy parts of my playthrough but the modern metroidvania scene is just flooded with better games than this, unfortunately. Try Shovel Knight or Cathedral if you want a retro looking game or even dig up Cave Story.