Title : Castelian
Publisher : Triffix
Genre : Platformer
Players : 1 Player
Release Date : 1991
Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $10-$15
There's only one game out there where you can play as a little, green, turd monkey named Julius tasked with destroying a multitude of alien towers. Whoa, okay..what? So, you're this..frog...looking thing? I guess? I really don't know what you are..but you're basically climbing up to the top of these giant castle-esque towers and placing bombs at the top so you can destroy them.
I'm not exactly sure why someone would hire some cutesy bug-eyed frog thing to blow up towers, but you know I don't know what happens in these NES games half the time. They probably just made kermit the frog's head the protagonist in this game because it required very little graphical effort.
I can't remember for the life of me if I actually played this game when I was younger. The name certainly sounds familiar, and I know I have it as part of my gaming library, but I really can't recall. It doesn't seem like something I would play, but who knows. I was one messed up little kid back in the day. This could have been right up my alley.
Enough talk (although all I do is talk in these reviews, but hell I have to sit down and play the game first) - time to climb some towers.
See? Now I don't even know what the heck this thing is. Is it a green pig with giant eyes now? And what's with the two bubbly feet. This thing is freaking me out. Kill it with fire, please. I'm just going to rush him to the top of the tower and fling em right off the damn thing.
All jokes aside, this game offers one of the most interesting 3D perspectives I have ever seen on an NES game. As you climb to the top of the tower, you need to traverse all sides of it and the tower rotates as you move. You are capable of getting a full 360 degree view of your terrain, which is pretty damn cool. It's something you can see now in a game like FEZ. In a way, this is like FEZ version 1.0. Just..nowhere near as good.
Getting to the top requires a lot of platform jumping, and figuring out which platform leads to the next one without getting yourself stuck on a platform that leads to nowhere. Patience is key when figuring out which way to go next.
Before you even get started, take a minute to get used to the controls as they are a bit wonky. You'll find yourself accidentally jumping or shooting when you don't mean to do it and will just tumble to the ground and splatter. And you will be dead....a lot...and it won't even be your fault! So don't fret....that frog critter will make it to the top of the tower in no time.
I still don't even know why he's blowing up these towers, but anyway...
You'll encounter a slew of enemies on your journey to the top, and while most you can just shoot down with little pellets that you shoot out of your nostrils, some are impervious. Let me offer you a bit of advice - don't hang around trying to kill every enemy you see. Just kill the ones that are in your way of advancing toward the top of the tower. Focusing on killing all the enemies will just lead into trouble, and I've accidentally fell off the tower trying to kill things that weren't even a threat.
Focus on the goal at hand!
If you manage to get to the top of the tower, you'll go inside and blow that sucker up. Afterwards you are treated to a nice little bonus mission of travelling around in a submarine and killing fish. More violence...from a cutey little green dude.
Not much else can be said about this game. It's a lot like other puzzle platformers where the concept is the same throughout, but the challenges increase in difficulty, although the game itself is quite easy. The music is really catchy, and represents the kiddy-like atmosphere that this game exudes. Too bad, the game just doesn't offer much in terms of challenge.
If you're looking for a unique puzzle-platformer, and you don't mind not knowing what the hell the main character is that you're playing, definitely try to find this game. Worth adding to your library, but it gets kind of boring pretty fast.
Final Score (out of 5) :
Until next time. Keep on gaming!
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