A mini top-down Zelda-like with a enjoyable roguelike mode.
It’s not unusual for indie builders to take a well known formulation and put a brand new or completely different spin on it. Within the case of Castaway, from the solo developer at Canari Video games, the top-down Zelda format is put beneath the shrink ray to create one thing like Hyperlink’s Awakening in miniature kind. Consisting of two elements, Castaway duties gamers with finishing a extra conventional Zelda expertise in The Island, which takes lower than an hour to complete, after which The Tower, which takes the identical mechanics right into a multi-floor dungeon. In the event you go into it anticipating a extra bite-sized expertise, Castaway definitely delivers on what it units out to do.
When the hero’s spaceship is shot down, he and fragments of the ship crash land on a colourful island. The first quest includes looking down the hero’s hound, who’s dog-napped by a band of pterodactyl-looking creatures. The identical beasts steal away your hookshot and pickaxe, too, and so that you got down to scour the tiny island so you possibly can reunite along with your beloved pooch and a few acquainted instruments.
The sluggish strolling pace of the hero makes your rolling transfer a necessity, for speedrunners specifically. The sword swing feels good, however the enemy selection does depart one thing to be desired. The puzzles you encounter usually contain pushing pink-hued boulders to create a path so that you can stroll by way of. If you make your means into the primary dungeon, it’s solely a handful of screens earlier than you encounter the boss, earn an additional coronary heart on your life meter, and head again outdoors to see what paths at the moment are open to you.
After finishing The Island, you’ll unlock The Tower, which shrinks your coronary heart meter down to 2 whereas leaving you along with your trio of weapons/instruments. Throughout 50 flooring, you battle minor enemies, keep away from spiked flooring, and accumulate cash to stage up and both increase your stats or refill your well being. It solely took a handful of tries for me to complete The Tower, however I’d take into account myself a seasoned veteran of the style; others could get extra mileage out of it. Nonetheless, I ended up having fun with The Tower portion of Castaway much more than The Island, so it was a pleasant bonus to have after ending what is basically the sport’s story mode. What provides extra taste to the package deal is a handful of settings for enjoying The Island, together with Pacifist and Invincible modes for newer gamers and Unfair and Speedrun modes for more proficient ones.
Visually, Castaway takes clear inspiration from Hyperlink’s Awakening and the 2 Oracle video games, however there’s an efficient use of shade all through The Island, particularly. The soundtrack is appropriately gentle however epic, and the sound results make the fight and exploration extra pleasant. The paintings of the static cutscenes that play once you reclaim an merchandise is kind of eye-catching, too.
Castaway presents a nice solution to cross a couple of hours for these wanting a lightweight Zelda expertise or perhaps for many who’ve by no means had one. Its roguelike mode is unquestionably a spotlight in case you’re on the lookout for one thing a bit completely different, but it surely’s a good suggestion not to enter the sport as an entire anticipating greater than a enjoyable diversion. I’d like to see both a brand new setting for a sequel or new sport modes added sooner or later as there’s rather a lot to love concerning the easy attraction of this abandoned island and its plucky hero.
