Beyond the Ice Palace 2

[h1][b]Review[/b][/h1] [b]Beyond the Ice Palace II[/b] is, although linear, an MV, aesthetically nice, with basic combat, a versatile weapon, and notable game design issues. No map, bad checkpoints, and erratic difficulty. [hr][/hr] [h3][b]The Highlights[/b][/h3] [list] [*]Really enjoyable pixel art. It looks to me very faithful to the old 16-bit era. It has a lot of resemblance to [b]Super Castlevania IV[/b]. [*]Your main weapon is a chain. The combat itself is not complex, but that isn't negative or amazing either. You can basically sling the chain forward or use a stronger charge but smaller in range, and also, by dodging an enemy attack, you project yourself behind them to deliver damage. Besides the combat, there is a wide usage of the chain in the overworld, so I argue it's positive. [*]The game is very linear; however, you acquire new upgrades and do backtrack to explore closed-off sections. Some people, and some mistaken [i]people[/i], would say that it's not a Metroidvania because of that, but I argue that the game has enough backtracking and upgrades that it suffices to be part of the subgenre. [*]There are these crystals that you can collect in the ov…

I played the original game back in the day and decided to give this a try. Overall, I liked it, and although the controls were a bit inconsistent and there were a shade too few checkpoints in later levels, I did finish the game. It definitely feels quite old school, but is still an enjoyable platformer. I especially liked when the theme music from the original game popped up, with a clever reference to the original game.

Bugs and lack of checkpoints make this "work of art" not worth it.

A game that dared ask the question of what if castlevania but with buff blue dude? Honestly it's a lot more than just a tribute to old school gaming. It's a solid and fun rump through what feels like a metroidvania lite. The movement mechanics are fun, enemies actually require use of you abilities to defeat and the presentation is beautiful.

An 8 way whip, that connects to swing points and other various hooks. A slow walk, and floaty jump. Spooky atmosphere. Gamers, I think we have a Castlevania 4 fan game here, regardless of it's actual title. Really fun linear platformer. Well you can go back to previous areas to look for upgrade crystals that are spent on basic stat upgrades. It's statsfying enough but not a Metroidvania, thankfully, and not something I ever felt I needed to do. Which is good as I really liked the platforming, especially once you get your full set of abilities, and just wanted to press on. It truly does feel like a expanded CV4. That extends to the combat as well, were hits feel satisfyingly hard and it finds a few ways to expand on the whip's (well chain in this game) hooking abilities. Sadly there is a hook dash move that occasionally feels buggy, for whatever reason you character will just stop short while doing this in both combat and platforming moments. It never got so bad as to imped progress, and was the only real bug I encountered. While it's not a terribly difficult game there checkpoints that send you a demoralizing ways back, especially in the later sections of the game. These are the o…

Good game.