Aggelos Is A New Retro-Styled 2D Action-Adventure Coming To Switch This Year

Looks decent, but there are too many great games coming out for Switch. Don’t have time for decent games.

Definitely getting a Wonderboy vibe from this. I'll be buying, would love a physical version.

Looks great

Looks like an average Steam retro game. There's too many of them, in my opinion.

TRIVIA: Aggelos (Άγγελος > Angelos) actually means Angel.

Another Shovel Knight clone....

looks very wonderboy!

Looks pretty rad. I want it.

Wow, looks pretty good! Keep it in my radar, but will wait for the review as there are many games like this one I want to play.

@Megadeth You say that as if Shovel Knight had invented the genre or something...

@the_beaver I did not say that, but for me the gameplay, fight mechanics, graphic style, even the enemies looks like Shovel Knight clone.

How the hell is it possible to call this a 16 BITS game ?
This is totally an 8 BITS retro style. Not with a NES side but more with a Master System one.

Even the tune sounds 8 bits and defenitively not like a "16 bits type of track".

Aggelos is an attempt to reach the Sega Master System flavor on modern systems, that's all.

Looks cool.

@Cobalt Yeah, this looks much more in line with the 8-bit Master System level of visuals. In fact, it looks like a combination of Wonder Boy, Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap and Alex Kidd in Miracle World.

Looks a lot more fun than Wonder Boy. I wish the main character design was less generic though.

Really like the look of this and going by that trailer I'll be buying it for sure.

Looks like a long lost Wonderboy game from the Master System, with added parallax scrolling.

This looks great! It looks "cheap" in a GOOD sense, not in a smart-phone sense. I'm down with it and will be getting it. This is "retro" done right in my opinion and there aren't many of them out there. I'm looking at you, "Songbringer." [https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/05/zelda-inspired_action_rpg_songbringer_brings_top-down_adventure_to_switch_next_week] It all comes down to the price now...

@Palom I came here to say that looks like a Pokemon. Lol.

@impurekind @Cobalt I think you need to go back and do a direct comparison of some 8 bit games =D I'll agree that the audio track gives off a very 8 bit vibe, but I think graphically there is way to much going on for this to have ever existed on an 8 bit console. NES/SMS games were much more simplistic and had a very limited color palette.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter whatsoever. None of these games are under any sort of real limitation, making many of the 8-bit like games closer to 16 bit in reality, and many of the 16-bit like games wouldn't have existed until the 32 bit era. It's just an arbitrary designation at this point, so there's bound to be a lot of overlap/grey area.

I can always stomach some more cutesy style metroidvania. Looking forward to a review.

Looks like a Shovel Knight-Metroidvania. Looks Cool!

@roadrunner343

My dear friend, you talk with a guy who plays games for 38 years now.

I was in the store at the launch of the NES, the Master System etc... and I bought'em all ! Daddy was a gamer, that helps a lot
So, guess what, I don't need to go back and do a direct comparaison.

What I wanted to say wasn't that Aggelos could run on a Master System or that it respect entirely the limitations of the system but I pointed the fact that the developer (a cool French dude "Wonderbobi" ) pays tribute to the SMS.

PEACE.

@Cobalt Actually it is using the PC Engine/TurboGrafx art style which I am digging. It is slightly too advanced with its colors to be Master System ( was my first console ).

@impurekind The look, yes, but the controls and fluid movement seem to be working too well for Master System games. (I'm a rare US fan of Master System, but it had its drawbacks)

@Jokerwolf

You are mixing 2 different stuffs.
The developer used the color palette of the Sega Master System BUT there are more colors at the same time on screen than the Master System is able to display at once.

@Jokerwolf Yeah, come to think of it, PC Engine/TurboGrafx does match pretty well. I didn't play that as much, myself, as I never owned it, but my friend had one for awhile.

@roadrunner343 True, true, but it's still fun to pick the brain and work out what nostalgic eras it tickles.

@Cobalt Ya I can see its influence for sure, probably a happy mistake that it looks like both honestly.

@AcridSkull Really, that's what kept me watching the video. The battle actions look fun. I like the damaging portal system thingy. Not sure I've seen anything quite like that before.

In the end, the art-style uses the same techniques as NES games even more than SMS, in my own sensibility, and the flickering, 3 and 4 color sprite segments, and menu design all make my brain go there.

Obviously, it is working with some other 16-bit era upgrades, though, with a much larger palette (especially the number of colors on screen at once) and parallax scrolling without tricks.

It reminds me of Zelda 2 !

@Cobalt If you can remember without doing a direct comparison, that's great. I've been gaming for over 25 years, my first system was an NES, and I still regularly play retro games. My comment wasn't meant to be any sort of attack or criticism - just that often times, memory & nostalgia often paints a more favorable view of the past. That's not directed towards you, that's directed towards anyone, myself included. Going back and doing a simple side by side comparison made it immediately clear that this was well beyond what was capable in the 8 bit era. But again, at this point, I don't think it really matters, since nothing is 8-bit/16-bit... Just wanted to point out that I understand why this would be labeled 16-bit rather than 8 bit, even if both are equally wrong =)

@aaronsullivan Perhaps it's part of a new 13 bit era? I understand the argument to be made for 8 bit, I suppose, and you've explained why your brain went there. I guess for me, the larger color palette immediately triggered a 16 bit feel. But hey, as previously noted... we're both equally wrong anyway (Ok, maybe you're a little bit more wrong =P)

@aaronsullivan There's nothing on a technical/graphical or physical hardware level that would stop an actual Master System game from controlling and moving just like this game if that's what a developer wanted--not that I'm aware of. I mean, here's a couple of similar-ish examples of quick-paced or actiony games off the top of my head:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jluyTaO2JmA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6RtXmMN9Og

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q0ttkW6YVk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42zR5eVYfUA

@roadrunner343 You mean like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk1yqYfbTQs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksXbLsyUDGM (look at the sprites here)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eLgjSkO3-Q

Technically the Master System could definitely more colours on sprites than seen in this game. If I recall correctly, it could do up to 16 colours per sprite if it wanted as the whole sprite palette was available to be used on each sprite, and then another 16 colour palette was available for the backgrounds. Either way it could do many more colours than the NES could, that's for absolute sure. It obviously couldn't push as many sprites and effects onscreen as this game, that's a given, but this game still looks more [Master System] 8-bit in terms of general look/aesthetic than 16-bit imo.

Come to my library!

@roadrunner343

Dont worry man ! I understood your point of view since the first message. (Writting a message doesn't help to understand well the intentions behind it).

Otherwise, the Master System use a 6 bit color palette. It means that you have 64 colors available. The trick is that only 32 of those can be displayed at the same time.

The result of this is pretty clear if you check the number of colors displayed at once in aggelos.
All the tiles are really limited in colors. For exemple a tile of a wall is about 4 or 5 colors etc...

Basically the master System could handle that without a doubt.

Ow and I recommand you to check Dynamite Heady running on a master system or R-TYPE.
They look even better than Aggelos and they run on a real SMS hardware !

PEACE

"Stunning sprite art: Forget out-of-place modern art: Aggelos boasts superlative character designs and animations while remaining proudly, and faithfully, 16-bit through and through."

Wow! It's almost like they made this game just for me! LOL!

YES PLEASE!

I instantly fell in love with it. For some strange reason it reminded me of Faxanadu for NES, one of my all-time faves

@impurekind All of those videos show graphics that are far more simplistic. If you think this looks more 8-bit, that's fine - I'm mainly just pointing out that it doesn't really mean anything anymore and saying things like 8-bit/16-bit style often has a lot of overlap. Example being, the color palette & number of sprites in some segments immediately screams early 16-bit to me, while there's clearly other aspects of the game that you and others feel evokes an 8 bit style. Neither is really correct.

EDIT: @Cobalt I'm a huge fan of both of those games. I actually didn't realize the SMS had Dynamite Headdy, but I loved it on the Genesis. And R-Type is amazing, though I played it on the PC Engine. Admittedly, the SMS is a bit of a blindspot for me, as I never owned one, and have not yet added one to my retro collection. It's next on my list though!

@roadrunner343

PC Engine and Master System are two great systems.
Because you used the name GENESIS I deduce you're American, isn't it ? Otherwise you'd use MEGADRIVE...

So, what I recommand to you, is to modify your consoles. What I mean by that is simple.
Here in France, our consoles were RGB Scart with native RGB.
You can trust me, in image quality that a HHUUGGEEEE difference compare to the american connectors.

If one day you do that, you'll discover the real beauty of the Master System visuals.
It's the same with the other platforms such as the PC Engine, Megadrive, SNES etc... everything was SCART RGB here.

@Megadeth
Looks much more Woner Boy than Shovel Knight... and still keep in mind that Shovel Knight too is just a "good mix of some good NES games" even when it is up to the day the best "retromix".

@roadrunner343 Well, if I'm being fair, it looks more like a half-way house between Master System's 8-bit and Mega Drive's 16-bit graphics and visuals imo.

There's parts that look slightly better than this when seeing it in motion:

https://youtu.be/6eLgjSkO3-Q?t=19

But it's not quite up to this level of quality graphically and visually:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVNZt1-J5_M

@diablo2
Faxanadu was such a great NES game that got not the fame it deserved.

@Cobalt Correct, I am located in the US. I mod all my systems, and could not agree with you more =) I have a Sony PVM 14M4U and a GScart SCART switch with most of my retro consoles connected via RGB SCART. Main exception is Gamecube, for which I used my Wii via component, simply because gamecube component cables are ridiculously expensive. I've sold quite a few modded, refurbished, and custom consoles on eBay as well, retro systems (And electronics in general) is a hobby of mine. Here's a custom Nomad I sold for $500: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ultimate-Sega-Genesis-Nomad-Custom-Paint-LCD-Battery-Pack-and-Speaker-mod/162852828979

I often use the foreign console names and the American counterparts interchangeably, simply because some of these systems I didn't own when they originally launched. I.E., I never personally owned a TurboGrafx until a few years ago when I picked up a broken PC Engine LT & GT and refurbished them. I recently sold the LT (Cost me $600, sold it for $1500 after repairs) and now use a PC Engine Core Grafx. So despite it being called Turbografx 16 here in the US, I'm actually more familiar with the PC Engine line.

Pardon the rant - short version is, everyone should mod all their systems for RGB and try to get an RGB monitor if they're a serious retro gamer. Absolutely worth the time and hassle, and you'll learn a lot along the way if you're doing your own mods.

@impurekind I'll give you that. It does feel like it falls somewhere between.

@roadrunner343

AWESOME !

WE have almost the same PVM !

Sony PVM 1440QM for me and a bunch of Trinitron CRTs TV( 21" and 25")

100000 % agree with your message !

That screenshot gives me the good feels, but I'll need a review.

Looks like a blastoise with wings.

If I wanted to play games with 1988 style graphics I’d get my SNES or Amiga down from the loft 🤔

Isn't all this16-bit nostalgia a bit overrated and the novelty wearing a bit thin and clogging up the eshop.

@Cosats I thought it meant messenger?

@Tim_Vreeland Yes, Aggelos means Angel and this is how the word is formed:
Aggelos (Angel) = Agogi, Aggos (Treatment) + Ero (I fully desire)
and it means: the one who tells, the one who announces.

i recently scratched this game game off my want list a few months ago.
yes. this is my chance to say i knew about this game before everyone else here did because i can be a jerk sometimes.

I like the look of it but because it’s so new, it only has 1 Steam written review. I’ll wait for more impressions before adding this to my want list.

"Aggelos is a 'modern-day' take on games of the 'past' inspired by 'non-linear' 'Japanese' 'retro' adventures"

Woah, Got some whiplash from that.

Soooooooooooooo it's Wonderboy then.

@impurekind Technically, yes, but in actuality most platforming games were incredibly stiff and clunky in the control area. At least 2 out of those 4 videos remind me of the feeling of playing them. Was it frame rate and those controllers? I don't even know. I'm just commenting on how my nostalgia works. Sonic looks impressive, but I never played that on Master System as I had access to a SEGA Genesis at the time and it wasn't a Super Mario 3 / Super Mario World situation as I remember it.

On the wishlist! Hopefully it reviews great.

@Cosats Thank you