The retro 2D side-scrolling action genre isn’t one that’s lacking in excellent titles to recommend on Switch these days. Indeed, fans of the old 8 and 16-bit era are practically drowning in a sea of quality titles to choose from, with heavy hitters such as Shovel Knight, Hollow Knight, Dead Cells and Celeste to name a few that pop immediately into our heads.
This is a tough crowd to stand out in, for sure, and one that gamers may by now be slightly fatigued with. Well, don’t go hanging up your pixelated adventure hat just yet because Aggelos has finally arrived on Nintendo’s console, some eleven months after its well-received PC debut, and it’s got more than enough about it to eek out a place of its own amongst some of the big boys in its class.
At first glance, it must be said, you’d almost be forgiven for taking a pass on Aggelos as a somewhat run-of-the-mill updating of the classic Wonder Boy format. There are so many similar looking, and sounding, games out there right now that its colourful and chunky - but hardly inspired or original - pixel looks partnered with a cut-and-paste story don’t give the best first impression. However, give it just the slightest of chances and you’ll find Agellos’ disparate parts quickly come together to form one of the most well-crafted and brilliantly paced tribute acts to adventures of old.
Let’s start off with that story, such as it is. You assume the role of the silent and stoic hero, a young lad in search of adventure, which he finds promptly in the form of Princess Lys, daughter of King Gentel, ruler of the land of Lumen. Lys sends you off to speak with her father who hurriedly explains that bad boy Valion is trying to fuse together elements of the worlds of dark and light in order that he might tear a hole between realms, wreak all sorts of havoc and generally make an absolute mess. Obviously, he needs stopping, and it’s your job, oh chunky little hero, to secure the four elements of the world of light, combat Valion’s advances and restore peace and tranquillity.
Once your adventure is under way, it doesn’t take long before Aggelos’ brand of satisfying combat and exploration - that classic Metroidvania gameplay loop of explore, fight, upgrade and explore some more - gets its nails into you. Aggelos deftly fuses the chunky combat, light puzzling and platforming we’ve come to expect from the best side-scrolling adventure games with some extremely well-designed dungeon-crawling which lifts it well above the monotonous rhythms of much of its ilk. While doing so, it cleverly doles out a steady stream of exciting new abilities and elemental skills with which to traverse its picturesque, varied world and dispatch its beautifully designed gallery of foes.
A gameplay flow is quickly established; four temples to visit in order to unlock all four elements needed to thwart the villain, each temple providing the player with a power which doubles as both weapon and new means of traversal. The first power you’ll come across in the game’s opening Earth Temple, for example, is an earth ring which grants you a ranged energy attack that not only kills enemies but turns them into platforms to reach new areas. Later you’ll unlock the ability to travel upwards during underwater segments in a bubble shield which doubles as a defensive upgrade whilst submerged. It takes a matter of minutes to gain these first powers and it’s in this unconvoluted, fast-paced approach to mixing up proceedings that Aggelos’ main strength lies; it isn’t interested in wasting your time.
This isn’t a particularly long game, around ten hours for an almost 100% playthrough on normal difficulty. It gets straight to the good stuff and almost instantly you’re chopping snakes, bats and pink goo to ribbons and turning forest wisps into platforms to aid your Metroid-esque traversal of a world full of clever little secrets, superbly designed dungeons and boss battles.
There’s no Shovel Knight style in-jokes here, no bloat, no clever wink-wink subversion of genre tropes, it’s a straightforward and perfectly formed blast through exactly the type of gameplay elements we all know and expect from the 16-bit era replete with a handful of modern conveniences such as generous checkpointing and even a handy little tip-giving NPC who lives in the castle just in case you get stuck.
Aggelos’ light-hearted approach even extends to player death; there’s no great punishment for failure, you’ll keep your progress and possessions while losing a little XP. Yes, there are light RPG elements here, however levelling up is quick and easy, grind is minimal to non-existent and the coin you’ll need to upgrade your way through its delightful assortment of weapons and armour is plentiful. It’s liberating, almost slightly disarming, to find a retro action game so willing to push you forward, not throwing roadblocks in your way or being difficult for the sake of being on trend.
There are some small annoyances, however. The world map is basic to the point of being useless, something that’s more annoying early before you’ve memorised your way around the world’s various areas and unlocked all the abilities which make moving from area to area a breeze. There’re also some slight issues with difficulty levels throughout your adventure; the first half is almost a little too easy whilst the latter two dungeons have a few annoying spikes which will stop you in your tracks, causing you to repeat runs on bosses to the point of irritation here and there.
Conclusion
Overall, this is a great little retro adventure that doesn’t outstay its welcome. It plays like a top tier title from back in the day, presents you with the sort of gameplay you want and expect from this type of game and serves it all up at a pace with such consistent quality that it’s hard not to be won over, no matter how fatigued you may be by the idea of another blast of old school pixel action.
Comments 42
Good pixel games are always welcome.
Nice Tenacious D reference. The game sounds good too.
The game is awesome, highly recommended.
Seems fine but I have bought way too many of these 2D NES pixel style action platformers in the past. This kind of game is very over-saturated on the Switch.
I swear I have seen that EXACT pixel dragon somewhere else before
I held off on this since I needed reviews, but now...I'm more influenced to buying it. Something to hold me off until I can buy Monster Boy.
@CrazyZelda79
I think it was on an ESHOP screenshot for wonder boy or dragon boy...
Thumbnail dragon looks like green Blastoise
The dragon looks very Mega Man-y to my eye 👀
looks a lot like something from the TG16.
not a bad thing at all.
OK, I'm sold. Love the Wonder Boy vibe.
Looks nice enough. I'll probably nab it at some point. I wish they would have extended their character designs beyond the level of generic, or at least give the player some options to customize. If you're going to make a game with a silent hero today, why not let the player choose or design their avatar somehow? To me, the avatar design is as important as what the player does with him...or her.
@PBandSmelly Maybe you're thinking of the very similar one in Dr. Wily's Fortress part 1 in Mega Man 2. This one looks like a combination of that and Blastoise.
Nice, I was hoping this got reviewed and performed well. As soon as I get through some games ill grab this.
@CrazyZelda79 Regarding your comment about backlogs and time, I feel you, cause I'm in the same boat. I literally had to audit my backlog to contain strictly "must plays" and removed all the "wouldn't mind playing" games (unless they hit hard sales I can't pass on) as well as any game I wanted that got a physical release that I can simply GameFly. It's nuts how I play games now, and neither time or money are on my side!
As far as Aggelos, I was following this game and had high hopes, so I'm glad it isn't the kind of retro game to muck around with padding (I rather enjoyed Oniken and Odallus for that as well) and also doesn't out stay it's welcome. I'll wait for a sale, but it's definitely staying in my backlog.
@The_BAAD_Man
No, I used to speedrun that game, I can draw it in my sleep...THIS is something completely different that I have seen before...
I want to get this. Physical release please!!
Seems like there’s so many of these types of games on switch
@CrazyZelda79 @PBandSmelly As some have said, there is a mild similarity to the dragon in Mega Man 2. But what this dragon most reminds me of is Haiya Dragon/Icarus from Dragonball Z, though that one is drawn to be a bit cuter and light purple. But the general art style is very similar and reminiscent of Akira Toriyama in general. Perhaps there is another similar looking dragon in another game for which he did the art. This also reminds me of the friendly dinosaur characters in some of the Adventure Island games, but it's not as strong a similarity there.
@Fake-E-Lee @CrazyZelda79
I now only have 1 unbeaten game in my collection saved for a rainy day while the others I'm actively juggling (Ys VIII, Travis Strikes Again, Iconoclasts, and Stardust Galaxy Warriors). I admire you guys, I can't even muster the cash to have that many games owned, plus I hate sitting on games, so I try to wait until I can actually play them before buying. Either way, we're all still in the same camp, hoping for the time to lessen the backlog with new games constantly coming. Don't get me started on finding time for RPGs, or specifically in my case, the time to play FF VII, IX, X, X-2, and XII
Looks like a fun little game
Looks good. Doesn’t mention the music, but graphics look nice
Saw this on the eShop recently and was immediately interested. Not a fan of those floaty games, which are far to many of them on the indie side, so this looks very much like my cup of tea.
GOD, I HATE THOSE DARN FLOATY GAMES!!! 😡😠😡😠😡
@sfb Wonderboy and Young Nasty Man
I'm not "fatigued" by old school pixel action at all. I do however get tired of seeing modern indie devs doing what really isn't proper retro pixel game art--usually something that's actually much lower-res and less detailed/intricate and visually appealing than most retro pixel games actually were (or they go the opposite and mix in the likes of HD HUDs/GUIs and non-pixellated smooth particle effects and the like with low-res pixel art)--and trying to pass it off as retro 8-bit/16-bit visuals. But when it's done correctly, as it appears to be here (there's a very Wonder Boy 3 "Master System" look to this game), then I'm all for it.
It's a great game. Been a while I liked a 2D game. This one is a must buy
@MrHeli music is like old school NES games. Which will stick in your head playing the game. It has a great tune! You'll love it
@Fake-E-Lee @MeloMan @CrazyZelda79 About backlog issues, maybe I'm heading the opposite direction: if the game is 40 hours or more, I try to keep away from it. I know it can make me lose some good games, but i make an exception some times. Other than that, I'm sticking to shorter games (8-15 hours) or games I can play in short bursts like Tetris, Street Fighter, Horizon Turbo, even shoot them ups. Life changes, then we have to adapt. I miss the old days when I could literally spend my time playing
Definitely want this one, the visuals have really nailed it for me and just sounds like a joy to play.
@purpleskittles8 Riggah-goo-goo, riggah-goo-goo.
@Alucard83
From my point of view, the music is just bad.
I can clearly hear that the "compositions" are not made by a real musician.
The game in itself is not bad but it borrows too much from other games (sprites and backgrounds).
BTW it’s ‘eke’ not ‘eek’. Great review though, looks light enough for some retro fun.
@John_Deacon i tend to do the same thing with games. Before i buy a game I go on howlongtobeat.com and see what the average time play is. I'll do some 20 hour games, more if it's a game in super interested in like zelda, Mario or others. But for the most part 8-12 hours is my sweet spot. With plenty of 15 hour games. I just don't have the time i used to being older now with other stuff going on
@CrazyZelda79 i get you. Generally I wait for sales or try to play for an hour or difficulty gets too much. Wish shovel Knight let you save in the middle of difficult levels rather than need to keep playing with checkpoints. Aggelos does look interesting I admit.
@Alucard83 sounds awesome Alucard! “What is a soundtrack”? 🧛♂️
@MrHeli when there is another tune it. lol
From the screenshots it looks a bit too bright all around, like there may be issues with telling what is background and what is a platform to stand on.
Is it just me or does the green dragon look kind of like Blastoise?
@Alucard83 🙂
@Fake-E-Lee Haha I’m also knee deep in Dragons Dogma and Ys VIII twice (bought the latter on sale, playing it on a higher difficulty, and am also going back to finish my PS4 play through I started two years ago). Nice problem to have . Oh I also just bought Dark Souls for the third time.... Damnit, Switch! *shakes fist to the sky
@Fake-E-Lee I do admit that traveling was a pain but at least during Magic Tour it was easy to have a TV available to play some NES because it was Europe only. And I got more into it after we stopped touring
@Fake-E-Lee Nah, man. I'm just a massive Queen fan like you. A bass player because of good old Deacon.
But I can't help replying like that when someone mentions me like that HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAH
You can go back to sleep in total peace
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