Milon’s Secret Castle is one of those games you’ve never heard of, but when you do finally acknowledge its presence you realize that it inexplicably has an enormous following. A minor classic in the Hudson library, Milon was originally published in 1986 to fairly lukewarm critical response. To be perfectly honest, time has amplified the shortcomings of the game. It hasn't aged well at all.
The aim is to clear several levels of the titular castle of enemies and ultimately save the damsel in distress. Along the way you have to locate several items in order to successfully defeat a range of boss characters. In terms of gameplay it doesn’t really get any more complex than Super Mario, but Nintendo’s game controls better, is more fair on the player and has bags of replay value.
Milon's primary form of attack is blowing bubbles, but before you get visions of Bubble Bobble-style brilliance, you should probably be aware that the offensive capabilities of Milon's bubble is a lot less impressive. Not only are they awkward to aim (by default they shoot up at an angle) it's often hard to accurately target enemies.
Milon is incredibly frustrating - in fact, it’s almost legendary in this regard. Some of the boss characters take what seems like hundreds of hits before they die, and thanks to the fact that once hit by an enemy, Milon doesn’t have temporary invincibility (as in most platform games), you’ll find yourself dying very quickly at times. Add to this some terrible graphics, mindless level design, annoying music and ultimately repetitive gameplay and it becomes hard to recommend.
Conclusion
Games from 1986 have to be really special in order for them to be playable today - Milon’s Secret Castle sadly isn’t. There are probably many Milon fanboys out there reading this review and cursing under their breath, but to be brutally honest it's hard to see why this game has built up such a following over the years - it stinks. Avoid.
Comments 8
This is one of the most frustrating games ever conceived. Heck, in Nintendo Power they called "Starting Out" a cheat.
More like a mini guide in the cheats section.
Is this the censored version of the Angry Video Game Nerd's review?
There is a trick to start your game where you left off. Combine this with the Wii's ability to save your progress and it is not so incredibly frustrating as it seems.
There are lots of games from my NES days I would not play today, however this game was very fun back then, it should be at least a 5 out of ten. 3 is like it never was fun kind of score to me. It's outdated not broken.
WOW! Such a low rating. I enjoyed this game back in the day.
First of all, "one of those games you’ve never heard of" is a preposterously bold claim, especially for a Hudson game. I feel like this review was written by someone who has never played a third party NES game, and would probably also give a bad score to the Adventure Island series. While it's not as good as it's sequel, Do-Re-Mi Fantasy on the SFC (which they inexplicably fail to even mention here, yet they use the term "Milon fanboy"), it's a decent game on its own right. Time has not "amplified" it's shortcomings. It runs exactly the same on my NES and AVS as it did on my NES when it came out.
This game is criminally underrated, and is no where near as hard or bad as it gets lambasted for. It’s such a shame that AVGN ruined this game for generations of fans, and this review continues the sad trend. There is nothing else like this game, the characters are interesting and the game play is hard but fun. The Soundtrack alone is amazing and totally worth playing this for. I think everyone interested in NES history should play it.
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