Nostalgia is the weirdest thing, because to me, it puts me back in the place and time where I was when I first experienced something. When it comes to videogames, if you put me in front of a copy of Chuckie Egg or Manic Miner, I am nine years old again, and I am in complete mastery of my realm. If you put me in front of Dark Souls, I’m now sitting in my own house, doing run of The Depths to help out players in jolly cooperation against the boss. When it comes to Dark Castle and it sequel, there’s no history there. I never played either of the games at the time, and so the expectation of what I expect to find simply isn’t there. Unlike Chuckie Egg, there’s no Findus Crispy pancakes getting cold on the dinner table while I complete my seventh loop around the game, there not tie in, and so I’m looking on this game with no comparison to what has gone before.
Similarly, even though I have access to the Remastered Version of Dark Souls, I rarely play it, because compared to its later siblings, especially the epic adventure of Elden Ring, the original feels clunky, and sometimes overly fussy and the entire second half of the game after Anor Londo really isn’t worth the hassle of playing through. You can’t easily jump and I normally spend most of my time running instead of fighting. Playing as it was meant to actually be played becomes an overly tough affair, and when I know I can do things another way and get the same result? Well, why bother.
Return to the Dark Castle is a remastered greatest hits of the first two games with an additional fifty levels to play through. You play as Bryant who as the nephew of the original character is trying to traverse the eponymous Dark Castle and defeat the Black Knight, and in order to do this must collect ten black orbs that will allow him to face the knight in a final battle. The real battle in Dark Castle is the Black Knight. The real battle is getting through the castle itself.
There are enemies in Dark Castle as expected and you’ll battle them with shovels and swords, you’ll throw rocks as bats and crows. The real battle in Dark Castle is going up stairs. Or climbing ropes. Or jumping between ropes, or jumping gaps, or running and jumping longer gaps, or falling down a gap. The real battle in Dark Castle is a wall at the end of the room that you walk into and end up dizzy for three seconds while a knight trundles towards you and kills you.
Return to the Dark Castle is tough and tricky. But not like Dark Souls tough and tricky where reactions and countering boss moves and parrying enemies is the key to winning. Dark Castle reminds me of Chuckie Egg and Manic Miner where each room has a set solution that has to be followed in order to progress. I played both of those other games so many times that I was able to play them almost blind folded, such was the muscle memory that my ten tear old self had.
Return to the Dark Castle demands a much higher level of perfection. You need to learn which order enemies should be cleared in, how you should traverse around the room, when to climb that rope, when to jump that gap, when to duck and when to fight. Unlike the other two games mentioned above, Bryant’s movement through the castle in general lacks fluidity, and instead seems to rely on a series of strung together actions that are very low on forgiveness. Fall too far and you’ll end up dead, run too fast and you end up in a dizzy spell next to a wall, while an enemy gets closer and closer. Try to throw a rock and you’ll need to make sure your angle with the right stick is prefect to take the shot, miss and you’ll more than likely lose all of your health and start the room again.
If you approach Return expecting quality of life changes that you would find in a modern platformer adventure game then this game is going to come up short. I didn’t feel I was able to get any kind of flow into the game. More often than not I felt like there was very little leeway in which to learn or even experiment with a level. You had to get it right every single time without fail. You would be failing a lot of times, and for some people, it is going to feel like its not worth the effort in trying.
I think part of the problem is that we’re in a space where games that have platform challenges are so tight, but also you feel in control 100% of the time, every time. If you compare this to the likes of Celeste then the frustration will ultimately have you walking away. There seemed to be a strict determination to make this game so much like the originals that they forgot that thirty years of gaming have gone by in the meantime and players are used to walking up stairs without having to make a conscious effort.
As far as looks go, this is leaning so heavily on ye olde game that it felt like I was playing something crafted years ago. Don’t get me wrong, the graphics are clear and crisp, and the animations absolutely serve their purpose. Everything looks solid if so very retro, like the kind of game you would build if you had been developing games in a sandbox. That’s not a huge criticism. I felt like I was playing a game on an old Amiga or PC and overall it really does well to sit in with the style of the game and no doubt pays a huge homage to the originals that proceeded it. It ran well on the Steamdeck without issue, and the controls mapped well to the gamepad with out issue.
Ultimately I wasn’t having fun. Time for me is a strict and tight resource and so I walked away from maybe quicker than I should have. Cursing myself for not have the drive and determination to see it through, to tackle rooms until I rote learned them and could pass with ease. The irony is that if this was remake of Manic Miner or Chuckie Egg I would have probably sat there staring at the screen reminiscing at my former years and former glory. I would have played it to death and cheered every time I beat a level, and smiled when I saw familiar levels or foes. It it simply that kind of game.
So here’s the thing, Return to the Dark Castle is one of the most Your Mileage May Vary Games I have played in the longest time. If you have any relationship with the series and are looking for a nostalgia blanket that is going to smother you in memories but not in cotton wool then this is going to be the game for you. If fact there’s a chance you already have it as soon as it releases and that you’ve had it on preorder for the longest time. In that case you’re probably shouting and telling me I know nothing about anything and should go and play another game if I can’t stand the challenge. You’re probably right. Personally I probably won’t Return to the Dark Castle, but thousands of you will, and that makes me happy.
Platform: Steamdeck
Publisher :Ludit
Developer : Z Sculpt Entertainment
