Reviews on Golden Force (Switch eShop)

The initial vibe we felt when Golden Force moved sideways was very positive. The mix of platforming and combat, with powerful moves, juggling, and bursts, was reminiscent of Treasure GBA’s masterpiece, Astro Boy: The Omega Factor. It might not be the most well-known game, but trust us when we say this: anything that can capture your essence, even momentarily, has something to offer. While you can’t justify this comparison by its length, even mentioning it at the same time, Astro Boy does talk about the effort that went into Golden Force.

Take control of one of the four characters – or Of Out of Four in Local Multiplayer: It’s a pretty straightforward action platform concept, but the execution is above average in several ways. Movements and combat are nice and crisp (although there’s a lack of HD noise), with enemies that can be juggled through the air and thrown, turning them into dangerous bouncing projectiles that can damage other villains.

When defeated, they explode into sticky red drops of blood and a fountain of coins; this is an always satisfying visual response and can be quite dramatic. That same level of impact is preserved in almost any action, like pulling seven shades of something or another out of a treasure chest, watching coins being tossed into your waiting wallet. Golden Force generally understands that strong visual feedback is important in action games. So it’s a shame that when he strays from that understanding, he does so in a pretty devastating way.

In a game that can’t wait to kill you, it’s always good to make each of those victims feel right. Golden Force, unfortunately, does not. Your attacks have limited range; okay, this is hand-to-hand combat. But what makes this problematic is the fact that just hitting enemies will reduce their health. Sure, that’s the norm in platform games, but not when you need to be as close and personal as you do here.

It is very easy to outwit in a combo, rub against the enemy and take damage. If I had a more reliable way to recover health, that would be easily forgivable, but reloads and HP checkpoints are surprisingly rare. Monsters will fall from the sky and burrow from below, another cause for frustration. These issues could have been alleviated simply by preventing enemies from harming the player on base contact, or even adjusting how health works so that the weaker beast doesn’t achieve the same amount of health as the huge one. tentacled monstrosity.

Besides the fights, there are also platforms to do, and overall it’s fun. The levels are about the right length (although you can use a different checkpoint each, as mentioned), and you get through them quickly and quickly. Your character’s ranged attack move is a good example of a travel-enhancing combat mechanic, and the big special pieces hidden in each level (trade them in for expensive permanent upgrades) are well placed.

Unfortunately, there are a few entry-level design bugs that turn things around. We were surprised to find such an example at the start of the game, a section where a line of coins crawling off the screen led to a pit of instant death. The situation forces the player to fall and then run to a visible platform only after they have already left safe ground. Of course, this will only wow you once, but it’s such a cardinal design sin that we fear it will reveal a lack of evidence. Of course, that’s just a guess, as there’s an obvious passion for the game here, but that sort of thing really doesn’t belong in a solid platformer game. Add that stuff to the offscreen turrets and already lamented digging enemies, and there’ll be enough frustration to kick you out of the game if you’re not patient.

Visually, everything is quite beautiful, with a fun (albeit familiar) pixel art style that is engaging and cohesive. There are huge frame rate drops when the screen is too busy, but luckily a fix was promised and even then we didn’t find them to have caused undue deaths, mostly only appearing when enemies are destroyed and they do not threaten. . The music is quite loud, although we found that it didn’t stand out. Aesthetically, the game has more features than shapes, and with the exception of the terribly important issues we’ve already mentioned, now is a good time.

conclusion

It’s disappointing that Golden Force falls into the areas it does, because without those fixable issues it would be an easy recommendation – the level design is mostly strong, the boss fights combine the spectacle with fun attack chains and varied learning very well, and it feels good to get stronger and play better. Sadly, a few rookie mistakes are about to ruin the fun completely, but if you’ve got the bloody wit to overcome those frustrations, there’s definitely a lot to enjoy about Golden Force. Which is a shame, in a way, because “Golden Farce” would have been a perfect slogan for this review. The one we had to choose was garbage, in comparison. (Not as easy as you might think, this lark game review.)