Decided to delete a rather crude and stupid one-sentence statement (I marked it as Abandoned then said I'd rather play DMC2 than this... which isn't wrong but still who tf wants that as a review?) to at least say things about the game. I'll note that although I marked the Mac release thanks to the Mini vMac emulator, I actually beat this via the Genesis release w/ Ares, of which the differences between them are listed here.
To give credit, this does have some prestige when concerning its initial launch of the aforementioned Mac release. I recommend reading up this excerpt from GameDeveloper's article on the game from its source, Gamasutra worker Richard Moss's book Secret History Of Mac Gaming, but essentially, the goal was trying to combine arcade-like experience with cartoon aesthetics and tone. The latter is obvious from all the jokes spawned about Prince Duncan, the 'hero', looking like a bootleg Shaggy and one of the earliest forms of Easter Eggs depending on the date you play this, but the former is also evident in that one of the levels is just a Donkey Kong Arcade homage. Also, it seems like this was the progenitor of the WASD+Mouse format, of which has become the staple of PC gaming setups, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was a Winback/MGS2/Kill.Switch & Gears Of War scenario where it became standardized way after the fact. I do also really like the B&W look of the Mac release, making this a PoP89 scenario where I prefer this more minimalist, simpler look and appeal than later ports trying to give it more detail and colors.
It deservedly earns a place within the gaming timeline as an influential mark, which makes it stings even more that not even the Mac release satisfied me, and in fact drove me up a wall. I won't say this has "aged" or has become "dated" since, among other reasons, like that's literally throwing away everything I just stated in the last paragraph, but I do wonder if people back then had much more patience than we do now, cause uggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh this was rough.
This is the first 2D platformer I've played in a while where it'd be better if there were less enemies around, considering a majority of the screens are crawling with them one fashion or another. The way the controls work is that you use the mouse - either horizontally or vertically, via the options - to aim Duncan's hand, and you press Left Mouse in order to fire. It's not so much the speed and arc that bothers me, and more so the reaction required in order to hit the enemy on time, made worse by usually being plopped at awkward spots to throw your rock at, as well as most being able to get back up after a couple of seconds. A lot of the time enemies tend to swarm in on you right when you're about to fire, which combined with a one-hit state, meant seeing game overs and level restarts a lot. The sharp decline of the levels is also just, staggering, starting off OK if hampered by again the bad enemy placements and quickness, only to then require precise landing within do-or-die scenarios, made even worse by its awful controls.
I can see why they wanted to aim for the cartoon squash stuff as well, but Duncan's a weak motherfucker, dude can barely step over an inch-wide indent or a guard before tumbling down and getting dizzy. I get it for medium-ish drops, but come on. It also doesn't help the registration for the jumps is obnoxiously fickle and precise, making what should be a simple rope swing devolve to trial-and-error, even when accounting for timing. It also doesn't help that of the three jumps available - straight, running, and downward - barely any of them can help you get onto platforms from below, or jump off/land towards ropes. Mind you, I'm saying all of this by spending my time on the BEGINNER difficulty, I don't think I want to imagine what it's like on Intermediate and Advanced setting. By the time I got to the Fireball levels, I wanted it to end finally, only giving up when I couldn't take it anymore.
...only to see Katiopeia's review and see that you can just skip everything and go straight to the Black Knight if you wanted to. It's super improbable since doing Fireball and the Shield rooms are necessary to handle some of the obstacles, but at this point, I didn't really care. After attempting and failing a few times, I went "fuck it" even more and went for the aforementioned Genesis release, not only cause I can just rewind when needed, I can also utilize the cheat menu to make this painful process less so. I don't really care for points, plus this isn't the first time I went Cheat Mode just to make something less painful (I love VTM Bloodlines but there's a reason people dread the last level and Nosferatu Warrens), and finally, I at least wanted to say I played and beat it.
I feel bad for ragging on this cause this really isn't anywhere near as broken, unpolished, insert other words w/ negative connotation here as DMC2... but it made me far more angrier, delirious, and downright toxic by comparison. And to me, that's about on par with all of that.
Now what's this Beyond Dark Castle thing about...
To give credit, this does have some prestige when concerning its initial launch of the aforementioned Mac release. I recommend reading up this excerpt from GameDeveloper's article on the game from its source, Gamasutra worker Richard Moss's book Secret History Of Mac Gaming, but essentially, the goal was trying to combine arcade-like experience with cartoon aesthetics and tone. The latter is obvious from all the jokes spawned about Prince Duncan, the 'hero', looking like a bootleg Shaggy and one of the earliest forms of Easter Eggs depending on the date you play this, but the former is also evident in that one of the levels is just a Donkey Kong Arcade homage. Also, it seems like this was the progenitor of the WASD+Mouse format, of which has become the staple of PC gaming setups, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was a Winback/MGS2/Kill.Switch & Gears Of War scenario where it became standardized way after the fact. I do also really like the B&W look of the Mac release, making this a PoP89 scenario where I prefer this more minimalist, simpler look and appeal than later ports trying to give it more detail and colors.
It deservedly earns a place within the gaming timeline as an influential mark, which makes it stings even more that not even the Mac release satisfied me, and in fact drove me up a wall. I won't say this has "aged" or has become "dated" since, among other reasons, like that's literally throwing away everything I just stated in the last paragraph, but I do wonder if people back then had much more patience than we do now, cause uggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh this was rough.
This is the first 2D platformer I've played in a while where it'd be better if there were less enemies around, considering a majority of the screens are crawling with them one fashion or another. The way the controls work is that you use the mouse - either horizontally or vertically, via the options - to aim Duncan's hand, and you press Left Mouse in order to fire. It's not so much the speed and arc that bothers me, and more so the reaction required in order to hit the enemy on time, made worse by usually being plopped at awkward spots to throw your rock at, as well as most being able to get back up after a couple of seconds. A lot of the time enemies tend to swarm in on you right when you're about to fire, which combined with a one-hit state, meant seeing game overs and level restarts a lot. The sharp decline of the levels is also just, staggering, starting off OK if hampered by again the bad enemy placements and quickness, only to then require precise landing within do-or-die scenarios, made even worse by its awful controls.
I can see why they wanted to aim for the cartoon squash stuff as well, but Duncan's a weak motherfucker, dude can barely step over an inch-wide indent or a guard before tumbling down and getting dizzy. I get it for medium-ish drops, but come on. It also doesn't help the registration for the jumps is obnoxiously fickle and precise, making what should be a simple rope swing devolve to trial-and-error, even when accounting for timing. It also doesn't help that of the three jumps available - straight, running, and downward - barely any of them can help you get onto platforms from below, or jump off/land towards ropes. Mind you, I'm saying all of this by spending my time on the BEGINNER difficulty, I don't think I want to imagine what it's like on Intermediate and Advanced setting. By the time I got to the Fireball levels, I wanted it to end finally, only giving up when I couldn't take it anymore.
...only to see Katiopeia's review and see that you can just skip everything and go straight to the Black Knight if you wanted to. It's super improbable since doing Fireball and the Shield rooms are necessary to handle some of the obstacles, but at this point, I didn't really care. After attempting and failing a few times, I went "fuck it" even more and went for the aforementioned Genesis release, not only cause I can just rewind when needed, I can also utilize the cheat menu to make this painful process less so. I don't really care for points, plus this isn't the first time I went Cheat Mode just to make something less painful (I love VTM Bloodlines but there's a reason people dread the last level and Nosferatu Warrens), and finally, I at least wanted to say I played and beat it.
I feel bad for ragging on this cause this really isn't anywhere near as broken, unpolished, insert other words w/ negative connotation here as DMC2... but it made me far more angrier, delirious, and downright toxic by comparison. And to me, that's about on par with all of that.
Now what's this Beyond Dark Castle thing about...