After playing and feeling disappointed by Curse of the Moon 2 I moved onto this game to see if Inti Creates had done any better.

Generally it has the same core formula as Curse of the Moon, but instead of controlling a variety of characters you unlock throughout a few levels you start with 2 characters to use until the end, with the unlocks being new subweapons that are always available in your inventory to quickly switch through.

The level design is smaller, but offers some more compelling alternate paths upon revisiting as well as giving you more freedom to backtrack, the game focuses more on choosing the right subweapon in the moment rather than picking up individual ones trying to predict when you'll need them.

The game is easier than both CotM games for the most part as if one of your characters dies, you can go reach their corpse after respawning and resuscitate them to continue, preventing you from losing a life unless both characters die. The levels are also less punishing for the most part, feels like there's a lot more healing, and also less opportunities for knockback to kill you, but I honestly didn't mind this especially after CotM 2.

What keeps me from giving a higher rating is 2 issues I have with the game, for one while the game generally being easier didn't bother me I wished the bosses had some more challenge to them, still prefer easier bosses over health taxes like there is in CotM 2. The other issue is that unbeknownst to me at first, this is a Gal Gun spin-off, the game doesn't lean into this until after you do the second playthrough for the real ending but I found it to just be weird, I guess they're playing into their audience but I really don't think it fits a Castlevania-like and I would have rather the game kept on with the slightly more serious tone of the first run.

Overall though if they make another Curse of the Moon game, I hope it's like this one, using more focused level design and balancing as well as 16-bit style visuals, because I think the first game already perfected the NES style.

Reviewed on Mar 08, 2023


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