This is a lot of fun if you have 1-2 friends and kind of a slog without. Me and my brother played the first world together and I ended up finishing it solo, so I got both experiences.
The level design at the start feels tight, it's rewarding to search every nook and cranny for secrets and treasure. Each world has a theme, none of them too creative but it gets the job done. The big appeal is plowing through hordes of enemies and finding power-ups that allow you to do so more efficiently.
One major gripe is that it's actually really hard to restore health and there's no reason it should be that way. You can either buy a meager amount with your gold or replay one of the levels (the first one has a decent amount of health pickups) over and over, grinding your progression to a stop. It's such a pain I would just stay around 50% health and never grinded for more until the final boss.
The levels towards the end got too big for their own good, they often required finding hidden switches to progress that offered little to no indication of what they were actually doing. There's no map so navigating some of the more sprawling levels becomes an exercise in tedium as you backtrack to figure out which breakable wall you missed 10 minutes ago.
The bosses were the weakest part, they're all big stationary monsters that spam projectiles and none of them had any kind of strategy besides throwing everything you have at them to kill them before they deplete too much precious health.
Overall I have my gripes but it's still a great co-op game, and it's easy to overlook it's flaws if you have a friend or two to play with. The sound design is really iconic, I hadn't played this since I was a kid and I instantly recognized almost every sound effect. If you're looking for something quick to pick up and play with friends this a great pick.
The level design at the start feels tight, it's rewarding to search every nook and cranny for secrets and treasure. Each world has a theme, none of them too creative but it gets the job done. The big appeal is plowing through hordes of enemies and finding power-ups that allow you to do so more efficiently.
One major gripe is that it's actually really hard to restore health and there's no reason it should be that way. You can either buy a meager amount with your gold or replay one of the levels (the first one has a decent amount of health pickups) over and over, grinding your progression to a stop. It's such a pain I would just stay around 50% health and never grinded for more until the final boss.
The levels towards the end got too big for their own good, they often required finding hidden switches to progress that offered little to no indication of what they were actually doing. There's no map so navigating some of the more sprawling levels becomes an exercise in tedium as you backtrack to figure out which breakable wall you missed 10 minutes ago.
The bosses were the weakest part, they're all big stationary monsters that spam projectiles and none of them had any kind of strategy besides throwing everything you have at them to kill them before they deplete too much precious health.
Overall I have my gripes but it's still a great co-op game, and it's easy to overlook it's flaws if you have a friend or two to play with. The sound design is really iconic, I hadn't played this since I was a kid and I instantly recognized almost every sound effect. If you're looking for something quick to pick up and play with friends this a great pick.