HomeReviewsMaldita Castilla EX - Cursed Castile Review

Maldita Castilla EX – Cursed Castile Review

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After not playing a retro platformer in a long time, I thought I’d get stuck right into Maldita Castilla EX – Cursed Castile and reconnect with this almost forgotten genre. After using 63 credits to continue where I perished, I realised that I died a total of 189 times! I forgot how painstakingly brutal these games are, but I bloody love it. Its unforgivable nature reminded me how much these short games take every ounce of your patience and make you work for everything.

From developers Locamalito, the story of Maldita Castilla, although vague, is the classic tale of good versus evil and a true 80’s style classic brought into the modern age. The grief and sorrow of a young witch was heard by an old demon, and after being seduced he turned her tears into a magic key which was used to open the gates of hell. Enter Don Ramiro, one of the King of Spain’s brave knights who is given the important task of taking down all the evil creatures that have invaded the land.

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The different stages in this game have different enemies, although there are a couple that have little cameos here and there. The name of the game in Maldita Castilla EX is variety and that’s what makes this short game so exciting because they have really packed things in. There’s a total of 48+ types of enemies, ranging from zombies, slugs, dragons, knights (and many more), 19 Bosses, eight stages and four different endings! For a two-three hour long game that’s outrageous.

Every stage also has a boss and two or more smaller bosses who are usually in some way associated with the theme of the stage e.g. a level filled with harpies has a two headed flying monster boss whilst the water level has a giant demon terrapin.

One element that I have to remember whilst playing any platformer is to constantly take in and learn my surroundings. I died, a lot, and this is because I rushed things. You need to take a bit of time to learn the pattern of enemies and moving objects, because failure to do this was my constant downfall. This was due to there being a time limit on every level – just when you thought they couldn’t kick you in the crotch anymore, they make you hurry the hell up. To give an example, an early stage saw me having to simultaneously dodge low windmills, avoiding holes in the floor and jumping across very small moving platforms, all whilst having to kill dragons that appear on mass. Give me a break! How hard is this going to get?

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Another small issue I had was with the controls. These sorts of games aren’t exactly designed for the Xbox One controller, whereas they are for the NES for example. I felt, more than once, that my character didn’t always do what I wanted him to do and he would fall off obstacles or be a little slow to react. This made the frustration of the game all the more prevalent.

Just as the Cursed Castile starts to get hard, you encounter some other knights who have been given the same task – to stop these creatures and save the land. You assume that they will help you, but then that would be making the game easy. We were all travelling on a horse drawn cart and having to fend off harpies coming from all directions; range weapons were key to winning, but did they have ranged weapons…no. They just stood there watching me throw sword after sword at a seemingly endless waves of harpies, all whilst having to dodge owls dropping flaming pots of tar at me. Having assistance would have been a dream, but then again this game goes back to the punishing roots of old-school platformers and continuously reminds you that you are on your own.

Along the way you will be constantly on the lookout for small red treasure chests and these can be the lifeline you so desperately need. The chests can contain any number of items – bits of food that regain health, an additional life, a shield that can fend off attacks for a short period, points to help your high score or a multitude of weapons that can make your life that tiny bit easier. These weapons include, a sickle, a sword (which you already have), an axe, bolas, daggers or holy fire, with each doing different things and aiding you in specific ways. But I’ll let you find that out for yourself.

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My final gripe was with the ‘save’ feature. Yes, you can save, but you can’t completely save until you have completed the entire stage. There are numerous milestones in the game where you have just beaten a particularly hard section and you would hope you could save it then, but nope. I realised this the hard way and turned on my Xbox One to the horrific realisation that I had to start one of the levels from the very beginning again. I would like to see this change with an update, but then I guess that takes away from the original platformer-style of gameplay where there never used to be save points and you had to complete the game in one sitting. Luckily we don’t live in a time like that anymore and gaming has progressed since then, so I would like to have thought the developers would have taken this into consideration.

Maldita Castilla EX – Cursed Castile is an amazing homage to the classic retro-style platformer. It is punishing and brutal, but the rewards are monumental and make you feel like a million dollars when you finally reach the end of the stage. There are a few features that could be fixed, mainly the save aspect, but this is minor in a game that truly brings us back to the 80’s with its beautiful aesthetic and perfect soundtrack.

Ethan Palmer
Ethan Palmer
An avid player with nearly 20 years of gaming under my belt. When I'm not gaming I'm......I'm literally just gaming.
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