Mystery Castle

Great puzzle game!

Annoying, overly sarcastic writing and far too slow in gameplay. Needs a undo last move option at least too. Having to restart an entire stage over a single mistake is NOT fun and the main issue with these type of games.

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Mystery Castle: A Retro Puzzle Adventure

Positives

* Charming Retro Aesthetic: The game's pixel art visuals and upbeat soundtrack evoke a sense of nostalgia, capturing the charm of classic puzzle games.
* Varied Puzzle Mechanics: From transformations and potions to monster possession and explosions, the game offers a diverse range of puzzle-solving tools.
* Humorous Dialogue: While potentially divisive, the game's attempts at humor inject personality into the experience, particularly for those who enjoy a bit of sarcasm.
* Challenging Gameplay: With 180 unique stages, Mystery Castle provides a substantial amount of content for puzzle enthusiasts seeking a challenge.

Negatives

* Overly Sarcastic Writing: The dwarf's constant quips can be grating and detract from the enjoyment for some players.
* Slow Gameplay Pace: The deliberate pace can feel sluggish, especially when combined with the lack of an undo button.
* Punitive Design: Having to restart entire stages due to minor mistakes can be frustrating and discourage experimentation.
* Controls: While functional, the controls could be tighter and more responsive, leading to occasional mishaps.

Overall Verdict

Mystery Castle is a nostalgic trip down memory lane for fans of retro puzzle games. It offers a charming aesthetic, diverse puzzle mechanics, and a good dose of challenge. However, the overly sarcastic writing, slow pace, lack of an undo button, and somewhat clunky controls can hinder the experience. If you're willing to overlook these flaws, you'll find a quirky and rewarding puzzle adventure waiting to be explored.

Very nice.

A fun little game with challenging, but fair puzzles. Worth a look.

An excellent puzzle game in the vein of Sokoban and Adventures of Lolo. The graphics are charming and the music doesn't get repetitive even after listening to it for a long while. The sound effects the main character makes upon dying do feel a bit out of place, though.

Most of the time you have everything you need in order to solve the puzzle staring right at you, and it's up to you to figure it out, which is exactly the kind of puzzle game I like. There are a few cases where you need to check what switches do, but that's still acceptable. Enemies are of the passive kind, they'll never actively chase you. Couple of times you do need some timing skills to get past them, but overall it's very much of a slow-placed, thinking man's game. It's the kind of game where you can stare at the screen for 30 minutes trying to solve it in your head before executing your plan. And then feel an equal amount of pride for doing it and shame for taking 30 minutes to figuring out just where the boxes should be pushed to.

The puzzles can get quite inventive at times, cleverly misdirecting the player and placing red herrings to sow further confusion. It took me 15 hours to play through the game, solving every puzzle without any help. There are still some castles in the map that can't be entered, so I'm hoping they'll be added in a future patch. Or even DLC, I wouldn't mind paying a few bucks for more of this.

If there's anything to criticize, it's that the puzzles' difficulty is uneven. In every castle the first 20 or so levels (out of 36) are pretty easy, then the difficulty starts ramping up. But there were levels in the third and four castles that I found much harder than anything in the fifth castle. Still, that's a minor complaint.

Definitely recommended for box-pushing aficionados.

Mystery Castle is an adventure game that challenges your intellect in some fiendish puzzles. However, there are bosses in this game that doesn't NEED to be attacked head-on! You gotta think before making your moves on them. The music in the game is quite charming, especially the one in The Enchanted Castle, and makes the puzzles more relaxing while you plan out the solutions of a puzzle.

One thing I don't like is the races, GAH! The races. You must be spot-on perfect in order to succeed in the race levels, otherwise you'd had to start that race all over again. Also, there are 4 locations (Temple, Pyramid, Harbor, and Academy[?]) that were not actual castles that seemed pretty interesting to play through. Extra DLC maybe? I don't even seem to know why they are in the map in the first place.

Mystery Castle is a refreshing take on the puzzle game genre, having transitioned from Steam Greenlight to full release this month. At its core, it has all the features that one can find in any of the early videogame classics,– straightforward objectives; charming graphics; easy-to-follow story; and gameplay that is easy to pick up and play but enjoyably challenging to master. However, it’s easy to simply say these and leave it at that,– but what good would that be in a review? Let’s break these down then, one by one and see just what it is that makes Mystery Castle such a pleasure to play.

Like all of the classic heroes, Monty,– wizard-in-training and fancy hat owner extraordinaire,– just so happens to bump into people in need. In this case, it’s the dwarf Stumpi, who informs him that the fortress of the dwarves has been conquered and its people enslaved! And just like that, Monty is on his way. It’s refreshing to see a hero who is played mostly straight in this era of edgy anti-heroes and villainous protagonists. Mario, Link, Simon Belmont… none of them ever never needed to ask why they had to save their princesses or protect the realm,– Monty continues this time-honoured tradition. Monty is a hero, and in guiding Monty through mazes, traps and puzzles, the player becomes a hero as well.

So you have objective and story rolled into an easily understood whole,– no need for melodramatic backstories or metaphysical angst. After a simple tutorial stage, you are thrown straight into the gameplay. However, this is slightly misleading. I say tutorial stage,– but playing Mystery Castle very quickly makes you realize that the learning curve doesn’t just stop after the first few levels,– it just goes up and up and up. Every level is designed to challenge, whether it’s through highly devious map design or new mechanics, and a player will be constantly teased by the inventiveness and occasional deceptiveness of the solutions. With five worlds to explore and over thirty levels each,– and it looks like there’s even room for future expansions to add new worlds,– Mystery Castle is a game that promises hours of entertainment.

The controls are simple, making it as easy to pick up as it is to take a break from. Unlike many games today,– I’m looking at you, Attila: Total War,– Mystery Castle doesn’t make every level massive project. It offers instead highly engaging puzzles in bite-sized chunks,– perfect for both the casual everyman gamer or those who wish for a genuine intellectual challenge. With the number of games available today and the limited time most people have in the day to play them, it is very refreshing to see a game that doesn’t try to hog time, but instead offers short but highly enjoyable bursts of entertainment.

The graphics, as I’ve said, are charming. Colourful and vibrant, but very easy on the eyes, the graphics have an appeal that echoes that of the golden age of video gaming. Playing the game for a solid amount of time causes no discomfiture on the eyes, and the cartoonish quality of the art does go some way to making you feel like you’ve stepped into a fairy-tale world of heroes, monsters and, of course, fancy hats.

Mystery Castle is, in my opinion, certainly value for money. It has kept things simple but addictive. It has exactly the same qualities that made some of the classics classic. It has a charming protagonist, a world to explore, and a story that is straight out of a fairy-tale. To me, this is a recipe for a highly satisfying game. Monty may have never met Mario, but ye gods, with his moustache and that fancy hat? I rather think they should be walking side by side.

Still early in the game, but this caught my eye as being reminiscent to classic games like Adventures of Lolo/Eggerland Mystery

So far I have not been dissapointed! The game definitely has charm for an indie puzzle game, and the difficulty is starting to ramp up a bit - Looking forward to spend more hours on it!