Maldita Castilla

Derek, I disagree you opinion. I haven’t been never a fan of G&G (yes, I have played all the games), and while Maldita Castilla is “more or less” the same, I prefer some of the details of Maldita Castilla, like the NO respawning of enemies, or stages like the caves one.

A really good game :)

I also Tend to disagree with you, Derek. This game offers charming music and visuals, a nice variety of enemies, and almost each stage and boss is carefully build around some unique theme. It feels very polished and throws in thoughtful secrets and achievements – asking you to play the game again. Even the difficulty is done the right way. This is one of the best free-to-play pure action jump’n runs i have played so far and holds itself quite well, compared to the original series. And i’m a big fan of the original series. Who cares if something is “original”(there aren’t many high-quality G&G-clones anyway)as long it is great to play. There is one thing, which could have been done easily more interesting, though: The weapon system.

I don’t think you said anything in disagreement with my post, unless you actually meant that the game is as good as Ghouls n’ Ghosts.

MC is a good game, especially for a two-man effort. But with all of its similarities to GnG it begs for comparison and just doesn’t reach those heights, imo. Watch a longplay of Ghouls n’ Ghosts and you’ll see the difference immediately:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIL8Yy36MnU

The levels are much more dynamic and varied. And if you’ve played them, you’ll know that they’re more fun, as well.

You have a point here. But regarding the bosses, MC is superior. I never liked how most bosses in Ghouls&Ghosts and Super Ghouls&Ghosts are merely pushovers. To me this was a waste of potential, as the bosses were acutally quite cool in their ideas and appearances.

And yes: I misinterpreted your post(while i still think, your review appears somewhat too negative, given the overall quality of MC), as my goal wasn’t to say MC is better as a G&G game other than the very first one.

Derek, in my humble opinion, this game is absolutely brilliant by its own. It has new characters, music, enemies, levels and gameplay. Yes, I agree with you: it has the same platform system and movements like Makaimura (GnG) series, but this is not enough to say that “the game is a high polished fan game” at all. You can find games like ‘Double Dragon extreme’ or ‘Streets of Rage remake’ with the same characters, sprites, and storyline like the original ones. They rip off all stuff from the source. MC is original, hard and very enjoyable. Just like Hydorah. They have their own universe and ambience. They are NEW games with oldschool style. And thanks God if more like these are coming in the future.

Let me offer my own review….

I am a BIG fan of Locomalito, one of the best indie groups out there. So I was thrilled to find this one was finally out (I played it to the end, but got bad ending so far). It was almost up to the expectations. I found the blend of artistic skills, great inspiration, and love+dedication one can expect from the great Spanish group (or, in practice, guy). That blend never fails to deliver really great games, small bright pieces of art making you happy you have a PC, and being great fun to play.

…but…

There’s a little downside. Not the one Derek suggest: au contrair, Castilla Matilda is packed with charm, variety (NPCs, secrets, interesting bosses and all), and lots of good ideas. IMO the department where it falls (just a bit) short is in the *gameplay*.

First, the character you control feels a bit wooden. It might be the low speed, the slow reaction times, the very limited number of bullets, which are also very slow, the (almost totally) uncontrollable jump, or the fact that you are unable to fly past a rope without grappling into it… There are all deliberate design choices, and they do have their motivations: one is faithfulness to the genre, no doubt (but even the original GnG was a little smoother and controllable). Anther one, is that it makes you feel like you are encumbered by a big, heavy armor, which is what the hero is. And sure, the game is (hard but) well balanced and only ever throws challenges at you which can be faced with your clumsy, slow, heavy and control-challenged hero. However, it might have been pushed too far. At the end of the day it is not too fun to play with such a character. I think it is a lot more compelling to control characters which are smoother, faster, nimbler, immediately responsive, and with higher firerates. At the end of the day, Castilla doesn’t make you want to play another time after a game (unlike, say, the masterpiece of Locomalito: Hydorah).

Second, savegames. Locomalito invented a great, unprecedented, genial mechanisms of saved-games, which avoids the common downsides of saved-games… then used it only once (in Hydorah). That sounds a bit like a waste to me. Especially considering that Matilda Castilla, which doesn’t use any savegame at all, seems in need of one badly. Sure, again: faithfulness to the GnG spirit, and all. But, again, the price might have been too high. You need to have a couple of hours of free time (!) if you want to play this game, otherwise it is not wise to even start. A pity.

——

A final note from the artistic point of view: this game features really great, top-notch pixel art, which shines even more with the nice pixel renderings (not as nice as, say, the marvellous “you have to win the game”, but nice). The game is worth playing for that alone. However, I wish it had smoother animations with more sprites in them. Walk cycles are like just three frames, most animations just two (even the original GnG had more)- I envision how good it would have been doubling that figure . But I understand it is really a great achievement as it is.

Wow, I never played that version of G&G but damn that looks awesome…

I really enjoyed this game and appreciate the enemies staying true to their textbook form when it comes to the depictions in mythology. So I was wondering why you wrote that it was one dimensional and how it lacked charm. I have played the ghouls and ghosts you linked to and I also really enjoyed it as well but it just has a different theme, one darker in mood than the other.

Well, I think there is a range… and imo Maldita Castilla is closer to a fan game than an original game. Of course, all games borrow a little something from other games, but to say that this is just an “old-school” style is a little irresponsible – had another Japanese company released MC in the arcades around the time of GnG it would definitely raise eyebrows for its similarities.

Demon Front/Metal Slug is maybe a good analogy:

http://nfggames.com/games/demonfront/

Demon Front doesn’t actually rip a damn thing from Metal Slug and even adds some new stuff like little pets that follow you around… but it still can’t escape the shadow of Metal Slug. It just “feels” like Metal Slug all the way around. But not quite as good.

Anyway, I’m a fan of Locomalito and would also like to see more oldschool arcade-style games made. I’d just prefer that they were more original. Because why not? Locomalito’s obviously got the skill and knowledge to make something that would truly stand out in an 80’s/90’s arcade.

Ghouls n’ Ghosts’s levels are shorter but are much more dense and dynamic in terms of enemies, obstacles, and background elements. Compare the beginnings of both games, for example… in the first part of GnG you encounter mass graves, crucifixes, trees filled with vultures, plants that spit skulls, guillotines (including a GIANT one), a rickety bridge that falls out from underneath you, a wind-swept area with whirling sickle creatures, chests with not only weapons but also magic armors and magicians, vomiting pigmen, etc., all within the space that MC introduces a handful of very basic enemies and not much more!

And what I mean by dynamism is that GnG often throws a lot of stuff at you at the same time, forcing you to make a lot of interesting decisions about how to deal with them. Whereas in MC you’re usually facing (more simply-patterned) enemies and obstacles separately (in groups of two at most) and there’s a lot more dead space in between these encounters.

I think you’re judging this waaaay too much in comparison with the G&G series, and you’re obviously doing it as a G&G hardcore vet at that. The thing is that G&G may be super-satisfying for the few people skilled enough to complete even the first level, let alone the whole game, but for the rest of us G&G are niche games. Too hard and frustrating to bother with. Locomalito has taken the formula and made it appealing in 2012 when gamers are a *lot* less forgiving. That in itself deserves cred in my opinion.

And the colorful fantasy world Capcom created looks more garish than stylish to my eyes, especially in the later levels. But tastes differ…

I totally agree. I too can see the motivations behind the “stiffness”, and I also tried reporting them in my “review” above (I’m probably just not very clear in my writing).

It is just that it has (maybe) been pushed just a tad too far, and that, I suspect, makes MC a little less fun and addictive that it could have otherwise been.

I still love the game.

So, did anybody found…

[SPOILER SPOILER STOP READING NOW]

…the 5 tear gems yet? I’m stuck at 4 and I don’t want to have yet another sterile go and get the same ending again. Non-obvious secrets I found, so far: (a) the breakable wall at stage I, the one with the coat-of-arms, concealing the 1st tear-gem. (b) the long tour in the castle to get the optional key in the bedroom, and access the locked cellar room at the bottom with another tear-gem in it. (c) a secret book found firing upward at the burning library level, the “best book ever”, apparently doing nothing (not even pts). (d) the tear-gem in the dark cave, found by the detour going up the lane and then left over the giant skeleton and all the way to the chest (f) the small invisible jumping creatures in the dark cave, revealed by breaking the wall to the far right, collecting the orb behind it, and walking almost all the way back; apparently they don’t do anything either (not even pts). Another tear gem is in clear sight in the windmill level, and can’t be missed. This makes four of them. Where’s the fifth?

If you know, I would appreciate to be told a suggestion rather than the solution straight.

Read the user’s manual. Take a deep look into the illustrations.

Thank you a lot Paul! Both for helping, and for doing so without spoiling the fun! I’m not sure I got it, but I know what to try next!

I know where the tear is and I still don’t understand Paul’s hint.

Here’s another one: look closely at the breakable wall where you found the first tear. That should give you a clue about how to find the last one.

Wow, Derek got many disagreement. I think Maldita Castilla is very atmospherics and very charming. I like it a lot. When I see this post, I kinda surprised because of Derek’s opinion is a bit negative. But everybody has a opinion for a reason. I never play Ghouls n’ Ghosts before. I’ll give Ghouls n’ Ghosts a try and may be I’ll understand Derek’s point of view.

Thanks,

I didn’t solve it yet but now I suspect that the hint by Paul was probably referred to the pose of the monk in the the illustration featuring the beheading carnage, in the big illustration. (don’t tell me if I’m right)

Oh god the PTSD. Thanks for re-starting the recurring nightmares, Derek.

I played this game on the train, only a couple levels in. It’s pretty damn good, probably one of the best games posted on here in a while, IMO, but I’m a bit biased because I’m a sucker for polished retro games that get it right. I’m looking forward to beating this!

In my opinion Ghouls is the best of the series.

Another more strong hint: all crosses are important in the game.

And… you feel the movement is stiff? Go play, any 3D game where movement or jumping are ugly as shit.

Great game, beautiful, atmospheric buuut… the vertical stages are a really pain that unbalances playability heavily and turns the pleasant general retro-arcade-hardcore-kill-kill-and-die experience in a frustating-Megaman-fall-again-can’t-shoot-the-fecking-faces-an-avoid-enemies game that can exasperate most of people and turn the pretty hard game into a nightmare..

The ending… buy the locomalito manual! ;) I felt a little disappointed the first time by the “bad ending”, but it was far more painful on the G&G arcade. Anyway, this is clearly the GOTY of 2011!

PD- Nobody felt like playing a Castlevania? I was trying to hit candles most of time :P

Yeah, my favorite is probably still Symphony, and everyone knows exactly what that copied from. Still, it’s fine to have inspiration from other ideas as long as you have at least some of your own. I think Locomalito does that pretty well.