Return to Dark Castle

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Any other Dark Castle fans here?

I have been lusting after Return to Dark Castle only for two years or so since I heard of it, even though it was announced in 1999. Anyway, it finally came out, and I got it for my birthday. Beat it on Beginner over Christmas, and I'm now working my way through Advanced.

I decided on this playthrough to not do ANY of the Dark Castle or Beyond Dark Castle levels, but just do the Return to Dark Castle levels. It sure has been hard! It took me days to get the fireball, and then even longer to get the shield. Once I got those, though, the other areas have been going a lot more easily—it was basically impossible to get into the Witch cave without the shield so I couldn't get the stoneball, but once I had the shield I could get past those pesky barrels!!!

Basically, I'm entirely happy with this game. The nostalgia factor is huge and the new levels and the hidden levels are great. The only thing that could make this better is if the promised level editor finally came out.

[Shaggy]

How do you access the game? Never heard of it.

[Dount Cooku]

Dark Castle!  Now that brings back some memories.  I remember playing that for hours on end at my local computer store (they were nice enough to not kick me out).  A buddy in college had Beyond Dark Castle, but I always crashed and burned with that stupid helicopter.  I didn't know they were doing a remake.  Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Shaggy, you can buy it from the Super Happy Fun Fun website, if you have a Mac. It only runs on Mac OS X, though they've announced that there will be a PC version made. However, the Mac version took so many years to finish that I don't know if the PC version will ever come out.

I don't know that anyone who didn't grow up on the old games would enjoy this game very much. It's the kind of platformer game where you spend a lot of time dying and repeating things over and over, especially on the Advanced difficulty setting. That's probably frustrating to many people. To me, the game has been envigorating and relaxing.

[Shaggy]

Oh, OK. Maybe I won't try it, then. Thanks, though.

[Dount Cooku]

I don't know that anyone who didn't grow up on the old games would enjoy this game very much. It's the kind of platformer game where you spend a lot of time dying and repeating things over and over, especially on the Advanced difficulty setting.

On my more frustrating days with that game, I would deliberately take the wrong key in the dungeon.  SPLAT!  Heh heh, good times.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

It's very satisfying to be able to shoot the whip henchman with a crossbow, let me tell you. After all these years, revenge!

[Dount Cooku]

It's very satisfying to be able to shoot the whip henchman with a crossbow, let me tell you. After all these years, revenge!

That would be satifsying.  The morningstar in the original just didn't cut it.  I hit him, he goes down, a minute later, he's back up again.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Well, the flail is useful other places too. You can get those guys who throw barrels with it in one shot instead of a bunch of hits with the shovel.

[ryos]

I'm not hardcore enough for this game anymore. When I was a little kid I used to play it all the time. I remember thinking it was really hard, but I'd keep at it. I figured that now that I'm grown I should be able to do better, right? Huh, WRONG. I suck worse than ever. :p

[Peter Ahlstrom]

It took me a few hours to adjust to the speed/reaction time of advanced difficulty, but I picked up all my old finger habits for beginner difficulty very quickly.