Castle Clamber

Awesomely fun retro arcade game! It has tons of levels with loads of variety, and the controls are super tight which makes it lots of fun to play. The art style is fantastic, you can tell a lot of effort has gone into making it pixel perfect. Everything is really well polished. I totally recommend picking this up.

I was surprised by this game, a lot. How can someone make a failed clone of an old ZX-Spectrum project? Of something so encient, that it is older than most of you. 1986 — release year of Bubble Bobble. A whole 32 years later Castle Clamer appears to show us some nostalgia and classic gameplay. But the problem is — it does not! [b]Controls[/b] This is the first big problem. When you control your character it can sometimes (randomly) keeps moving in previously chosen direction even if you want it to stop. That happens very often and leads to 100% death. If you die 3 times its game over and you have to start from the beggining. Yes, you have few classic 'continues', but they wount help much either. Unit collision with walls and bubbles (your weapon) is wrong. For example, bubbles look like circles, but in reality they are squares, so if you jump on one it will be hard to find where its texture ends, which leads to death as well. Sometimes character glitches trough 1-2 wall blocks upwards by teleporting and no, thats not how it supposed to be. [b]Visuals[/b] I do understand why 2 dinosaurs eating sweet cakes, icecreams and all other types of goodies in Bubble Bobble. But what about Castle Clamber? Why two knights are eating these? Why do they shoot bubbles from them of a size of whole man? I also dont get why a scary ghost who chases and punishes you for playing level too long was changed for some weird Knight Armor which falls from the top to the bottom. The grapchics is very bad, to be honest, even for indie game. Looks cheap and oversimplyfied. [b]Design[/b] Most of Bubble Bobble features were cut out. Yep, this game cant even follow up easy to implement formula of 32 years old ancestor. First of all, i haven't found any difference between collectible items — they all worth 350 points. There is no chain bonuses, no big bonuses for fast level clear, no bonuses for double and triple kills. There is no special letters flying around which give you life and lead to extra levels. There is also no umbrella which could allow you to pass few levels ahead in an instant. The only thing we have are glitchy boxes, which sometimes blow up for no reason and kill monsters on collision even if monster just comes close to the box and touches it. [b]Price[/b] So, Trederia studio is asking money for a failed video game adaptation which cuts most classic mechanics and gives nothing in return. You wount find any modern features here and to change options you have to use weird consol by pressing 'F1'. Also the ammount of available levels is just 90 compared to 100 levels of predecessor (some other games of series had 200+ levels). Dont be surprised, cus most of them were simply copy-pasted. Now you probably wonder, why am i event whining about a $4 price (for me its even $2). I tell you why — because you can download and play classic game FOR FREE, here: https://www.alawar.ru/game/bubble-bobble-nostalgie. This stuation is so stupid, i cant even describe what i feel without using inappropriate language. Dissapointed.

Castle Clambers is an addictive little high-score platform game that could come straight from the arcade halls. And just like games in an arcade hall, it makes you keep playing. With the low price and simple game mechanics I did not expect this game would be fantastic, so it surprised me in a good way. It may not keep you playing for days or hours straight on end, but (at least for me) it makes me come back to play a few games every now and then. Especially with the developer still giving his/her project attention, which is much more than I expected. Both the game and dev deserve a bigger player base. The controls and 'hitboxes' improved a lot since I bought the game. And especially after you get a little familiar with the game and levels this is less and less a problem (if it was one to begin with.) The game is pretty forgiving and levels are not crazy difficult either, so it is not an issue to me. What is even better; in recent months several improvements and even some new features were added to the game. And with Steam's recent new feature 'Remote Play Together' the (enjoyment) value of this game has increased even more! Tops: + Catches the retro arcade atmosphere perfectly + Low price + Addictive + Developer still updates the game and replies to feedback + Fast paced + Levels are not too difficult (since it is a highscore oriented game, making levels too difficult would be questionable.) + Perfect for (couch) Co-Op + Music Neutral: - Only (local) couch Co-op, No Online Multiplayer (However, with Steam Remote Play, this should be no problem.) - Not much to do after you finish all levels/achievements, except for beating highscores. But that is one of the core goals in these game genres. - Controls can be a little confusing when first playing (the tutorial in the menu prevents this though.) Downsides (nitpicking): - There are some (very) rare glitches that can make you get pushed inside the top wall or get stuck in a level after you complete it (happened only once.) - In some rare cases you die while it looks like not hitting an enemy/deadly thing. Note: The cause for this last point might be too technical for me, but I assume bc of the retro pixel style and low resolution this is not totally avoidable. Also, this problem was worse when I bought this game, and the situation has improved significantly after updates. With the current difficulty of levels, it should not be a (big) issue.

A fun old school platformer which works great on Linux and the Deck with Proton 8. Cheap and cheerful and a great way to pass some time.

Cool retro game that took me back to gaming on old consoles as a kid. easy instructions which is ideal for those new to PC gaming.

funny

Multiplayer does not work over the internet for me. The game seems to struggle with clipping and collision detection. It looks fun, and I enjoy the premise just like I did when it was used in bubble bobble. Unfortunately it's of no use to me when I can't play it with my friends...