All is not Aggelos

Aggelos is a 2D sidescrolling retro platform that is heavily inspired by Wonderboy which is probably one of my favourite platforming games of my early childhood. This game just oozes with retro-ness so if you crave for a Mega Drive (Genesis) style game then Aggelos is your answer.

The story is quite simple and you find yourself saving the world from evil after rescuing a princess early on; while the story is not overabundant there is a lot of in-between lore points which forward the story as you find yourself progressing through the game.

There is an element of progress with your character as you will be gaining experience throughout and while the game is not very difficult early on it ramps up quite quickly later on. It is unclear to me as to what it actually does when you level up although I found my health regenerated that is about all; a nice thing if in a dire situation if nothing else. Gaining extra health comes in the form of health containers. Collecting money is another trait well known to the Wonderboy series and allows you to buy potions and new armour from shops, there is no grinding needed and there is never any need to worry when you die either as money will not be lost although you will lose experience and the death count will show you that you either really suck at the game or are really good so make your choice. Money ramps up later on in the game so that awesome new sword won’t take you too long to afford and when enemies satisfyingly explode into piles of gold then I think a little grinding here and there never hurt anyone.

Aggelos also wants you to explore and why would you not want to? The game has you move left and right in a platforming fashion but with that Metroid style of navigation in place. The game features many secrets and not just to progress but to unlock extra cool abilities that will help you in the game; there is backtracking of course and not all secrets are mandatory but are if you plan on getting a hundred percent completion which will take more than the average four hour playtime that Aggelos will take you. There is a challenge which will use every ounce of your abilities that you have learned thus far to overcome and very satisfying one to say the least that when completed will earn you a powerful reward. Some of the progression secrets could be more clear but at least it doesn’t have you throwing bubbles at every pixel on-screen to make a door magically appear. Aggelos even has an overworld map which serves as a hub select screen better known to modern gamers as fast travel.

Enemies and bosses early on have easy to figure out navigational attack patterns which require little more than some patience; enemies later on attack in swarms and are a more fast-paced and require a bit more dexterity and more health to overcome.

The game is always throwing out fresh enemies and new areas that are amazing to look at; every boss looks great and fights are so much fun especially when you unlock new abilities to use against them. The music is good and comparable to tracks from another favourite game of mine which is Phantasy Star although that isn’t to say that some tracks are over-used.

The game has a beautiful retro look and feel and everything feels so smooth when playing on a controller which I highly recommend. Aggelos retro graphics to me are reminiscent of just about every game I played as a child from Alex Kidd to Land of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse and even if you haven’t played those games you will surely be reminded of something else equally as colourful.

A Steam Review code was provided by PQube