{"id":93146,"date":"2019-05-07T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/aggelos"},"modified":"2019-05-07T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T17:00:00","slug":"review-aggelos-a-fast-paced-pixel-platforming-adventure-that-doesnt-waste-your-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/05\/07\/review-aggelos-a-fast-paced-pixel-platforming-adventure-that-doesnt-waste-your-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Aggelos &#8211; A Fast-Paced Pixel Platforming Adventure That Doesn&#8217;t Waste Your Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/c316c0ac62166\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/c316c0ac62166\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div id>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Aggelos Review - Screenshot 1 of 5\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96302\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96302\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Aggelos Review - Screenshot 1 of 5\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>The retro 2D side-scrolling action genre isn\u2019t one that\u2019s lacking in excellent titles to recommend on Switch these days. Indeed, fans of the old 8 and 16-bit era are practically drowning in a sea of quality titles to choose from, with heavy hitters such as <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/shovel_knight_treasure_trove\">Shovel Knight<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/hollow_knight\">Hollow Knight<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/dead_cells\">Dead Cells<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/celeste\">Celeste<\/a><\/strong> to name a few that pop immediately into our heads.<\/p>\n<p>This is a tough crowd to stand out in, for sure, and one that gamers may by now be slightly fatigued with. Well, don\u2019t go hanging up your pixelated adventure hat just yet because <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/aggelos\">Aggelos<\/a><\/strong> has finally arrived on Nintendo\u2019s console, some eleven months after its well-received PC debut, and it\u2019s got more than enough about it to eek out a place of its own amongst some of the big boys in its class.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Aggelos Review - Screenshot 2 of 5\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96301\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96301\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Aggelos Review - Screenshot 2 of 5\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>At first glance, it must be said, you\u2019d almost be forgiven for taking a pass on Aggelos as a somewhat run-of-the-mill updating of the classic <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/mastersystem\/wonder_boy\">Wonder Boy<\/a><\/strong> format. There are so many similar looking, and sounding, games out there right now that its colourful and chunky &#8211; but hardly inspired or original &#8211; pixel looks partnered with a cut-and-paste story don\u2019t give the best first impression. However, give it just the slightest of chances and you\u2019ll find Agellos\u2019 disparate parts quickly come together to form one of the most well-crafted and brilliantly paced tribute acts to adventures of old.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s start off with that story, such as it is. You assume the role of the silent and stoic hero, a young lad in search of adventure, which he finds promptly in the form of Princess Lys, daughter of King Gentel, ruler of the land of Lumen. Lys sends you off to speak with her father who hurriedly explains that bad boy Valion is trying to fuse together elements of the worlds of dark and light in order that he might tear a hole between realms, wreak all sorts of havoc and generally make an absolute mess. Obviously, he needs stopping, and it\u2019s your job, oh chunky little hero, to secure the four elements of the world of light, combat Valion\u2019s advances and restore peace and tranquillity.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Aggelos Review - Screenshot 3 of 5\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96304\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96304\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Aggelos Review - Screenshot 3 of 5\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Once your adventure is under way, it doesn\u2019t take long before Aggelos\u2019 brand of satisfying combat and exploration &#8211; that classic Metroidvania gameplay loop of explore, fight, upgrade and explore some more &#8211; gets its nails into you. Aggelos deftly fuses the chunky combat, light puzzling and platforming we\u2019ve come to expect from the best side-scrolling adventure games with some extremely well-designed dungeon-crawling which lifts it well above the monotonous rhythms of much of its ilk. While doing so, it cleverly doles out a steady stream of exciting new abilities and elemental skills with which to traverse its picturesque, varied world and dispatch its beautifully designed gallery of foes.<\/p>\n<p>A gameplay flow is quickly established; four temples to visit in order to unlock all four elements needed to thwart the villain, each temple providing the player with a power which doubles as both weapon and new means of traversal. The first power you\u2019ll come across in the game\u2019s opening Earth Temple, for example, is an earth ring which grants you a ranged energy attack that not only kills enemies but turns them into platforms to reach new areas. Later you\u2019ll unlock the ability to travel upwards during underwater segments in a bubble shield which doubles as a defensive upgrade whilst submerged. It takes a matter of minutes to gain these first powers and it\u2019s in this unconvoluted, fast-paced approach to mixing up proceedings that Aggelos\u2019 main strength lies; it isn\u2019t interested in wasting your time.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Aggelos Review - Screenshot 4 of 5\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96303\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96303\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Aggelos Review - Screenshot 4 of 5\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>This isn\u2019t a particularly long game, around ten hours for an almost 100% playthrough on normal difficulty. It gets straight to the good stuff and almost instantly you\u2019re chopping snakes, bats and pink goo to ribbons and turning forest wisps into platforms to aid your <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nes\/metroid\">Metroid<\/a><\/strong>-esque traversal of a world full of clever little secrets, superbly designed dungeons and boss battles.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no Shovel Knight style in-jokes here, no bloat, no clever wink-wink subversion of genre tropes, it\u2019s a straightforward and perfectly formed blast through exactly the type of gameplay elements we all know and expect from the 16-bit era replete with a handful of modern conveniences such as generous checkpointing and even a handy little tip-giving NPC who lives in the castle just in case you get stuck.<\/p>\n<p>Aggelos\u2019 light-hearted approach even extends to player death; there\u2019s no great punishment for failure, you\u2019ll keep your progress and possessions while losing a little XP. Yes, there are light RPG elements here, however levelling up is quick and easy, grind is minimal to non-existent and the coin you\u2019ll need to upgrade your way through its delightful assortment of weapons and armour is plentiful. It\u2019s liberating, almost slightly disarming, to find a retro action game so willing to push you forward, not throwing roadblocks in your way or being difficult for the sake of being on trend.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Aggelos Review - Screenshot 5 of 5\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96305\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96305\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Aggelos Review - Screenshot 5 of 5\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>There are some small annoyances, however. The world map is basic to the point of being useless, something that\u2019s more annoying early before you\u2019ve memorised your way around the world\u2019s various areas and unlocked all the abilities which make moving from area to area a breeze. There\u2019re also some slight issues with difficulty levels throughout your adventure; the first half is almost a little too easy whilst the latter two dungeons have a few annoying spikes which will stop you in your tracks, causing you to repeat runs on bosses to the point of irritation here and there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"conclusion\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>Overall, this is a great little retro adventure that doesn\u2019t outstay its welcome. It plays like a top tier title from back in the day, presents you with the sort of gameplay you want and expect from this type of game and serves it all up at a pace with such consistent quality that it\u2019s hard not to be won over, no matter how fatigued you may be by the idea of <em>another<\/em> blast of old school pixel action.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The retro 2D side-scrolling action genre isn\u2019t one that\u2019s lacking in excellent titles to recommend on Switch these days. Indeed, fans of the old 8 and 16-bit era are practically drowning in a sea of quality titles to choose from, with heavy hitters such as Shovel Knight, Hollow Knight, Dead Cells and Celeste to name [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}