Life On The Grid

Available on: Switch eShop (reviewed), PlayStation 4 PSN Store, XBox One Microsoft Store, Steam.  £13.49 at time of review.

Curse of the Moon 2 provides a fantastic modern take on a classic genre of fast sharp action with modern quality of life improvements.  Konami seems to have given up on MetroidVania and seemingly Castlevania entirely since 2014’s unfortunate Lords of Shadow 2.  So a couple of years ago, the kickstarted Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was released after a long and arduous development cycle. This game was planned to be a spiritual successor to the modern MetroidVania structured Castlevania games.  But shortly before this main title was released, a smaller spin-off title that was set as a stretch goal was released. This was a retro-inspired game with an 8 bit aesthetic designed to be a love letter to the older VintageVania Castlevania games like Dracula’s Curse. After playing both I found that I greatly preferred the smaller simpler retro throwback game and greatly hoped a sequel would come someday. Two years later my wishes were answered.

In terms of presentation, Curse of the Moon 2 at first looks very similar to its predecessor. The main character sprite is re-used as well as many returning enemies and similar areas. But as you progress through the eight main levels, you start to see more diverse environments and enemies as well as enormous jaw-dropping and unique bosses. Like a lot of modern retro-inspired games, Curse of the Moon 2 is crafted to look like NES games from the 80s but goes far beyond what those consoles from that era could do. It exhibits multiple layers of parallax scrolling, sprites that almost fill the entire screen as well as a much larger colour palette and increased number of sprites on screen. This gives the player the best of both worlds: a look reminiscent of the vintage 8-bit games but using modern hardware to overcome the technical shackles that held them back so much. And like so many classic games of yesteryear, the chip-tune soundtrack is ridiculously catchy and the more you play it, the more you will find the songs popping back into your head long after you stop playing.

The structure of the gameplay is also quite similar to the first Curse of the moon. You take your character from left to right through the 8 stages killing anything that gets in your way with each one ending in an epic boss fight. After defeating each of the first three bosses, a supporting character will be released and you are given the choice to let them join you, kill them to steal their power or ignore them altogether. Various permutations of these actions will give different endings. You must decide if you want to have extra characters come with you as playable allies or if you want to strengthen your main character’s abilities. The main character, Zengetsu is most similar to the Belmonts of old from classic Castlevania games being slow and deliberate but quite powerful. The other characters consist of Dominique, Robert (Bobby) and Hachi. These provide you with agility, remote attacks and pure brute strength respectively. Although it’s not long taking roughly two hours to get through the first run, there is a great deal of replayability to be had here for those who want it.  Subsequent playthroughs and certain endings will unlock extra levels, bosses, modes and even your thee original allies from the first Curse of the Moon.

As you can probably tell by now I have very little bad to say about Curse of the Moon 2. The only minor complaint I can level at it is that some levels have their checkpoints a bit too widely spaced. But even the fact that this game has checkpoints makes it a lot more accessible than the older Castlevania games which are infamous for their brutal difficulty. It even has a difficulty selection where you can have it on the level of those older games or a more casual mode where damage is reduced and character knockback from hits removed. It even has a two-player co-op mode where if one of you dies, the other can carry on and the dead player can revive using one of the remaining characters.  In an industry saturated with battle royales, games-as-services and millions of bland open-world games it’s refreshing and reassuring to know classic genres like this still have demand enough to keep getting made.  Its simple but sharp and snappy gameplay doesn’t leave a lot of room for error but is extremely satisfying when you string together a successful chain of moves and precise jumps.

If you were a fan of Castlevania back in the day or have enjoyed modern games like Shovel Knight or Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom you will find something to enjoy in Curse of the Moon 2 and its predecessor too. Even Castlevania newcomers will find its charms hard to resist.  Do yourself a favour and give it a go.

Final Score: 5/5