When it comes to multiplayer, the magic number is four. The Nintendo 64 had four players, Left 4 Dead has four players, even I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1 has four players. It's just where it's at. Clearly the folks at Ancient got the message, since four-player action is where their latest title shines. Protect Me Knight! is a retro-inspired title that takes concepts from well-worn genres and forges them into something new and unique. This is Ancient's first Indie title. The company is known for it's "Beyond Oasis" games that appeared on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and the Sega Saturn, as well as composing the soundtrack for many popular titles.
Protect that Princess!
The plot of the game is simple. You play as one of four different heroes and protect a princess from an ever-increasing onslaught of Goblins, Ghosts and other monsters. The gameplay is a combination of an 80's Action-JRPG, the arcade classic Gauntlet and the now-overused Tower Defense genre. The end result is something that feels both fresh and familiar.
The game takes the retro-vibe seriously. In order to start the game, you have to blow the dust out of the cartridge (Similar to the DSiWare title, Dark Void Zero), sometimes several times. The visuals are well-done and many of the 8-bit designs, especially on the boss monsters are fantastic. The audio is the same way, the music is well-composed, something that's expected of Ancient.. On most stages, it starts off calm, but quickly changes into a frantic, panicked tune as a horde of enemies or a boss approaches, the music fits the situation perfectly.
As previously mentioned, the gameplay combines three distinct elements: The core combat mechanic and the the level-up system is similar to those found in an Action-RPG. the ability to choose between four distinct character classes (Amazon, Mage, Knight and Ninja) is reminiscent of the original Gauntlet games. The ability to construct and upgrade structures, as well as the waves of enemies is similar to the more modern Tower Defense-style of gameplay. The differences between the playable characters are minimal at first, but as you continue to level up various stats, new abilities and traits are unlocked for each hero, such as increased speed for the Ninja or enhanced range for the Mage.
Many of the monsters are really well designed. Like this huge Dragon.
Overall, the game is well-designed and fun as Hell. The experience is only a couple hours long, but multiple difficulty settings as well as the multiplayer aspect will give the game lots of replayability. You can purchase the title on the Xbox Live Arcade Indie Service for 240 Microsoft Points. ($3) It's unique titles like Protect Me Knight! That make the Indie Games worth going on. We should have more fun, little games like this.
- Kyle K.
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