I am not sure if the developers of Wind-up Knight are fans of an old Sega Saturn platformer called Clockwork Knight, if that's the case they sure did a fine job in this homage as that was actually the first name that came to my mind when I booted up the game.
The charming graphics with expansive and detailed backgrounds, the super cute character models with very amusing and competent animations, the fact that it portraits a Knight that needs to be winded up as main protagonist, all of these somewhat unique features contributed in some way or another to my quick mental association to the retro title.
Still, and despite of being reminiscent of one of my personal favorites for Sega's 32bit console, Wind-up Knight still had to prove itself where it most mattered, the gameplay.
Thankfully it did not disappoint one bit, blending several gameplay mechanics into just one title gave new life to this much in vogue and somewhat tired style of game, the running platformer. While most other running platformers focus almost exclusively in just one action or mechanic, Wind-up Knight makes us keep track of 4, jumping, rolling, shielding and slashing will have to be used in accordance to each particular situation. It may sound daunting at first, but the game does a nice job of slowly introducing each element separately, so the player may get used to them little by little, it is definitely one of those titles where learning to play is very easy, mastering it on the hand is extremely challenging.
Having four mechanics to work with gives the developers a lot more room to experiment in terms of level design, it is particularly noticeable since most stages feel very different from one another, always presenting new challenges and requiring a nice level of skill and practice to go through them unharmed.
Several collectibles will be scattered throughout the various places that you will visit in your journey, some of them hidden, others in hard to reach places, most of them will make you deviate from the main path at the risk of running out of "juice", it's a nice risk/reward system that will surely keep you engaged when going for the secret cards.
Getting all the collectibles and gold coins will grant you more money at the end of each level, which you can later use to upgrade your hero visually and statistically.
The biggest flaw in this title from developer Robot Invader is probably the sound, in a game with so much personality the bland and repetitive sound effects clearly feel out of place, still it is far from being something that actually hurts the game too much, we're talking about a mobile game after all, most of the time you will probably play it in places where you can't even hear the sounds all that well.
Having four mechanics to work with gives the developers a lot more room to experiment in terms of level design, it is particularly noticeable since most stages feel very different from one another, always presenting new challenges and requiring a nice level of skill and practice to go through them unharmed.
Several collectibles will be scattered throughout the various places that you will visit in your journey, some of them hidden, others in hard to reach places, most of them will make you deviate from the main path at the risk of running out of "juice", it's a nice risk/reward system that will surely keep you engaged when going for the secret cards.
Getting all the collectibles and gold coins will grant you more money at the end of each level, which you can later use to upgrade your hero visually and statistically.
The biggest flaw in this title from developer Robot Invader is probably the sound, in a game with so much personality the bland and repetitive sound effects clearly feel out of place, still it is far from being something that actually hurts the game too much, we're talking about a mobile game after all, most of the time you will probably play it in places where you can't even hear the sounds all that well.
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