Video Game Review - Castle Kong

Rob Lake reviews Castle Kong on Nintendo Switch...

Castle Kong is a homage to Nintendo's groundbreaking Donkey Kong. Castle Kong aims to revive this classic with heaps of memory inducing fun with all the mod-cons of a modern video game. 

Fans of Donkey Kong will feel right at home with Drowning Monkeys take on the classic formula. It's a great take on the legendary title and features the same sanity punishing levels that made Donkey Kong such a hit.

Castle Kong's story is also reminiscent of old. You play as a hapless Pauper who's attempting to save the Princess from the evil King. Of course, the King isn't too pleased at this and will attempt to throw everything in the Paupers way to stop him reaching the Princess. 

The inspiration doesn't stop with the story either. Castle Kong is excruciatingly difficult too. You only get three lives and a one continue to complete your 22-level quest. Once these have gone, your then thrown back to the start to try again. It's gameplay is also incredibly punishing in that the Pauper moves at a snails pace and jumping requires more luck than skill. The A.I. also feels incredibly 'cheap' and more often than not levels can feel un-beatable. It doesn't take a lot to go from success to failure, and everything hangs on intricate timings that's totally open to "user error". 

Level design is arguably the games strongest point. Regardless of their punishing gameplay, the levels are very creative. There's plenty of traps to dodge and arrows to avoid as you attempt your rescue. Levels can feel monotonous as you constantly replay them, but it all serves as some vain attempt to teach you through repetition. 

Visuals take the 8-bit inspiration and add a modern flair to them. The colours are bright and vibrant and look wonderful regardless of what mode you play in - handheld or docked. 

If anything Castle Kong takes it inspiration a little too close to Donkey Kong to be unique. Drowning Monkeys could of used Castle Kong to improve the formula and made it accessible to a new generation of gamers. But maybe that is the problem? You could argue that games have gotten soft, with unlimited continues, auto-saves etc. While the argument is there for both sides, Castle Kong if anything feels like a fabled 'Donkey Kong - The Master Levels'.

Fans of Donkey Kong will no doubt appreciate what Drowning Monkeys has done with Castle Kong. It's a punishing game that rewards your persistence by throwing more punishment at you. If you fancy yourself as the next Steve Wiebe or Billy Mitchell then Castle Kong is for you. But for everyone else - it's not worth the high blood pressure...

Rating 4/10

A code was kindly supplied for this review. 

Castle Kong is out now for Nintendo Swith and PC. 

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