You’ve probably played a game like Aggelos before.
Aggelos reviewDeveloper: Storybird GamesPublisher: PQube, Look At My GamePlatform: SwitchAvailability: Out now on PC and Switch
You might have played one recently – Owl Boy, Wonder Boy, and Hollow Knight are three recent examples – or perhaps, like me, you might have played one the first time around, too, before such games were really known as Metroidvanias and there was no such thing as internet guides (or any guides, for that matter – bless my dad for letting me abuse the Nintendo Hotline). I grew up loving and loathing those kinds of games in equal measure, and not much has changed – anything that requires timing or jumping remains the bane of my existence – but as much as I’m cynical about the many titles trying to jump on this retro bandwagon forged from little more than manufactured nostalgia, I fell for Aggelos and its wholesome charm in a way I hadn’t quite expected.
If this 2D adventure flew under your radar when it released on PC last year – that’s right, it’s been out for the best part of a year on PC already – you’re not alone. Now out on Nintendo Switch, too, Aggelos (AG-gelos? Ag-GEL-os? Agg-el-os?! HELP) is a bright, bold, and respectful homage to those games we grew up playing, the games I frequently quit part-way through because no amount of Twister-ing my fat little fingers could quite pull off the jump, dash, downward-thrust, bounce, dash-dash gymnastics required to progress.
That said, for all that it’s trying to evoke with its pixel-perfect presentation, stunning retro soundtrack and memorable cast of critters and characters, Aggelos is a robust offering that while short, should not be dismissed as yet another shallow imitation. And despite its retro visuals and bippy-boppy tunes, it employs a raft of contemporary mechanics, too, arguably offering the best features from both the old-school and the new.
Aggelos opens in a typical and wholly unoriginal fashion, and the blocky, retro text transitions to show a modest, single-roomed stone dwelling – lovingly crafted in 2D pixel form, of course – and you: a small, fair-headed lad with just a dagger at his side and a gnawing sense of adventure. You head out but before long, your leisurely jaunt is halted by the timely cries of a damsel in distress, whom you promptly save from the clutches of a kidnapper. Guess what? She’s a princess! Who’d have believed it? As a thank you for saving her, her dad insists you save the kingdom from some evil dude called Valion (it seems a rough trade, to be honest; if that’s what you get for your trouble in the Kingdom of Lumen, next time I doubt our kid will bother).