Dark Castle (Genesis) Playthrough

A playthrough of Electronic Arts' 1991 platformer for the Sega Genesis, Dark Castle. Played through on the medium difficulty. Dark Castle is an adaptation of a game originally released for the monochrome Mac in 1986 and later ported to several computer platforms before finally landing on the Sega Genesis in 1991 and the CD-i in 1992. Playing as a guy who looks like Shaggy from Scooby Doo, it's your job to infiltrate the Dark Castle and complete three "quests" to defeat the Black Knight. You are presented with your choice of four doors, each leading to a different series of platforming challenges. Initially armed only with a sack of rocks, you'll first have to search for supplies to prepare for the final showdown. To stand a chance, you'll need to arm yourself with a fireball spell, a shield, and a stockpile of elixirs. The gameplay is nothing like you'd expect from a console platformer, let alone one released in the 90s. In the Mac game, you used the keyboard to move and the mouse to aim and shoot. The Genesis version retains the original free aim system, but since the controller doesn't have any analog inputs, you have to hold up or down to change the angle of your throws. Movement feels strange, too. The jumps are rigid, and you can't walk off ledges - falling off a pixel high ledge will cause you to faceplant. It feels incredibly unnatural and unforgiving at first, and I think this is why Dark Castle is generally regarded as one of the worst Genesis games. It takes some real effort to get used to how the controls work, and only then can you get to work memorizing the steps required to get through each room. I enjoyed figuring it all out, and I don't think that the Genesis version is nearly the failure that it's made out to be, but I think that the developers' steadfast commitment to replicating the original Mac game's mechanics killed any appeal it might've held for console audiences. And for the few who liked it, the lack of content really lets it down. It's not particularly difficult to finish, and once you've learned its tricks, it's pretty easy to reach the ending in two or three minutes. That's not a great look for a cartridge that retailed for $50 when it was new. The graphics and sound are reasonably nice, though. The animation is smooth, the backgrounds are foreboding, and I liked the FM rendition of Bach's Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor the first hundred or so times I heard it (though I preferred the kick ass remix of it used in Konami's    • Gyruss (NES) Playthrough  ). The digitized sound effects are uncommonly crisp and clear for a Genesis game, but they don't fit the tone of the game (the nya-nya noise will drive you insane, and why do the bats yell "Come on!"?) and they repeat way too often. I don't know what EA was trying to accomplish in publishing a five-year-old Mac game with an exotic control scheme on the Genesis, but I do think that it has some merit. If you can approach it with an open mind, you might find something to appreciate here. It's a whole lot better than Sword of Sodan, at least. _____________ No cheats were used during the recording of this video. NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!