Feb 19, 20196 min read

Game Review #150: Iron Crypticle (Nintendo Switch)

Reviewer: Bradford “TheWaffinator” Ekstrom

Developer: Confused Pelican

Publisher: Tikipod

Category: Arcade, Action, Shooter

Release Date: 02.13.2019

Price (at time of review): $8.99 (preorder) | $9.99 (regular)

Buy Iron Crypticle from the Nintendo eShop here.

Bloody Fantastic

I am a hardcore gamer. My downfall started with Mario Bros. on NES. My addiction is so bad that I even have 3 Profiles for Clash Royale for mobile. I can not ever go without gaming; it’s insane. I don’t know if it was because that was how I would cope with all the negativity of my childhood environment, and it just became a part of me. Anyways, I never really got into shooter games besides Doom or even House of the Dead. I mean I used to love Call of Duty, but now those games are so repetitive that I am becoming appalled by them, and think they are just beating a dead horse at this point.

I would say shooters are usually my last go-to style of game. I think it’s just because they don’t usually have a good story to them, and like I said I would use games to escape so the stories mean everything to me. If there are good shooters out there, I have never come across one that can keep my attention 100% until now! Recently I was given the opportunity to try out Iron Crypticle and it was love at first sight. I can’t get enough of this game, in fact the PlayStation 4 version of this game has been out since 2017 and I will be adding it to my PlayStation collection. I like the game so much that I am really going to try my hardest to get my hands on the Limited Run Games physical copy for PlayStation.

Knights, Ghouls, Dungeons, a Cute Little Cat? Say no More.

The story to Iron Crypticle is basic, but perfect. You play as 1 of 4 King’s Knights of Cryptopia. Someone or something has broken into the palace right beneath your feet right in front of your eyes and stolen all of the King’s luxurious goodies and the Princess. You must now get it all back, but at what cost? To what extreme depths of dungeons must you travel, facing all kinds of ghouls and monsters to get it back? I can’t tell you because they keep killing me. I haven’t made it past the 2nd floor yet, even on Easy mode, because this game is anything but easy.

Iron Crypticle offers two game modes in which you can go on ghoulish killing sprees. You have the Story Mode, where you are going from room to room and from floor to floor battling and killing all kinds of Ghouls with intense boss battles trying to retrieve the King’s stolen goodies and princess. The other mode you can play is Endless Mode. Endless mode is just waves and waves of ghouls coming at you full force trying to kill you, and trust me they will. Both game modes have your standard 3 difficulties in which you can test your skills. Easy, which is good for getting a warm-up and getting used to how the game plays out and the feel of it. Medium for when you want to start pushing yourself and getting some intense action. And last but least is Hard, good luck with that. Stay away from Hard unless you have a friend or two, or more like three. YOU WILL NOT SURVIVE.

In the story mode You are going from room to room. You must choose wisely because one room could be a little on the easier side and give you some items you must get to power up your knight, or it can be a room where you get ambushed and the ghouls come at you faster and harder. In the story mode there is a merchant room that has a cute little guy trying to help you and an arcade room that you will want to try to get to because you can play a mini game called Castle Crushers.

Castle Crushers is a fun mini game in which you are trying to escape a giant rolling crusher while collecting coins and food. The coins help you buy items to help make your journey a little bit more bearable from this cute little guy:

And I’m not even a cat person but look at that cute little face. And the food you get in Castle Crushers helps give you XP to level up your knight.

Kill ‘Em All

Hands down one of my favorite games for controls. When I can sit there and only need to explain the controls to my wife once how to play (well button wise at least) I get excited. I get excited because I really get into the games and I hate when I have to spend more time explaining the buttons over being able to just play and enjoy the game. This game is a twin-stick shooter and stays true to the simplicity of just that. You have your left thumbstick for movement, right thumbstick for shooting. It has a couple other buttons but not many. You have L for using your ATOMIC FIST! (if you have it available):

R for Dashing, and B for using any scrolls you might have picked up to help you even the score.

Bloody Beautiful

The gaming world has come a very long way from the graphics from Tennis for Two (The inspiration of Pong) in 1958 until now with games like Spider-Man for PS4 and God of War, both coming out last year in 2018. Usually the name of the game is to have the best of the best graphics. But does that automatically make a game good? No, you’re wrong. Dead wrong. The game can be so realistic graphics wise and be complete crap. Graphics don’t always mean anything, and this is a perfect example of just that.

Iron Crypticle looks like a game that came out for Super Nintendo but in 2017 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Steam and now the Nintendo Switch. And to be brutally honest if they had used next gen console graphics, I really don’t think it would be that enjoyable as the 16-bit graphic style is perfect! Can you say, “Nostalgia at its finest”? The main part of the game is top view, and the in-game mini game Castle Crushers is 2D side scroller. Even all the sound effects and the BGM are true to the 16-bit style and perfectly executed.

Some Last Bloody Thoughts

Before I wrote this, I wanted to try to get some Co-Op play in and see if it was better with a friend but the downside to that is it is only local play. So, poor me got stuck with the wife. Now don’t get me wrong as I love her to death (which she died A LOT), but she doesn’t get into the games as much as I do. But even she got into this game and was giving it the good old college try.

In fact, her exact words were “I’m not going to last long”, and I wasn’t thinking and just said “that’s fine, I know what that’s like”, because you will die a lot. And it was better. Even though it is highly addicting single player, it does get better when you bring a battle buddy. I think it was because having her around it gave me more of a challenge because not only was I trying to keep myself alive, but her as well.

Oh yeah, one last final quick thought because I could keep going on and on but all good things must come to an end. They keep track of high scores! So, one piece of advice, if you use your restart credits when you die instead of taking the Game Over, your score will reset to 0 and you will have to start all over. I’m already in the top 3 for all the game modes, so am I going to see your name up there with me in the greatest of the greats?

This game is hands down one of my favorite games of 2019 already and set the standards high for others to try and beat. Don’t take my word alone! Go buy the game for only $9.99 and kill some ghouls!