Iron Crypticle review

Price: $9.99 eShop
Developer: Confused Pelican
Players: 1-4

Anyone can do retro, only a few can do it well. Enter Iron Crypticle from the stellar-talent of Confused Pelican and Tikipod, who's Aqua Kitty UDX remains one of the best takes on Defender since forever, and is still a regular play on my Switch and Vita.

Iron Crypticle has been many years in development, hitting the PC and PS4 in 2017 and only now arriving on Switch. With up to four-players, there's a hint of Gauntlet about the game as our hero crashes into the depths of the crypt on the search for stolen treasure. It also borrows mildly from other classics, are those intro tones inspired by Ghosts n' Goblins? What other subtle delights lurk within the dungeons?

Once accustomed to the gloom, the game goes all twin-stick shooter as demons shamble across the flagstone floors across a single room, aiming to tear you to pieces. A couple of treasure chests might provide weapons, health or some loot, and with each level having a multi-route path to the end of level mega-, this is no plodding-through-the-same-old-levels adventure.

Across each map, there's the odd bonus mini-game, a store to stock up on questing essentials, tougher levels like the Graveyard to master and test out Iron Crypticle's extra skills. These include a dash move, ideal for dodging area effect weapons and the odd gathering horde, but risky in the dark where who knows what lurks.

Bigger and better weapons can hose down the denizens of the dungeon, but will soon run out, so there's a hint of strategy to your play. You also need to keep collecting the loot to build up your speed, damage and rate of fire. Stay too long and the seriously nasty golems come out to play, encouraging you toward the nearest exit when you take out the last of the normal monsters.

All of which puts a hundred tiny options in your mind as you play, do you hose down the bad guys first, then hoover up the treasure for big points. Is it worth getting that health heart that you so badly need, when you're in a relative good place on the level? Risk and reward, explore and perish, chaining those pickups, dodge and live a few more rooms or grab that collectible in a fatalistic charge for glory - there's so much going on that it can be a little hard to take it all in.

Between games, it is worth reading the Ledger from the front menu to find out what you've picked up, and what some of the rarer or more useful objects can do to help you out of a tight spot. There's also Endless Mode where you can battle away for a high score - and both game modes have online leaderboards!

With such a high level of precision and focus required, Iron Crypticle remains reasonably playable on the small screen, barring the usual moan about Nintendo - why the fuck doesn't the Switch have a brightness control physical button? Some levels are just a bit too murky and the game doesn't look too sparkling on the Switch's LCD, overall - this is one I prefer to play on the big screen.

Like I said, this game has a great retro feel, expertly managed. But is packed with so many modern features and elements that it almost feels like an overdose, skirting the chaos curve between playable brilliance and a-bit-too-bonkers. I think it lives on the right side, thanks to the easy and normal modes for us mortals.

Sometimes the game feels like your friend, throwing out the odd vital extra life at just the right moment. But on balance, with its one-more-go gauntlet grip and cram-it-all-in approach, Iron Crypticle is quite the bitch - after your gaming soul, and for that it is great fun!

Score 5/5