Cracking homage to the olden days
Boasting a crackingly good title and some truly retro-inspired gameplay, Deranged Wizard's Castle is a neat homage to the classic Castle Adventure which is well worth digging out. The plot might not be original but the old-school look and feel are bang on while the gameplay is simple but hugely entertaining, making this a top notch experience. You play the part of a bold adventurer who must enter a spooky old castle which just happens to be occupied by, guess who, a deranged wizard and who is sat on a giant pile of loot. You must explore the castle, doing battle with the myriad monsters which lurk inside, finding objects and treasure and generally explore as you seek out the wizard with the ultimate aim of defeating him. You move around using the keyboard but can also enter commands such as THROW, GET and BOMB, in the fashion of text adventures. As you wander around, you have to find keys to open up the many doors which bar your progress but there are also plenty of other items, like wands, which need to be found and experimented with in order to figure out what they actually do. As a fanmade game, this really is a great little treat that is perfect for fans of rogue-likes such as Hack. The gameplay is straightforward but hugely entertaining, with plenty of secrets to uncover in the surprisingly extensive and maze-like castle. The quest will take some time to complete but is likely to prove enjoyable to the last moments and while the visuals are simply ASCII characters, they pack an amazing amount of character into what is basically just symbols. All in all, this is first rate stuff.
