Battle Princess Madelyn came to life through a Kickstarter campaign that began sometime in March 2017 and reached its funding goal in just a few days. A campaign full of promise on paper that will have convinced many contributors, since presented by its creators as a tribute or a worthy successor to Capcom's game released in the 90s, Super Ghouls'N Ghosts.
In fact, is Battle Princess Madelyn really the long-awaited worthy successor or a vibrant tribute to this anthology title? This is what we are going to try to make you discover through this review. It's been almost a month since the publisher gave us a test version of Battle Princess Madelyn on Nintendo Switch, a version that has been postponed until today (January 7, 2019) since the game is now available for purchase. on the Nintendo Store.
Of course, this postponement prevented us from publishing our opinion on the version we had received earlier because of a consequent embargo extension which ended today. You can imagine that when the publisher pushes back such an embargo on a test, it means that something is wrong with the game... And believe us, our Battle Princess Madelyn game sessions were painful... Explanation !
An adventure for two game modes, story or arcade:
Whether you choose between adventure mode or arcade mode, it all starts with the death of Madelyn's pooch and the fall of the kingdom. Except that in one, things are scripted (the story mode) and in the other we have a totally Old-School trip where you have to advance from the far left to the far right of all the levels to see some the end as was the case with Super Ghouls'N Ghosts. Except that the more you progress in Battle Princess Madelyn, the more the game makes blunders, revealing the certain lack of experience of the development team (Casual Bit Games).
Battle Princess Madelyn is the idea of paying homage to a great Capcom title without having the talent to do so… Yes, these words are harsh, but the adventure offered by the guys at Casual Bit Games is so toothy- de-saw that it becomes difficult to come to their defense.
We start with the Story mode, wobbly is the word:
In the adventure mode, the player is released without really explaining… At least, it was the case in version 1.0 since the recent update modified certain parts of the game to make the progression of the player more fluid. However, this does not correct all the problems… Because even if the beginning of the adventure adds signs of tricks every two and a half meters to make the player understand how it works (just for this practice we should take out the box red, demonstrating a certain lack of the title in its design), the NPCs are still as useless as in the initial version.
Half the characters in the kingdom will tell you, "hey Madelyn, kill that certain boss and I'll reward you" ou "Hey Madelyn, I lost this or my friend I love so much is missing, can you find him". There you go, save those sentences, because that's the only thing most of the characters you meet along the way will say to you.
And again, as we told you before, the latest update allowed the Casual Bit Games teams to add some characters and hint panels on the road so that the player can better determine what is expected of him. .
Because yes, in the adventure mode the level design is so screwed up that you never know where to really look. Certain pieces of the scenery appear as platforms where Madelyn can stand while a few screens later these same scenery are no longer considered as platforms... This is typically an error that we have seen in some very bad games released in the 80s or 90s or some disrespectful publishers/developers of this medium thought that video games were a practice for brainless kids anyway… Wait… Battle Princess Madelyn was not to be inspired by one of the greatest games of the genre of the time ? Because there it is a total failure!
Throughout the exploration, you must find what an NPC (character) asks you to obtain a key that will open a door in the scenery and thus progress. Indeed, if you have not found a particular object, you will not be able to explore certain parts of the decor and progress in the adventure, reminiscent of the structure of a Metroidvania. The thing is, nothing is listed, you'll have to remember who asked you what knowing that all the characters in the realm say pretty much the same thing and you don't have a map to orient yourself.
Understand well! In this famous adventure mode we are not talking about a purely arcade trip where you don't need to think to advance, but many levels with sometimes complex architecture (even wobbly)... So, the absence of a map like in Metroidvania makes player progression very difficult…
And the back and forth between the levels are really numerous. Fortunately, there is a teleportation system between portals to quickly travel between different worlds, except that here too the system has not been thought out enough so that it does not become a totally frustrating mechanism.
The teleportation portal that will allow you to travel between the different levels is often found in an unlikely place. Instead of giving the player an item or placing a teleporter at the start and end of each level, the guys at Casual Bit Games preferred to place one per world in a fixed location that will sometimes require you to recross the entire level to complete it. 'to reach.
Except you're frustrated, you want to hurry, because you don't feel like going through that level again that you've already done and hated to find what will allow you to advance, there are tons of enemies on your way, you will die every 30 seconds and return to the beginning of the level (by the way you entered) in case of failures... Hard in these conditions to convince the players to continue the experience further...
And the arcade mode in all this?
The frustration of a bad past experience, so we naturally launched into the arcade mode. Things are much more palatable than story mode. We find the same life system there, Madelyn's health gauge at the start of the adventure stands on two hearts (top left of the screen), including a green bar that serves as lives (top right of the screen) and which recharges according to the souls absorbed by Madelyn's faithful doggie, because yes he has returned from the dead in spectral form to help the courageous Madelyn in her quest.
You start at the far left of the first level and the goal is to go through all the levels in the game until you reach the far right of each one. The level design is different from the story mode even if we go through the same environments. It's more dynamic, the levels take less time to go through and the level design is still less wobbly. Madelyn begins with the power of the double jump and the player can randomly collect the weapons and armor of the game which will make it possible to better apprehend the trials to come and incidentally to strengthen the health of the heroine. In the story mode, you have to collect objects and finish a quest to gain access to the forge and improve the equipment (except that nothing is explained…). Everything is interspersed with a series of bosses (the same as the adventure mode).
Unfortunately, they are far too easy to handle and some placements will even allow you to avoid most of their attacks, which contrasts completely with the rest, which has only one goal, to display more and more enemies in front of your eyes. to lead you to the fault, make you lose all your lives and make you restart the stage from the beginning.
★ In conclusion:
The gaming experience of Battle Princess Madelyn is quite mediocre as a whole due to a wobbly level design, gameplay mechanics borrowed from another age without understanding the workings and without modernizing them, giving the player only a series of frustrating moments...
Wanting too much to transcribe the feeling of the time, the developers managed to create a gaming experience without pleasure. Take for example the case of Madelyn's jump, if you quickly cross a stage by abusing jumps and an enemy that you left on your way hits you in mid-flight between two platforms then you will lose control of the character for a few seconds leading you inexorably to finish your race in the water or pikes placed below... This is one defect among many others to deplore...
Some sets are quite nice, but graphically the game has nothing transcendent, the levels have been seen and reviewed for several decades in this kind of production with undead type monsters appearing everywhere. The music is rather pleasant and some themes manage to stand out, but unfortunately do not allow you to identify the many faults of the game. feel some discomfort at this level.
As far as we are concerned, we won't come back to it, but you are free to form your own opinion by getting the game. But honestly, it is better to do it at a low price, because disappointment will soon invade you once after the first minutes of play and the first defects observed.
Battle Princess Madelyn
The score out of 10?
4 
