Puzzles, puzzles, everywhere! This game is a mouth-sound-fueled, top-down sprite-based adventure to find gems. You navigate through a variety of discrete levels, each of which you can freely explore in an effort to solve puzzles and find more gems. Why the need for gems? Well, much like Wario twenty-five years before her, this princess needs hard cash to purchase herself a castle.
I must confess that I’ve only played adventure mode, and only the levels in the first three worlds. It’s doubtful whether or not you’d say I’ve “beaten” the game, but completion is fuzzy as you can buy the castle with a small fraction of the gems in the adventure mode’s levels. I bought my castle, so I’m going to call the game “beat”, but I will be coming back to play more.
Probably the best part of the levels in adventure mode is how short the critical paths are, in comparison to the size of each stage. This means that, because it’s easy to get through each stage in order to access the next one, the stages themselves can afford to include puzzles in a variety of difficulties without forcing the player into deadlocks. It also contributes to the sense of adventure, creating a Zelda-like sense of exploration and experimentation. Finding hidden areas is a puzzle in itself, and understanding relationships between different rooms, objects and powers can be a real joy.
Princess Castle Quest is mechanic-rich, with lasers-and-mirrors, block-pushing, portal guns, swords, arrows, fire and ice and attraction wands, and a variety of other things I’ve already forgotten. If some of these sound like weapons, technically they are and yes, you do get to bash the occasional dungeon rat or skeleton. But ultimately they are puzzle-solving verbs, and slashing your way through is rarely an option. Each of these simple mechanics combine to create a variety of devious puzzles which so far have not failed to keep me entertained.
The game also offers a two-player mode, a level creator, and additional puzzle packs that can be bought with a special gold currency obtained throughout the game. I can’t comment on these features, as I have yet to try any of them. But suffice it to say that there seems to be plenty of content to be had.
What I can comment on is the princess’s idle dancing and the variety of dogs you can pet or feed treats to who are sprinkled throughout the game. The presentation is so joyful in general that you just might find yourself dancing along with the plants that line your path.
Gameplay: 8
Aesthetics: 6
Story: 5
Novelty: 7
Overall score: eight golden skulls.
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