Game Review: Knight Terrors

Game Review: Knight Terrors

Can a $2.99 game actually be worth playing? Can it actually have enough to get you absorbed into it, yet, allow the developers to make money? Can it justify its place on the Nintendo Switch’s Catalogue? Read on to find out.

Gameplay

I went into Knight Terrors expecting nothing much. I was even told that it was Flappy Bird for the Nintendo Switch, but what I got out was a lot more.

The premise of the game’s all five modes is simple, you play as a knight and all you have to do is to navigate the stage and fend off enemies. Yet such a simple game had a lot more depth than I was prepared for.

You start off with normal mode and slowly get proficient enough to unlock all other modes. Navigation on normal mode is simple as you get to walk on land, just jump/fly when necessary (in pure Flappy Bird press press press style) and kill enemies that try to get past you.

But things start to get trickier as you progress, Flight Terror is essentially Flappy Bird on steroids. You have to fly through obstacles, while still fighting hordes of enemies. The floor is literally fire/spikes. You can see how adrenaline pumped things start to get as you split your mind between flying through obstacles and fighting the enemy at the same time. It was surprisingly fun.

What Knight Terrors got right was the fact that somehow, you will not get frustrated with it. Getting around the obstacles was quite lenient and totally do-able. At no point did you really think that there was no way to get through and unlock the next reward or game mode. Even as the bar to unlock was high, there is still that optimism that it is possible.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics on the game is somewhere caught somewhere between the 8 and 16 bits era, so is the electronic synthesiser soundtrack. One praise I had to give the graphics is how the main character’s colour stands out so much with the background. It is something that is commonly overlooked, but when not present makes gameplay a lot more difficult, so kudos to the development team for that.

Even though I primarily play the game on handheld mode (a little more about the reason why later on), the game looked fantastic on the TV as well, which is quite unexpected give the game’s art style. The game does not reek of the past, remaining unexpectedly vibrant and well defined on today’s TV sets.

Soundtrack wise, it was mediocre at best, there was not much to compliment about but it gets the job done.

Guide

As there is nothing much more to review about in this simple game, I thought I add a few tips and tricks in case you ever wanted some tips while playing.

Overall Tips:

  1. Stay Calm, adrenaline rush is your worst enemy in this game.
  2. Stay Fresh, if you find yourself not making any breakthrough, take a break
  3. Stay Comfortable, be in the most relaxed posture while playing this, it really helps
  4. Stay Close. For some reason, playing on handheld mode is the best. Maybe it is because you are very close to the screen and it is easier to focus.

Normal Mode: There are not many tips to give in this mode, the game is still largely putting you in its training wheels so if you can’t get past this, you’re not going anywhere. Focus.

Flight Terror: There are no penalties for missing an enemy so always prioritise life than overextending for that stubborn enemy.

Endless Knight: Things start to get a little tougher in this mode. You have to juggle between your limited lives and missing enemies. If your main objective is to unlock K-type, you should avoid dying as much as possible as the score per each successive enemies killed without dying increases by 100 with each enemy slain. Therefore, to rack out as many points as possible, try to avoid dying. You have three chances to miss enemies in the whole round so use them wisely.

K-Type: If the previous mode was tough, this is crazy. It is flappy bird, plus enemy killing and you can only miss 3 enemies per level unlike the more lenient Flight Terror. Same as Endless Knight, try not to die too much, this time not because of the points but because you lose item powerups when you die, and you will want to stack as much of the item powerups as possible near the last few levels as the enemies just come at near impenetrable hordes. It is really very hard to balance flying and attacking at that point, so all the powerups will really help you to focus just on flying.

Knightmare: You only live once so make it count.

There’s one last tip for those who really want to unlock everything but just isn’t as skilled. It is a bit of a cheat and but you can enlist the help of a friend. As the attacks are independent of flight, all you have to do is to pass one Joy-con to him/her and have him/her spam the attack button, while you just focus on navigating. As said before, this is a bit of a cheat so don’t be so proud of yourself when you finally make it.

TL;DR

For just $2.99, the game packs a punch. It is hours worth of addicting gameplay and is certainly worth more than every cent paid. The game provides a sort of progressive training to prepare you for the following game modes and certainly gets crazier with every increase in mode. Yet under all the stresses, the game is not frustrating and still humanly possible to play. Though the art style harks back to the past, Knight Terror has shown that addicting gameplay trumps fancy graphics any other day.

Pros:

  • Worth Every Cent
  • Game Gets Progressively Crazier
  • Surprising Frustration Free And Playable

Cons

  • Game’s Load Time Can Seem A Bit Long

Verdict: Cheap And Hearty Tonic Soup That Is Sure To Improve Hand-Eye Coordination

6/10
6/10

A review code for Knight Terrors was provided by Nicalis for the purpose of this review.