Publisher: Ratalaika
Size: 101MB
Players: 1
I played One More Dungeon extensively on the Vita last year, and enjoyed it on the Switch over Christmas. Along with the higher resolution, obvious improvements are:
I can read the smaller text more easily.
The smoothness of movement and speed of turning is a big improvement.
The extra triggers make it easier to access more potions or weapons.
There are some additional lighting effects that add a little pizzazz.
As for One More Dungeon itself, older gamers will instantly recognise the block-design style taken from Wolfenstein 3D creating a flat-plane world to explore. Within the squared rooms and long corridors, pixel characters and objects rotate to always face the player. its a quaint visual style but just as fun to explore today as it was 25-odd years ago.
OMD wraps this retro world around a roguelike dungeon-RPG style randomised adventure, which has some positives but a few issues. Sealed underground, your rogueish character is armed with a magic wand and a short sword. The aim is to explore and survive the blocky-pixel horrors within, finding each level's overlord, defeating them and taking their key to the exit.
Along the way, bats, rats, spiders, ghosts and exploding traps are just some of the perils as you squint down each mossy corridor, hoping for health potions, or a top-up for your fire, ice or other magic weapons. It is easy to waste a lot of ammo at first, figuring out that the oddly animated eye-balls or gloopy plants aren't actually enemies. Real enemies are either static, or will only move until you get close. This lets you blast them from distance as long as you have enough magic juice but the further into the dungeon you go, the tougher and faster they get.
There are also plenty of hidden secrets that will keep you running around a level for ages, looking for every last bit of help. Despite the helpful map, tricky bits of the random level design might also leave you lost until you uncover the right nook or cranny where a door or new bit of level might be tucked away. Bashing crates for items can provide a bonus and some stress relief, especially when low on health and needing to take on a room full of denizens.
With most enemies lobbing rocks or poisonous spit, keeping them at arm's length is essential, so our hero relies on magic to kill from range. Learning how close you can get to a monster before they activate is a key survival skill. Upgrading to better weapons in the shop, run by a naked caveman, or finding them definitely helps. Failing that, by very carefully timing melee weapon attacks and stepping back, you might just avoid death a while longer.
In audio terms, the soundtrack has the air of someone warming up a church organ, rather than actually playing it. And sound effects range from a decent metal twang to mostly feeble monster noises, deliberate perhaps but should have been beefed up.
Another source of special items are portal zones, zapping you to other bonus areas where coins, magical goodies like death scythes, exit finders and others lurk behind simple puzzles. These can be used sparingly to help you but their powers consume your mind energy, so be careful. However you play, you'll die often at first, but scoring points allows you to unlock mutators, that change the game state to make it easier (or tougher) to play next time out.
But, mutators don't make OMD more entertaining to play, which is a shame. The lack of any story, or a little humour flattens the experience somewhat. If you start dying too often, their absence makes it easy to forget this game and try something else.
Score: 3/5
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