Conquest of the Crystal Palace (USA) ROM

Conquest of the Crystal Palace is an action game quite easily forgotten about. After only a few seconds of gameplay I quickly remembered this as being one of the most annoying games I'd ever played. However, for the sake of this review I played it again. It's...it's not the worst game ever it just doesn't have qualities that make me want to return to it.

Controls feel very loose overall and I'm not sure where intentional meets unintentional. Surely the jumping was intended to be ridiculous (with powerups) but I often felt like my character slid a bit.

Graphics weren't bad overall. Many of the backgrounds (cliffs) in the 'outside' areas were too busy for me. The shop/news graphics were really nice and characters seemed to move really nicely. Enemies were kinda bland with a pretty small pool of designs. The wriggling souls levels or whatever they were were downright horrible for me. Motion sickness/nausea galore.

The music in the game was memorable enough, certainly above average. Text SFX makes my ears bleed, though...

Gameplay consisted of mostly stabbing things, jumping around, and more stabbing. There are a few powerups and other things like the dog whistle, fireball, and wind blade which are useful but the most important thing that will lead you to beat the game is simply being able to control your character effectively. BIRDS and other intentionally infuriating enemy/environment mechanics are out to destroy you. Defeating bosses gave me more of an 'ugh finally' feeling than anything else...

Overall, I had the same feeling of 'ugh finally' when beating the game and that's just not a good sign to me. I feel like it's still worth a playthrough, though!

Released in 1990, CotCP was a regrettably unknown platformer. Mixing the traditional side-scrolling Action platform, with some fantastic RPG elements.

You play Farren, who (with the help of his talking dog, Zap) must fight for his stolen kingdom against hordes of demons; even through Hell itself! Farren finds and purchases many items during his quest, which help him to become a more powerful warrior.

Truly a hidden gem, this is a must-play for anyone who loves a game with action, adventure and a rich story. With more hidden battles than the Hall of Ogres, there's a new adventure every play.