Horned Knight
Developed by Josep Monzonis Hernandez
Published by 2Awesome Partners
Released for Xbox One (2/24/2021)
Also on Mac/PC/PS4/Switch
Horned Knight was created by a single developer named Josep Monzonis Hernandez and was published by 2Awesome Partners. Not to be confused with the excellent Shovel Knight, Horned Knight does share a few things in common with it. Both games are 2D action-platformers featuring pixel graphics where the player controls a knight in armor. The similarities end there, however, and you can definitely tell that Horned Knight was created by a single dude while Shovel Knight had a whole team behind it.
Horned Knight is presented with 2D sprites, which are a bit blocky and simple but feature some nice animations. The visuals do a decent job conveying that retro look, though lack enough originality to leave much of a lasting impression. We come to another issue in regard to the backgrounds, as every level features the same generic "dungeon" environment that gets repetetive quickly. The music, while decent, will be forgotten the second you turn the game off. The sound effects are sparse and feel like they came from a database of stock sounds. The same grunt that the knight makes when taking damage is also used on the enemies, which comes off just feeling a bit lazy. Presentation-wise, Horned Knight makes a decent first impression, but after playing for any length of time the aforementioned flaws become apparent.
The stage layouts in Horned Knight are a mixed bag, but overall I'd say there's more good than bad here. While the backgrounds don't have much variety, the developer did a decent job with the obstacle and enemy layouts spread throughout the game's 32 levels. To complete the game, you'll have to navigate through 4 worlds, each containing 8 levels, with the last level consisting of a boss battle. The enemies are pretty lame, consisting of either just moving back and forth or standing in one spot launching fire projectiles. The boss battles don't fare much better, with each of them feeling so similar you'll have a hard time remembering them once you're done. The controls are simple and only utilizes 3 buttons: jump, attack and dash. The controls are quite responsive once you get used to the slight delay after you hit the attack button (due to the animation). You'll have to use the analog stick for character movement, which means there's no support for the d-pad in a 2D platformer (weak!).
Horned Knight ranks up there among the easiest achievement completions I've come across, allowing the player to unlock every achievement by completing only the first chapter. I've always found these kind of achievement lists odd, since one would think the developer wants the player to see the whole game, yet there's no doubt that a good chunk of folks who've downloaded this one played only enough to unlock all of the achievements and moved onto the next one. Apparently the developer knew that the majority of players wouldn't finish the game so he didn't even bother putting in an ending screen; once you defeat the final boss you get a boring congratulations and the option to restart or quit, which left me feeling a tad cheated for having took the time to actually play through the game.
It would be easy to just write off Horned Knight as just another title with easy achievements or just a knock-off of Shovel Knight, but beneath all of that there is a decent action-platformer here, though it does suffer from being a bit too basic and repetitive. Horned Knight really feels like something that would have come out for XBLIG back in the 360 era. Playing this one gave me vibes of Platformance: Castle Pain among others. Horned Knight is about as basic as a 2D platformer gets, but if you're just in the mood for something simple and retro then this might actually fill that void for a short while. Those looking for some quick and easy gamerscore will also find something to like here, but if you don't fall into either of these categories than you'd probably do best to skip this one.
Final Verdict: Horned Knight is a simple 2D action-platformer featuring retro-styled pixel graphics. The easy completion makes this a desirable title for achievement hunters, but those just looking for a basic throwback platformer may also get some fun out of Horned Knight.
Purchase Links:
It would be easy to just write off Horned Knight as just another title with easy achievements or just a knock-off of Shovel Knight, but beneath all of that there is a decent action-platformer here, though it does suffer from being a bit too basic and repetitive. Horned Knight really feels like something that would have come out for XBLIG back in the 360 era. Playing this one gave me vibes of Platformance: Castle Pain among others. Horned Knight is about as basic as a 2D platformer gets, but if you're just in the mood for something simple and retro then this might actually fill that void for a short while. Those looking for some quick and easy gamerscore will also find something to like here, but if you don't fall into either of these categories than you'd probably do best to skip this one.
Final Verdict: Horned Knight is a simple 2D action-platformer featuring retro-styled pixel graphics. The easy completion makes this a desirable title for achievement hunters, but those just looking for a basic throwback platformer may also get some fun out of Horned Knight.
Purchase Links:
No comments:
Post a Comment