An Arcade-Ian Adventure

Kingdom of Arcadia is an Action/Arcade platformer from Ratalaika Games and Spoonbox Studios, and produced by Eastasiasoft.

If you’re looking for a retro style action platforming experience that has fairly polished gameplay, then “Kingdom of Arcadia” should be on your radar. Although there are some presentation issues, I had a great time going through the game’s 20 stages and 5 boss battles.

You are Sam, a kid who found his father’s special arcade cabinet which transported him to the magical Kingdom of Arcadia. In order to get back he has to collect the kingdom’s four magical scepters to defeat the evil wizard Draken. Story wise, that’s it, but it’s all you need to set out on your around 2-3 hour adventure.

Each castle that you visit is composed of 5 floors and boss room. To reach the boss, each other floor has to be completed. There are also “secrets” hidden (Usually behind breakable walls) that serve no story purpose, but are used to reward the player with a completion bonus at the end of the game. Each castle has a distinct theme, from your standard stone castle all the way to a jungle temple layout. Enemy types are diverse, especially in this last jungle world but I would have liked to have had a bit more diversity in the earlier stages of the game. The same can be said about the traps and obstacles that you find in the sage environments. Falling spike blocks make up the majority of the early game, but like the enemy types, many more types of traps and platforming mechanics were introduced in the last few castles. I really like what was introduced, but I feel that they could have been spaced out a little bit better.

Combat wise you have a melee and ranged attack at your disposal. Each of these, plus your armor (health), can be upgraded in a shop that will use the collected coins found from defeated enemies and treasure chests throughout the stages. I found that unless happen to grind the enemies, the progression of upgrades works very well and there’s not a sense of being either too overpowered or weak in relation to where you are in the game.

Visuals are a nice retro pixel style and both the enemies and environments are done very well. There is also an option to turn on scan lines from the settings menu, and I recommend doing so. It may have just been me, but it gave the visuals an even more retro feel that I loved.

I wasn’t very impressed with the quality of translation or the sound design. Much of the text dialogue is full of broken English or word choice that just seemed unnatural. I try not to judge harshly on translation in my reviews, and the story is still conveyed, but there were many more mistakes than other recent games I have played. With the sound design, I just did not feel certain sounds fit in context with certain actions. When you go through a portal there is a comical “POP” when you disappear. It’s lighthearted and cute, but I just don’t feel it fits the tone of the game.

I had a fun time with “Kingdom of Arcadia” and it kept me coming back to try and beat it. It reminds me a lot of Goblin Sword in the fact that it’s a very simple design / concept but is oddly satisfying as you complete each level. I would recommend trying this one out if you get a chance!