Reviews

The Legend of Dark Witch review for PS Vita

Platform: PS Vita
Also On: Nintendo 3DS, PC
Publisher: QubicGames
Developer: QubicGames
Medium: Digital
Players: 1
Online: No
ESRB: E10+

The Legend of Dark Witch features a trophy for completing the game in 45 minutes or less. This should tell you a lot about the game — specifically, that when you play the game on the easiest difficulty level, you’ll quickly find that it’s sufficiently lacking in content and features simple enough mechanics that beating everything in under an hour is relatively simple.

That isn’t the whole story, of course. It elides the fact that the game’s final level is exponentially more difficult than everything that’s come before it. Whereas you can beat each of the first six levels just by holding down the ?shoot? button and an occasional well-timed jump, the final level is harder by several orders of magnitude. Suddenly the game demands that you execute perfectly-timed jumps, shoot significantly more intelligent enemies, and generally play in a way that isn’t required of you at any point until then.

In this respect, I guess, the game is just giving ?easy? players a taste of what’s in store for them on other difficulty levels. See, the other thing that the 45-minute trophy doesn’t tell you is that The Legend of Dark Witch owes a pretty major debt to Mega Man. It’s not nearly as good as Mega Man, of course, but you don’t have to look too closely to see how the two games have quite a bit of common DNA.

That’s not the only place The Legend of Dark Witch borrows/steals from either. While the game’s general aesthetic is ?generic Japanese anime? every so often you’ll come across characters that look like they stepped out of a Kirby game. It doesn’t mean much in the big scheme of things, but every time they show up on screen, it makes for a jarring contrast.

Unfortunately, that’s just about the only time The Legend of Dark Witch makes any kind of impression. In general, it passes by in a blur of jumping and shooting, and doesn’t give any reason why it’s worth your time or money.

Grade: C-
Matthew Pollesel

Recent Posts

Get some Minecraft bling with the PDP REALMz Minecraft – Diamond Print Wireless Controller featuring Steve

Finally Jack Black in controller form…what, no? It’s not him? Oh man…

2 hours ago

Victrix Pro KO Leverless Fight Stick lets you execute 720s without taking up too much space in your bag

A fight stick without a stick…what a wild time we live in.

2 hours ago

Whee!! RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic is building towards a December 5th Nintendo Switch drop

A quarter of a century after the original game's launch, Atari is re-releasing one of…

3 hours ago

Hannah review for PC, Xbox

Hannah looks great…right up until you start moving.

8 hours ago

ININ Games acquires the publishing rights for Shenmue III

To celebrate the 3rd game's 5th anniversary and the original's 25th (!), YSNET has transferred…

8 hours ago

Nintendo eShop Update: Stray, Critter Café, Tiny Cats

One of 2022's best games is slinking onto the Switch in this week's update.

9 hours ago

This website uses cookies.