PLATFORMANCE: Castle Pain Reviews
EDGE Magazine best 20 Indie Games
"As the name suggests, this is a game to be mastered and then exploited for showboating purposes: a cruel process that requires an audience in order to truly shine. It’s brutally difficult, too, with queues of demanding jumps, throngs of roving enemies and plenty of other opportunities for instant death. As with the best of its kind, however, Castle Pain is fair (in its own way) and filled with more than enough humour and gimmickry to ensure that you’ll keep fighting through to the bitter end."
"It's essentially a one-dollar kick to the groin; why yes, I do mean that as a compliment. As the name suggests, it is, indeed, a tough platformer -- death is always mere seconds away. There are checkpoints, though, and the pixel art is fairly good.
For the price, you can't exactly complain. Well, you can, but that'd make you something of a jerk in my eyes. "
"If Super Meat Boy and Journey to the Center of the Earth had a love child, this would probably be it. There are spinning axes to dodge, bats to flee from, spikes to bound over, octopuses to not make friends with and ghosts to beat a hasty retreat from."
"This Game Is Suitable For Framing"
"You will be charged just $1 to play a game that has one massive level, and in that level you will die many times as you try to jump through the sharpest, meanest traps imaginable. Even easy mode is murder, but at least the game checkpoints your progress, inch by painful inch."
"PLATFORMANCE: Castle Pain hits the perfect sweet spot between punishing difficulty and immense satisfaction at beating each obstacle. There may only be one level, but you’ll be surprised at how much they’ve managed to pack into it. Essentially, it’s an archetypal platformer that’ll make you dig out your NES all over again!"
XBox Live Indie Game of the Week
"At the end of the day I have to say I really enjoyed Platformance: Castle Pain even if it is a pain. So if you’re not in the need of a Snickers bar, I highly recommend that you purchase this game. How can you go wrong with such a well made and difficult game that’s only the price of a pack of gum? The only thing this game needs is Van Halen, and then it would be a crime not to get."
"Ever look at a game's instruction manual and think to yourself, "THERE'S TOO MUCH HERE!" Ever long for the days of left, right, and jump while still having a game that remains fun? Well, as long as you're alright with a short game that makes you cuss like a sailor, XBLIG Platformance: Castle Pain from Magiko Gaming just might be the profanity-inducing game for your simple needs."
“It’s not about getting to the end, it’s about getting to the end without dying and as quickly as you can, and there’s tons of gameplay when that’s your goal because the level is so fun that you have no issue with playing it over and over again.”
July's Best XBox Live Indie Game
“But the reason Platformance is in the Yay category is because despite its difficulty it isn’t punishingly difficult. In Platformance you control a charmingly pixilated knight on a quest to find and rescue a princess.”
Number 24 in "The 30 Coolest Xbox Indie Games"
"Overall, Platformance: Castle Pain is an enjoyable and entertaining Xbox Indie title that makes use of platformer aspects as well as medieval design to deliver an original gaming experience. Whether you’re a hardcore platformer addict or a casual gamer, this title will keep you enthralled in both rage and pleasure–it’s one of those games that you want to beat only to spite it and get revenge for the dozens of times you’ve died."
Score: 7.5 / 10
"Castle Pain, while punishing and frustrating, manages to also be charming and addictive."
Score: -1 ! (which is good actually!)
"The attractive presentation helps make multiple playthroughs enjoyable, offering up more than enough replay value to justify the 80 Microsoft Point price of entry."
"I wish you were in another castle, Princess."
"Still, despite a few (very minor) complaints about game length, PLATFORMANCE: Castle Pain is a fantastic indie title, both for its well-done pixel art and for its adorably-infuriating game difficulty. If PLATFORMANCE happens to be the beginning of a series, consider me hooked."
Game Score: 9/10.
Overall: 7
"It won’t take experienced platforming fans long to navigate through Platformance, but the harder difficulty levels do put up a sufficiently frustrating challenge. Its brevity isn’t something that can really be held against it though, since it manages to compact so much fun and so many interesting little segments into one tidy package. It has the perfect combination of retro graphics, music and charm that make it a must play for old-school fans."
"There’s no debating whether or not Platformance: Castle Pain is worth the asking price. It’s a creatively designed and challenging title that belongs on any platforming fan’s hard drive."
B+ Highly recommended
"Platformance: Castle Pain offers a unique, retro platforming adventure which is recommended to those on the lookout for a super-quick and altogether charming journey."
"The game feels akin to a notebook sketch come alive, a wanna-be level designer’s dreams fulfilled well beyond the paper’s pink margin lines."
Rating: 4 out of 5
XBLIG 2010: the ten best games
"Old school gaming, modern technology: Castle Pain's platforming action is carried out on a single-screen, HD-resolution map which you can zoom in on - and said map is fulled with plenty of set-pieces and traps to tax the skills of your super-deformed knight..."
Game developper Magazine (Feb 2011 Issue)
Part of the Best Xbox Live Indie Games of 2010
Underground Kings: The 25 Best Xbox Live Indie Games
"Big ideas and low prices often happily come together on XBLIG, and few titles do it as well as Magiko's debut platformer. What's the big idea? The level is the game; all the action occurs in one giant, continuous space that can be zoomed in and out of to focus on as you please, with any given area and challenge being but one tiny aspect of the greater whole. The difficulty scales superbly as you go, with higher levels adding more varied and in-depth obstacles, giving plenty of reason to go right back in for more after the initial romp."
"The game’s very cleverly designed, and very professional looking and feeling—if this were only the first of several levels, it could easily be a full XBLA game. "
"Platformance : Castle Pain is a game for Windows Phone 7 by Magiko Gaming. If you didn’t already figure it out its a platformer game, if you ask me a much more brutal version of Mario."
4 stars
"It's like a low-tech Limbo, and it's one of the best and most refreshing games on the Xbox Indie scene. It's hard, but no impossibly so, and completing the game even on easy feels like an accomplishment. An accomplishment that will have you cussing like a Tourette's sufferer on speed. I want a sequel!"
"Platformance doesn't take that long to play through but it has tons of replay value and is one of the tensest platformers I have ever played! It is really pretty tough and I felt a real sense of accomplishment every time I got past a difficult spot and reached the checkpoint. Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended.
Rating:Buy It($1!),Play It, Enjoy It!"
"Here’s a real gem of a game! Platformance: Castle Pain revels in how old school and punishing it is. See it’s deceivingly simple, and honestly the easier difficulties don’t prove to be much of a challenge at all. But once you crank up the difficulty, it becomes a gauntlet of countless deaths and infinite frustration. And it’s glorious."
"This is easily one of the most difficult games on the Xbox Live Indie Games channel. However, for those of you who do enjoy these types of games, welcome home…"
"Fans of N+ or Super Meat Boy will feel somewhat at home, though survival is just as much about puzzle-solving as it is twitch gameplay."