Wonder Blade has just released for the Nintendo Switch and not to sound like 90’s David Spade, I liked it… when it was called Castle Crashers.
Title: Wonder Blade
Developer: East2west Games
Publisher: East2west Games
Platforms: Nintendo Switch (reviewed on), PC, PS4
Release Date: October 29, 2020
When I was first tasked with reviewing Wonder Blade I went into this ready to do a standard review. What it ended up becoming is a lot different, if not, familiar. Much like the intro to My Brother, My Brother and Me states, “It’s familiar, but not too familiar, but not too not familiar.”
Despite coming out originally in 2018, I knew absolutely nothing about this game. When I looked it up and watched the trailer from Puppet Depot Game Studios two words popped into my head, “Castle Crashers.”
Further Googling shows I wasn’t alone. A lot of people have made this comparison and the creator, Yu Feng Huang, even did an interview with Forbes where, without being prompted, immediately asked people to avoid comparing this game to Castle Crashers — while also saying Castle Crashers was a direct inspiration.
But see, I’m different, I have a weird connection to Castle Crashers. I went to high school with Behemoth Games’ Dan Paladin who was largely responsible for Castle Crashers. My 11th-grade yearbook has a picture of Dan Paladin doing a kickflip in front of the school. I was in his home when he showed me early concept work for his first game Alien Hominid. I know Castle Crashers uncomfortably well so when I play it, I knew it down to its source.
See, Wonder Blade is a paradox of sorts. If we had a timeline where Castle Crashers didn’t exist, Wonder Blade would be a fine game I’d absolutely be excited for. But I also don’t think that Wonder Blade would exist if Castle Crashers didn’t exist as a template, so I don’t think that’s possible.
It’s not just the art and gameplay that’s similar though. When you start Castle Crashers, your character is in a castle when the baddie attacks, interrupting festivities. You then run out of the area by passing between two training dummies.
When you play Wonder Blade, however, your character is in a castle when the baddie attacks, interrupting festivities. You then run out of the area by passing between two training dummies.
The similarities don’t just end there though. The leveling system works the exact same way where, each time you level up you assign points to the same four stats; attack, speed, defense and luck.
The weapon unlock system is also the same. As you fight enemies, there’s a chance they’ll drop their signature weapon. Standing over it will bring up an alarmingly similar little window that shows the stat changes that comes with it, just like in Castle Crashers.
If you pick up a coin from an enemy it makes the exact same sound it does in Castle Crashers.
The benefit of this is that the game is good. It doesn’t feature the multiplayer elements of its mentor and the stages are incredibly tedious at times (there is an elevator stage that feels like it goes up a million feet in the air) but the controls are good and the gameplay is fun. But again, it’s because the ideas are heavily borrowed.
And I get it, a lot of games in this setting have similar stories. Baddie steals thing, you gotta go through the kingdom and get it back. So I can see why you’d start in a castle and immediately end up in the forest for the second stage, making your way to an evil castle. I get that.
What I don’t get is this.
There’s a moment in Castle Crashers in which you are suddenly chased by a large crawling creature with a beat-up face. You escape it by hopping on the back of a scared deer and fleeing down a long corridor as the thing chases you. It’s a really unique moment and one that many Castle Crashers players know well. That would be weird if that happened in Wonder Blade right?
Right. Instead, the exact same thing happens only now you’re on a pig instead.
This is why the game is hard to review.
Indulge me for a second. My dad is a car guy. His favorite car is his GT40. Here’s me in his driveway pretending I will ever have money that he does.
In addition to loving cars, he loves car shows. When he goes to a car show in the GT he makes it a point to talk to the judges when he gets there. He tells them that he doesn’t want to take place in any competitions and he doesn’t want them to go near his car.
See, to my dad, it’s not fair. There are people there who restored cars and made them amazing. They tuned the engine, replaced parts, repaired various pieces. Meanwhile, all my dad did was pay an insane amount of money for a vehicle. He didn’t do anything. He didn’t create anything. He’s just showing off something someone else did. And because of that, he doesn’t think it’s fair that other people would have to compete against him in any category.
This is how I am here. Wonder Blade is a fun game. But it’s fun because Castle Crashers was fun. It has the exact same combos and control system I was familiar with from Castle Crashers and that’s why the controls felt so good; because I had already played it. So how do I review something of someone’s that is just them showing off someone else’s car?
The art isn’t bad. The game is fun even though it has the same amount of enemies as Castle Crashers without the ability to have multiplayer. This means you’re grinding a lot. And the controls are good.
The major faults, again, are that some stages are very tedious and a lot of set pieces are repeated many times, like the background in an old Flintstones cartoon. But ultimately this is like someone ordered Castle Crashers off of Wish. My recommendation is that if you want a game like Castle Crashers for Switch, get Castle Crashers, play it with your friends, look at them and be grateful that you made the right choice.
A copy of this game was provided to App Trigger for the purpose of this review. All scores are ranked out of 10, with .5 increments. Click here to learn more about our Review Policy.