2D side scrollers come in various guises but all have had a bit of a tough time recently. It’s a genre that’s been out of fashion with the big production companies since the last generation of consoles came to power, however its pretty much tailor made for a place like the Xbox Live Arcade. Limbo and Shadow Complex have been around on the arcade for a few years and show that 2D still has its place. More recently BattleBlock Theatre has made an appearance and received favourable reviews (not least from our own Gingerneo) but the real big hitter over the last few years has been Castle Crashers which nailed the side scrolling action down to a tee. That aside, a decent brawler is what we’ve been wanting to see since the glory days of the late 80’s allowed us access to the first releases of Double Dragon and Golden Axe.
So, Sacred Citadel, what is it? The story goes that the Ashen Empire has created an army of Grimmocs and are at war with the Seraphim. Our merry band of warriors must unite in order to restore peace to the world of Ancaria.......blahdy blahdy blah.
Still with me? Good, but you don’t really wanna know about all that rubbish. What’s much more important is that it plays well and brings back the button bashing good old days, so does it?
Yes, well very nearly anyway.
If you’re looking for a cell shaded side scrolling action brawler with a hint of rpg leveling up action then I think you’ll be wanting to take a look at this, (you know you’ve always wanted to play one of those right!?), even more so if you have friends who are also looking for something to pass the time. In good old Golden Axe style you’re presented with the option of playing as one of 4 characters (Warrior, Ranger, Mage or Shaman), each being armed with the mighty sword and then one other weapon depending on your choice of character. As you would come to expect, each character plays very differently but for the most part all enemies are quite easily despatched. You do sometimes find them popping out from all over the place so there’s never really a case of storming through any levels mind. Obviously end of levels are protected by the usual big-boss-baddies and these put up a fair old fight if you are alone. However, with friends, a little teamwork and a big slice of luck, they are taken down pretty easily.
In fact when you get a friend or two playing the game with you it positively shines. Both online and split screen mulitplayers see a maximum of 3 players getting involved at any one time and you definitely notice a difference in gameplay and strategy depending on what character each and every player chooses.
Each level end sees you rewarded with damage, health and time bonuses and a gold/silver or bronze feather to acknowledge how well you have done. Throughout the levels you’ll find yourself leveling up, collecting bigger badass weapons and unlocking new moves, to start with on a rather frequent basis. Leveling up allows you to assign skill points to a number of different attributes depending on how you wish to play the game and these upgrades are essential to surviving the fight against the Empire. A slight issues raises its ugly head in that if you jump into a game with a higher ranked player, in no time at all you’ll find yourself flying through the ranks and boosting your way to victory. I’m not entirely sure this is intentional on the developers part and so may get fixed in a patch at some point but it’s not really a massive game changer. It does however mean that when you go back to a single player game you’ll find yourself flying through the early levels easier than normal due to your new higher ranked character. I know there are a fair few ‘boosters’ amongst us and if you are one of them you may even find this rewarding. I’m not too sure myself.
Any other bad news? Not really, but a small letdown is that day one DLC is a very murky subject amongst gamers and unfortunately we have some here. A 400 point piece of downloadable content sees you having to track down ‘Big Mama’, the evil Grimmocs leader, who has escaped back into the jungle with a stolen artifact. This adds in an extra 3 levels of gameplay but I do wonder why it wasn’t already included in a game that costs 1200 MS points.
Achievement hunters will be glad to hear that the majority of the cheevos are easily attainable even if a little grinding will need to take place. As with the majority of new XBLA releases, Sacred Citadel comes with 400 points of gamerscore off the bat and has an additional 100 points available through the content add on.
If you’re prepared to overlook the occasional slight dodgy 80’s style and usual repetitive button bashing that is always found with this style of game, you’ll have a great time trying to defeat the empire in Sacred Citadel. With 20 stages spread over the course of 4 acts there is a fair bit of gameplay to be found in this. If you add in the recently released DLC, you’ll be finding yourself a game that will keep you occupied for the best part of 15 hours, even more so if you want to go back to check out all 4 characters or hit it seriously hard with numerous friends. For a tenner, you can’t really go wrong.
