The Legend of the Dark Witch 2

Genre: Action-Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

The Legend of the Dark Witch 2 is an Action-Platformer released on Nintendo 3DS in 2015 and ported to PC in 2017. This game has players taking the role of a witch fighting against a group of witchy enemy “researchers” working for a hostile army, each residing in a different area with its own theme.

Much as with the first game in the series, Legend of the Dark Witch 2 plays a lot like a Mega Man game, with players taking on the opposing witch researchers in any order, and with each of them surrendering their unique weapon to you when you defeat them. What’s more, this game combines this structure with an in-game shop and a Gradius-style upgrade system to enable players to get even more powerful in a way they can manage as they progress through the game’s levels.

Unfortunately, while this formula is great in theory, the execution has multiple problems. Firstly, its stage design is largely uninspired. While individual stages may look visually interesting and have unique themed enemies, they are mechanically lacking any sort of nuance or truly unique element setting them apart. There’s just not a lot to the platforming here beyond walking to the right and jumping over pits as you approach them, while constantly firing to easily take out enemies.

Ah, that’s another issue – this game is laughably easy. Even on the most challenging difficulty level, mowing down enemy forces requires little effort, and while the bosses are slightly less of a pushover, these can generally be defeated by brute forcing your way through them and tanking hits when they fight back.

The presentation here is at least decent, making use of cutesy chibi-style 2D pixel art visuals that are colorful and often feature some nice animation, but the often-simplistic layout of the game’s stages adds an amateurish element to this game’s visuals that keeps things from ever becoming especially impressive. And the game also features decent but forgettable music and Japanese-language voice acting for all its characters, but the story being told here is silly bordering on nonsensical.

In the end, The Legend of the Dark Witch 2 is still an enjoyable game for players wanting a lighter, easier take on the Mega Man formula. But most players will likely find the stages boring and the challenge level far too easy. You have better options on the Nintendo 3DS.

tl;dr – The Legend of the Dark Witch 2 is an Action-Platformer with gameplay similar to the Mega Man franchise, but with cutesy witches instead of cutesy robots. Unfortunately, the stage design here is far too simple, and the challenge level is absurdly easy. It’s not a terrible game, but you have better options on the Nintendo 3DS.

Grade: C+

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