Angel’s Punishment

Genre: Metroidvania

Players: 1

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Review:

Angel’s Punishment is a Metroidvania released on Nintendo Switch in 2021 that has players taking the role of an angel who sheds his wings and immortality to descend to Earth and fight an infestation of demons.

The presentation here is good, but extremely repetitive, with pixel art visuals depicting a castle sorely lacking in diversity, and enemies without much animation. This is backed by a subdued piano theme that is similarly extremely repetitive.

As for the gameplay, it’s clear that this game’s creator was inspired by Castlevania games like Symphony of the Night, but this game fails to get anywhere even remotely close to that level of quality. The pacing is frustratingly slow, the repetitive nature of the castle makes it easy to get lost, you see the same half-dozen creatures repeated ad nauseum, new abilities are handed out far too slowly and are not very inspired or original, your abilities require excessive grinding to power up, hit detection is bad… there is a lot that this game gets wrong.

The thing is, I can see a glimmer of potential in this game to be a bargain-bin Metroidvania… but even this potential is sullied by the game’s absolutely ludicrous $25 price tag. It’s clear what’s going on here though – the creator is banking on the game going on sale for $2 to tout the massive 92% discount this represents… and even beyond how sleazy this is, it’s dubious that this game is even worth the $2. However, that $25 price tag? That’s so absurd one wonders just what universe anyone would see this as worthwhile, especially now that the phenomenal Castlevania Advance Collection has been released on the Nintendo Switch at a mere $20.

Don’t be fooled into thinking you’re getting a good deal on this low-rent Metroidvania if you see it on sale. Angel’s Punishment is a game absolutely loaded with problems, and this game should have been priced at $2 to begin with. Even then, it’d be a tough sell on a platform that has so many truly great Metroidvanias.

tl;dr – Angel’s Punishment is a Metroidvania that’s clearly trying to imitate Castlevania, but it falls far short of this due to a wide range of problems like terrible pacing, poor hit detection, and extremely repetitive visuals and gameplay. On top of this, the game is using absurd pricing to try to game the Nintendo Switch eShop. Don’t be fooled into thinking you’re getting a deal by buying this Metroidvania – you’re far better off spending a bit more and getting a game that’s actually good.

Grade: D+

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