Vlad the Impaler, otherwise known as Dracula, has torched your family home and kidnapped your brother.  You are a tough as nails female archer who now must exact revenge on Dracula in this 2-D side scrolling action game.  Wallachia: Reign of Dracula combines elements from classic 8- and 16-bit titles like Castlevania and Contra, and it’s available on Switch and PC (reviewed on Switch here).

Your heroine in this game is way cooler than Simon Belmont from Castlevania.  Simon always controlled like he ate a big breakfast that morning, slowly lumbering around with a puny whip.  But this lady controls like she took her vitamins and ate a can of spinach that morning!  She’s agile and can double jump and fire arrows all over the place.  Because of that, the game reminds me of Contra as well.  She can also charge up her arrows for a piercing attack, swing a sword for close combat and deflecting arrows, and call a wolf for help if she collects enough orbs.  She can also switch skills and arrows she collects later in the game.

She’ll travel through seven spooky themed levels, which seems a bit short, but this game is HARD, even on the easy setting. Which is really the only problem I had with the game.  You don’t get very many hits, and when you lose all your lives, you must start over at the beginning of the last stage.  I know a lot of old classic games I used to rent and play were like this, I just don’t have the patience for that kind of thing anymore.  But if you are up to the challenge and enjoy classic games like Castlevania and Contra, you may want to check this out.

Kid Factor:

Wallachia: Reign of Dracula is rated T for Teen with ESRB descriptors of Blood, Mild Suggestive Themes, and Violence.  Most of these things are implied in the text only, which also is followed by spoken voice.  You’ll shoot soldiers with your arrows and defeated enemies may spew out a little bit of pixelated red stuff.  Some of the bad guys will remake on how pretty the heroine is and try to get her to join them, but that’s about it.  Reading skill is helpful for some of the text, and younger games may find it too difficult.

Tags: Game Reviews