Castle of Deceit (NES)

Castle of Deceit Box Art

Castle of Deceit

System: NES

Release Date: 1990

Developer: Bunch Games

Publisher: Bunch Games

Genre: Action

Take a wizard’s apprentice through hell in Castle of Deceit! You are… Eebo and it’s up to you to collect six runes from six different planes of existence. I’m sure that if you can’t the world will implode upon itself or something. So get ready to struggle through six levels.

Eebo jumps with the B Button and fires off a spell with the A Button. His magic fires off in a wave pattern and only one can be fired off at a time. Enemies don’t often like to get hit, so will jump up when you fire. Unfortunately, this makes your life less entertaining. Eebo is super floaty with his running and jumping, which will lead to many deaths.

Platforms can be incredibly difficult to land on properly. Causing you to get hit. Some enemies will drop health, but certainly not enough. You’re looking for keys to open up doors to the boss of the level. Here, you find one of the six runes you have to collect and a boss. Shoot them enough and they explode, allowing you to continue on. You start with three lives and have a few continues, as well. I made it to the fourth level, ran out of continues and decided that was more than enough for me.

Graphics: 1.5

I like the backgrounds and a couple of the animations, but it looks bad most of the time.

Sound: 1.0

You’ve got annoying music and sound effects.

Gameplay: 1.0

The controls are way too floaty and imprecise and there are no powerups.

Difficulty: 1.0

Too many enemies are bullet sponges and kill you as you enter a door.

Fun Factor: 0.0

This is a horrible game.

Overall Rating: 0.9

Castle of Deceit earns a D. Don’t be deceived by this garbage game and try something else, instead.

Castle of Deceit Video Review on YouTube