The Tale of Kelda

Platformers can be designed without worrying about the story too much, given the fact that players are usually interested in the actual gameplay mechanics more than they are interested in who does what. Hence, you can easily put something together in a few days and forget all about writing character arches and intrigues to get people invested in the story.

The Tale of Kelda is about as simple as a platformer can get in almost every regard, which includes story, gameplay and graphics. In short, it’s the type of game you can pick up and finish without a second thought, and without having to analyze everything when you are done. On top of that, the game runs on every computer out there, which is yet another plus.

You play with what appears to be a princess of some kind who’s in danger, and the only way to get away from danger is to take on a journey alone. As such, the princess has to confront skeletons and wraiths on her own, which is easier said than done. On the other hand, you can perform only a handful of simple actions, so the gameplay is anything but complex.

The princess can attack using a melee swipe or a ranged missile, both of which come in handy in different situations. However, the ranged attack has a rather annoying charging phase, which prevents you from performing smooth attacks. On the other hand, it’s just as simple to keep using the melee attack instead, at least if your fingers are quick enough to handle close encounters.

As mentioned before, the graphics are just as basic as the rest of the game, and that much is obvious from the second you press play. The color theme is basically a combination of two or three shades of green, while everything else is as pixelated as possible. The retro vice should be enough for some players, while others might curse the fact that the low resolution makes it difficult to see obstacles sometimes.

Even if it doesn’t have what it takes to rewrite the history of the genre, The Tale of Kelda is fun enough to keep you glued to the screen for a few minutes. The difficulty level is quite high, which is yet another reason to give it a try.