You know how sometimes, you can play a critically acclaimed or popular game, and it just doesn’t click with you?

That’s how I feel about this dual Evercade cartridge, which features the two recent, Mega Drive/Genesis platformers,  Demons of Asteborg and Astebros.

They’re both very well made, at least, and I’ve certainly given them more than a fair shot in terms of playtime. Yet perhaps it’s just because this cartridge immediately followed Goodboy Galaxy/Witch N’Wiz, which featured my most played Evercade game, well, ever.

The Metroidvania-style gameplay in Goodboy Galaxy was pretty peerless on Blaze’s retro system. Demons of Asteborg, with its hack and slash, action-RPG gameplay, and characters with impressively versatile movesets, tends to frustrate with its punishing level of difficulty.

The roguelike action of Astebros is better, especially as it can be played by 2 players simultaneously (providing you have an Evercade VS or Alpha, of course), but I still didn’t find it particularly compelling in the long run.

I really wasn’t that bothered about these two titles, and the fact that there are only two, when both feel nothing more than competent, means there aren’t even any other titles to sweeten the deal.

Still, if 16-bit platformers with a bit of depth are your thing, this may be up your street. It seems to have been well received, at least, but ultimately it just wasn’t for me.

You can buy Demons of Asteborg/Astebros from Amazon.

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