Wizardous: An Apprentice's Betrayal Review

Having all the classic traits one would expect to see from an 8-bit style platformer, David Dahl's Wizardous: An Apprentice’s Betrayal tells the story of an old wizard tasked with guarding the secrets of the eternal fire. However, all goes awry when the wizard is betrayed by the one person he thought would never betray him: his assistant. With the eternal fire now in the hands of the evil assistant, it becomes the old wizard's quest to regain the eternal fire and the secrets it holds.

Wizardous works on a simple two-directional control system allowing the player to move back and forth in the game's castle-like environment. Navigating the sometimes treacherous platforms, the player is required to collect magic in order to unveil the location of the next key. The key will not materialize if the player fails to acquire enough magic to summon it, and if one doesn't have the key one can't unlock the door to the next level.

As the player progresses, Wizardous throws other obstacles into the mix such as pits filled with body-skewering spikes. In order to ensure the wizard doesn't fall to his untimely death players will have jump these pits. Tapping the direction button one wishes to move, then tapping the jump button located to the right will see the wizard leap to the other side safely. If the obstacle players are trying to avoid is particularly large in length they can tap the jump control twice, in quick succession, to perform a double-jump. In later levels they'll also find ladders that must be scaled by continuously holding down the jump button. The old wizard will automatically climb down ladders when approaching them.

Throughout the game there are a number of checkpoints which can be taken advantage of, in order to ensure players don't lose their progress. What's great about this is that, in the event the old wizard should die, he will automatically re-spawn at that last saved checkpoint. If one should find themselves in a sticky situation that they can't seem to get out of, though, they can also return to this point at any time by tapping the little button at the top marked with a downward arrow.

While I did find the controls a little fiddly - specifically when trying to change direction quickly - there's no taking away from the fact that Wizardous is a fun and beautifully-animated RPG platformer with an enchanting and uplifting electronic soundtrack to match.

Currently its an “early release,” and thus available for the discounted price of $0.99. Wizardous: An Apprentice’s Betrayal contains 30 increasingly difficult levels as of writing, with levels 31-40 set to arrive with the “official release” of the game next week on November 14. Once released, this final version of the game will also include story-based cutscenes - and those who have already purchased an early version of Wizardous: An Apprentice’s Betrayal will be automatically eligible to receive the full version, free of charge.