Albacete Warrior is an interesting game. It is a brawler but uses purposely designed chunky 2D pixelated sprites within large 3D environments. The opening stage introduces the player to main gameplay elements, but just when you start to sink your teeth into campaign, level 2 happens…
What happens at the very beginning of the second stage? You can watch the embedded stream below.
In order to progress, the player needs to traverse a waterfall vertically. The problem is, the wall jumping mechanic is broken, loose, and highly inconsistent. After many attempts, I made it near the top, then fell all the way to the bottom only to be tasked with doing it again. Making matters worse, if you tap the surrounding water, you instantly lose a decent chunk of health. This stream was just one attempt at completing this impossible task. After more attempts off screen, I rage quit and immediately deleted this game from my hard drive, never to be played again. There is no need to make level two so difficult especially since it is no fault to the player’s skill. A shame because I enjoyed the brawler gameplayer of level one.
If you are going to force a specific gameplay segment on the player, in this case a vertical climb up a waterfall, the player should have all the tools to complete this task. After a long period of time struggling with the controls and without making any progress, no player would want to continue either. Therefore, I think Albacete Warrior has a lot in common with NES Battletoads. The first brawler stage is fun but then the player hits the impossible speeder bike level and will never know what happens in those later stages. But that initial taste seemed pretty cool so you can only wonder.
Also Try: Breakneck City
Not As Funny As: Drunken Fist 2
For Co-Op Play: Jitsu Squad
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
Twitter: @ZackGaz
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