Kid Warlock Review

Kid Warlock would be a solid action game if it weren't so sloppy and bland. The foundation is all there--big sprawling levels, an array of weapons, and diverse enemy AI patterns--but it's held together by a disjointed and awkward appearance and poorly put-together controls. For all its depth, Kid Warlock just isn't fun to play.

It's a fight against evil, and poor collision detection.

Your job in Kid Warlock is to guide a young warlock apprentice through a number of dangerous environments, retrieve a magical wand, and defeat a Dracula-esque enemy named Morthos. The game consists of 10 levels, a few of which are boss fights, and they vary from fire-enemy-infested dungeons to gargoyle-infused skies. Kid Warlock ends up being a substantial five to six hours long, but the longevity is due in part to the way the game's controls will send you careening off platforms, requiring you to repeat sections of the level multiple times.

Kid Warlock packs in a large amount of platforming. Unfortunately, for a game so dependent on precision controls, your character is not at all responsive. The majority of the game is 2D, which means that the directional buttons only let you jump, crouch, and move side to side. Frequently you'll be required to jump to the right and left, which is executed by moving in the desired direction and then jumping. When this is necessary on a small platform, it's quite awkward, and there's little room for error. Kid Warlock doesn't take fall damage, thankfully, but a misstep can still put you pretty far back on some levels. Further frustrations in control result from strange collision detection on platforms. Although you'll likely get used to it after playing through the game a bit, landing in a platform's general area does not necessarily mean you're going to land on it. In fact, if you don't take a very precise approach, you'll pass through and fall to the area below. Enemies fall prey to similar collision problems, getting stuck and passing through floors and walls, making their predictable patrol patterns much more erratic.

On the flip side, the enemies are varied and well designed. Each one has a different type of attack and weakness, and there are enough enemies to keep the game interesting throughout its 10 levels. In fact, some of them are quite cool, like the trolls that heave boulders behind them, tossing the rocks back and forth over their shoulders when you're nearby. The weapons at Kid Warlock's disposal make fighting that much more interesting. Although you have one default attack, you can discover a number of different spells on each level. Since the default attack has a limited range, you'll benefit from finding the other spells, such as the ice magic, which will freeze enemies in position, or the fire magic, which is stronger than all the other spells. The environments are fairly large, which means that most of the spells and assorted health pickups are located off the beaten path. Hunting for the power-ups produces a difficult trade-off, since finding the alternative spells makes your gameplay experience easier, but fully exploring the environments does not. Additional frustrations involve a number of gameplay limitations and bugs. You can't switch weapons while moving, and you can't change directions while crouching (or even move, for that matter). While there are neat jump pads that let you access higher areas, they're quite difficult to operate properly.

Some of the enemies are original and quite cool.

The graphics are quite detailed, but this works against the game on the LG VX7000. The shading and detail on the wispy character take away from his overall presence, and on certain levels, the color scheme of the background blends in with the character. The level of detail is quite surprising, since the game goes way beyond the call of duty, giving life to the stained-glass windows in the background and lighting to even some of the smallest objects. There are no sound effects in the game, but the music is quite good and is always thematically appropriate. You'll want to leave the music on since it lends itself well to the presentation of the game.

Kid Warlock is detailed and thoughtful in its construction, but the gameplay is quite frustrating. In most cases, it's simply too hard to look past the shoddy control system to appreciate the better aspects of the game. With a substantial reworking of its controls, Kid Warlock might be worth recommending, but as it stands, you should let the prodigal apprentice bumble his way to glory on his own.