Protect Me Knight is a great hack-n-slash game with meager strategy/rpg elements. So it depends what you're looking for.
High Paced Frenetic Action: Non-stop challenge
Clear Homage to NES Games: Blowing on Cartridges Spoof and poor but Funny translated Japanese
Solid Replay Value: Multiple Difficulty levels to suit your skill level and 4 character types
Mediocre Genre Mashup: Performative Hack-n-Slash overshadows slim Strategy/RPG elements
Pixelated visuals are charming but nothing special
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Xbox Indie Games has been sneak-attacked recently by the surprise hit Protect Me Knight, which despite moderate downloads (likely due to its 240 MS cost, a tad on the high side) has received stellar player ratings, making it one of the highest rated games by fans to date on XBIG. It turns out that this game isn't quite as far out of left field as advertised, however, since Yuzo Koshiro's Ancient Corp (called ANCxna for XBIG purposes) is behind the project (responsible for Super Smash Bros). So we should expect a game changer? Well, yes and no.
Quite frankly there's a lot to like about Protect Me Knight, not the least of which is cleverly making this game appear to be a Japanese import. The ironic sensibility is certainly welcome. Perhaps my favorite part of the game was the introduction, where you repeatedly press A to blow on a cartridge, insert it only to see fuzz and then repeat nearly 20 times. Gosh, those were the days! And of course the artwork is clearly meant to resemble that of the ol' NES too, though I found the visual sty*le to be less interesting than the poorly translated in-game instructions, which are chock full of hilarious poorly-worded English translations. In fact, the instructions alone could be half the fun of this game... But aside from the quirky throwback sensibility of Protect Me Knight, how does it stand up? Well that depends. If you're looking for a frenetic hack-n-slash game that's nonstop action, then Protect Me Knight will deliver. If you're looking for more of a strategy or rpg-type game, then you'll likely be disappointed, if only because it was billed as equally action and strategy/rpg.
In terms of gameplay, in Protect Me Knight your goal is to protect a (rather helpless) princess from round after round of hoards of oncoming goblins, ghosts, and other evil minions. The action is nonstop, and pretty fun, especially with the option of up to 3 extra players in co-op, though not entirely deep. Every three rounds, which typically end with a boss of sorts trouncing your fun, you'll have the opportunity to "level up" your character based on how you did those previous rounds, which are translated to "love points" awarded by the princess. Given that you can choose from 4 different character types to play with (like a Fighter or Amazon), you'll be able to level hit points or attack damage or your specific type of attack using these points. You only have four options to upgrade, however, so there's not much thought or choice required here, as you'll level most of them up pretty far. The rounds get progressively more difficult over time, and at a steady pace, which means you'll need to be focused on smashing some goblins nonstop throughout to earn those love points.
Along with the weak character leveling, you'll also partake in some weak strategy. Your princess will be (in most levels) surrounded by a set of barricades which the goblins will attack in order to take her out. At any time, though usually between rounds, you can repair, build, and upgrade these defenses to help protect her. Doing this requires you spend some of your valuable love points, however, so there's not much incentive to get carried away building a fortress. Certainly you can strengthen some barriers and then focus on protecting a weaker area, but really you'll likely just run around killing as many goblins as possible, and only in emergency will you dive into build back a section of your defenses.
So Protect Me Knight is a pretty darn fun action game with some throwaway extras that could've amounted to more. Deeper strategy elements (like having a time period to set up your defenses from scratch every round) and more real leveling options would've made Protect Me Knight the complete package. And while i can appreciate retro graphics and sound (especially in the context of the hilarity mentioned above) they didn't do much for me here; i would've rather seen a stronger aesthetic presentation. But don't let those negatives get you down if you like action, because there's a ton of it here.
Bottom line, your enjoyment of Protect Me Knight will depend on what you want from the game. It can be seen either as a great action game or a meager genre mashup. Either way, i will say that it IS fun to play, so consider doing what others have been doing for a while now and checking this title out.
7.8/10