Micro Mages
Year: 2019
Rating: E10+
Time Played: ~1 hour
Six years ago, I watched an enthralling YouTube video from Morphcat Games that described their process of creating a brand new video game that could still fit on the hardware for the original Nintendo cartridge. Of course, this was in itself an advertisement for their game, Micro Mages. Since I still owned the hardware to run an original Nintendo game, I backed their Kickstarter and eventually received my game. Now I show this game off to my friends at regular intervals and let them in on the secret: it came out in 2019.
The game itself is fairly simple, but with just enough difficulty to require a few play-throughs to get a hang of it and beat the last boss. Its vertical platformer layout is unique for its genre, but it’s even more unique in its ability to support four players simultaneously (assuming you have the adapters for the Nintendo to expand the controller spots from two to four). As for the controls, these characters have really smooth movements that are easy to control and are satisfying to use.
While Micro Mages provides the player with many chances to increase the difficulty of their climb up these towers via alternate routes and areas that are challenging to reach as the level scrolls slowly upward, the easiest path doesn’t provide too much of a challenge once you figure out the enemy attack patterns. If you know what you’re doing, you can easily get through the game in a half hour. Probably even less if you’re playing with equally skilled friends. Still, I have to hand it to Morphcat Games for creating an iconic retro experience that one can still play on retro hardware.
A modern retro platformer, I give Micro Mages 3.5 stars out of 5.
1/2
