Game Reviews

Cally's Caves 4 review - More of the same, but done even better

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iOS
| Cally's Caves 4
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Cally's Caves 4 review - More of the same, but done even better
|
iOS
| Cally's Caves 4

Cally's Caves 4 picks up where the last game left off. But if you haven't played the first three, you should't let that put you off too much.

The story here plays second fiddle to the wonderfully slick retro platforming. And though some of the edges may have been smoothed off, there's still a glorious 16bit heart beating underneath all of the polish.

Cally me maybe

Once again you're controlling the titular hero. You need to make your way through a series of tricky levels, bashing the bad guys, collecting coins, and trying to reach a fabled medallion to cure your friend.

The controls here are wonderfully slick. Two buttons in the bottom left control your movement left and right, then a gaggle of other buttons on the bottom right handle your actions.

You can jump, slash your sword, or fire the projectile weapon that you've got equipped. There are some nice additions to the moveset as well. You get triple jump pretty early on, and a strafing mechanic lets you back away from monsters as you blast them.

While the game is easy to pick up and play, there's a decent level of challenged here too. A checkpoint system lets you jump back to the last point you saved, but they get more sparse the deeper you get into the experience.

The levels are laid out in a slightly strange way too. If you close the game mid-session, you'll have to start again from the last checkpoint you unlocked. Every time you die you lose some coins as well.

These coins can be spent on upgrading Cally and her moves. You can parry projectiles with your sword, but upgrading the skill makes it even stronger, for example.

Cave story

There's so much to like in Cally's Caves 4 that it's difficult to find fault with it. Yes, it's tough, yes it's frustrating in places, but the whole time you're playing you're likely to have a huge grin on your face.

If you're a fan of the series, or of old-school platformers in general, then do yourself a favour and pick this one up straight away.

Cally's Caves 4 review - More of the same, but done even better

A wonderfully well put together platformer that gets almost everything right
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.