Golden Force
Rating Summary
Based on 21 critic reviews
OpenCritic Rating
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Top Critic
Golden Force is an excellent side-scrolling action platformer with some of the best boss fights I've seen for quite some time. With brilliant combat and combo mechanics and four varied islands to explore, Golden Force will surprise just as much as it entertains.
Top Critic
Golden Force is a fun and varied 2d action game, but you'll need a lot of patience to overcome its challenging difficulty.
Top Critic
There's a good game in here somewhere and I really want it to break the surface, but performance issues and questionable difficulty are holding down a great game.
Top Critic
Golden Force's few redeeming qualities are completely overshadowed by its horrendous frame rate and long list of technical problems.
Top Critic
Golden Force doesn't quite have what it takes to be as good as the classics, but it's still a fairly fun time in its own right. It has some issues that make it a bit of an annoyance in some spots, but it still mostly does what it aims to.
Top Critic
Golden Force harkens back to the days of difficult Super NES-era games, but the difficulty at times doesn't feel natural. Between some enemies occasionally spawning nearly right in front of you, the occasional dropping framerate with numerous enemies on the screen, and the issues with the camera when moving downwards, coupled with long boss fights–including right at the start–the game can be a bit too difficult for some players and turn them off altogether. Buying things in the shop helps a bit. But as expensive as they are you won't be buying too many in each world without grinding out coins. Overall it's not a bad game, but the difficulty seems a bit high. And with the game as short as it is, you're either going to have issues with its difficulty, or complete the game rather quickly.
Top Critic
It's disappointing that Golden Force falls down in the areas that it does, because without these fixable issues it would be an easy recommendation – level design is mostly strong, the boss battles marry spectacle with varied and fun-to-learn attack strings nicely, and it feels good to get stronger and play better. Unfortunately, some rookie errors come close to spoiling the fun altogether, but if you're bloody-minded enough to muscle through these frustrations there is undoubtedly a lot to appreciate about Golden Force. Which is a shame, in a sense, because "Golden Farce" would have been a perfect tagline for this review. The one we've had to opt for is rubbish, by comparison. (It's not as easy as you might think, this game-reviewing lark.)
Top Critic
Golden Force is a fun, retro, side-scrolling experience not for the faint of heart. Full of challenging battles and pixelated fun, this run-n-gun will keep you on your toes.
Top Critic
Golden Force doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it does the nearly-impossible by offering a truly 16-bit experience, from sprite-based visuals to the tough-as-nails difficulty. If Gunstar Heroes copulated with Rocket Knight Adventures, Golden Force would be its beautiful brood. Just don't go digging for the easy mode, it simply doesn't exist.
Top Critic
In all, Golden Force was unfortunately pretty disappointing.
Top Critic
Taken on its own, Golden Force is decent. It looks wonderful, with some solid combat mechanics and very engaging boss fights. Start to compare it to other pixel platformers on the system, and you'll come to lament the forced trial-and-error gameplay, tedious combat, and unnecessarily broken upgrade economy. Patient players may stick it out, but for everyone else, the Switch has plenty of other well-crafted platformers.
Top Critic
My initial impressions were much stronger than my later ones, and as I made my way through the different stages, conquered the bosses, and replayed stages to seek out more coins and collectables, the weaknesses became more prominent and the strengths less so. My understanding is that the developers are aware of some of these issues, so this could turn into a somewhat decent title in the future. At present, though, if there's an alchemy to turn lead into gold, it's sorely needed here.
Top Critic
If you have the patience to persevere through its irritatingly tricky segments, Golden Force can be a rewarding fun-filled adventure.
Golden Force is an enjoyable romp, but its steep difficulty and straightforward design prevent it from rising above the trappings of the games that inspired it. It’s definitely worth a look for anyone who enjoys the run ‘n’ gun style of the games of yore, even if it can be controller-throwingly difficult.
Superbird Games has managed to create a fun and at the same time demanding game with pixel art graphics, which bring nostalgia to fans of retro-style.
Review in Greek | Read full review
So overall, while Golden Force does have some shiny moments, a lot of the adventure falls flat which is unfortunate as it has multiple elements that could have made for a stellar retro inspired adventure.
Golden Force is competent in what it proposes and is a good entertainment throughout its duration. However, some dedication and attention to details such as variation in the gameplay and presentation screen would bring more elements for the game to go beyond the basics and stand out in the middle of the ocean.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The uneven balance of difficulty rooted in its main gameplay causes this gem to be a little duller than I’d like.
Golden Force attempts to relive the retro gameplay of yesteryear but, in some ways, falls on its own sword due to a number of issues. It is marketed as “Old school difficulty (but not so frustrating).” This ends up not being quite so true because of the aforementioned gameplay and technical issues, which range from instances of poor level design to noticeable frame rate issues. If you are not hardcore, then I can’t recommend this game due to the punishing gameplay. If you’re interested, I’d say this is probably one to grab when on sale unless you’re sure you’ll enjoy it. Some of the special collectibles are very hard to find, and between that and improving your performance on each stage, it will keep you busy for a long while. It’s certainly not the best retro-inspired title out there, as there are certainly a number of others that play better than this one. Golden Force is available on the Nintendo Switch eShop for $19.99, as well as on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. It is also coming to Steam sometime in Q1 2021.
If you like your 2D hack and slash games with challenging gameplay Golden Force is well worth picking up. But if you’re picking this up for co-op I’d say be careful. Also, additional difficulty settings and less gold grinding to get new items would have made this experience more accessible for a wider audience. That being said, Golden Force does have that retro old school feel of pattern recognition that will appeal to some gamers. Plus it has the coolest old man character I’ve played as in a video game in recent memory. Nice work.
