Thank you Causal Bit Games for the review code.

I want to get something out of the way at the beginning of today's review. While I received the PC version to review I actually ended up buying the Nintendo Switch version of Battle Princess Madelyn. For some reason, my controller had a problem with attacking upwards whether I used my keyboard or controller. When I tested other games everything seemed to be working fine. However, from what I've gathered this bug is unique to me and no one else seems to have this problem. Most likely it is something to do with my computer setup. The controls on the Nintendo Switch version are excellent. With that out of the way, I can happily say Battle Princess Madelyn is a decent experience inspired by the famous Ghosts 'n Goblins series.

Battle Princess Madelyn was inspired by a seven-year-old's wish to be in her father's favorite game, Ghosts 'n Goblins. An evil overlord kidnaps Madelyn's family and kills Fritzy, the family dog. With hope in her heart and the spirit of her slain companion following her, she goes on an adventure to slay evil and save the world. A lot has improved from when I reviewed the pre-alpha state of the game yet it didn't quite hit the mark of perfection I was hoping for.

So you have two modes to choose from, Arcade mode and Story mode. In Arcade mode it's an experience similar to Ghosts 'n Goblins; you go through several side-scrolling stages, you beat bosses and you rinse and repeat until you beat the last boss and you save the day. In Story mode, you have branching paths, hub towns, larger levels to explore and more. You'll have quests that you can complete that will give you more items and upgrades as you progress through each level.

The Arcade mode is where I got most of my fun. I enjoyed the experience and it lived up to its Ghosts 'n Goblins comparison. Stage design, music and enemy variety were all perfect. The story mode wasn't as good. The quests aren't very fun; most of them were fetch quests or kill this boss to get a thing. The weapons themselves, while fun to use, don't make for good quest rewards especially if you play through arcade mode first.

Story mode tries to design itself around “metroidvania” style ideas, exploring and searching for power-ups in absorbing, ambiance filled environments. It gets half of the formula right; the music is excellent and matches the ambiance of the stages. The enemies fit the environment of each stage and the stages themselves are well drawn, and it was fun just to admire the detail in the artwork. However, unlike games like Castlevania or Super Metroid, the story mode stages were boring to backtrack through. It was tedious to go back through stages that were arcade mode stages made larger, and the power-ups never felt worth it. In Ghosts 'n Goblins that didn't matter because weapons were for playstyle choices, not progression. You will see people get through that game with the worst weapons as a challenge. Yet when you make Ghosts 'n Goblins style weapons rewards for quest completion and exploration, you feel like you got cheated.

There's not any serious moral concerns in this game. Magic isn't focused on and watered down to a video game gimmick. Yes, the game has zombies and ghosts but the supernatural element isn't played up for anything serious or influential.

Despite a story mode that feels like it's tacked on to add more content to the game, Battle Princess Madelyn is a fun experience and I hope to see Causal Bit Games grow from here.