The Age of Heroes (2019)

 

Psytronik Software was founded in 1993, during the waning days of the Commodore 64. All these years later, not only are they still releasing C64 games but they're arguably stronger than ever. Created by Achim Volkers and Trevor Storey, with music by Saul Cross, Age of Heroes is a Rastan-like game in which you pick either a male or female warrior - there's no difference in their abilities - and battle the ancient evil that has arisen to plague the land. The usual thing. I like Psytronik's work because even if the games are blatantly derivative, they only are so out of love and there's a sense of cool to their products. The cover art to their games, often by Storey, favorably evokes the games that Psygnosis used to publish.

After completing the first level, the game offers the player a map depicting other available levels to play. The player in each level must travel from left to right across the scrolling landscape and gather improved weapons or jewels that can unlock portals to later levels. It uses an RPG-like leveling system based on score and the player is encouraged to return to easier levels and grind for more experience or health items if they're worn down a bit. 

The game initially is quite easy, almost to the point of feeling dull, although a loss of patience can allow the game to sneak up on the player and bring him down, and the player gets only one life per game. Beating the game, however, unlocks the aptly named Challenge Mode, which does away with the map/level choosing option and forces the player to simply beat all levels in a row. There are still the leveling system (which replenishes full health when the player moves up) and the meager health items, but it's rather more difficult than the default mode. That said, it's still much fairer than the often nightmarishly frustrating difficulty of many classic 8-bit computer games. There's a good reason why cracked versions with cheat/trainer modes were so popular with players of C64 and ZX Spectrum games. Psytronik's releases, among other modern offerings, tend to be more easygoing and balanced in favor of players who just want to relax with a game that maybe reminds them of other games that have largely gone out of fashion, rather than being crushed so utterly that even Sisyphus would feel satisfied with his lot in comparison.