Indie games have this thing, this tendency to pick only two out of the following three: original gameplay, good graphics/sound, lack of bugs.

Science can explain why.

So many people who started playing in the late seventies-early eighties, grew up dreaming of making their own game.
And they can now — they could and did for a while, actually.

Making games has become quite a feasible task, and one can even go as far as trying to see his or her work published on a home console, thanks to the incredibly unprofitable (but still quite accessible) XBLA.

But passion is, sadly often, not enough. And so, despite quality control, XBLIG - the Live Arcade indie section - is, several years after its launch, home to a host of unfortunate titles.
Finding info about these games can be quite hard: forums are not always reliable, with reviews few and far between.
In other words, the odds of randomly downloading a good game are pretty low.

The proverbial mine field.

But it’s a risk worth taking, when you can trip on little treasures like Curse of the Crescent Isle.

Look at the trailer. You wouldn’t give this game a chance.

I know what you’re thinking.

It’s not like Pixel! or Breath of Death VII.
And you’re right, for the most part.
It’s not as good looking or funny; it doesn’t look original and, to be honest, it has more bugs than swiss cheese has holes.

After reading a certain short article on Tiny Cartridge, what made me decide to invest a buck in it was just the music, which turned out to be pretty average, except for two or three darn awesome tunes.
For a while I regretted buying it, and left it sitting there on my dashboard.
Until last week, when I finally woke up in the mood to beat some games in my backlog.

Curse of the Crescent Isle borrows more than a few elements from Doki Doki Panic.
It’s apparently a mediocre clone.
A pinch of Arabic flavor in the setting, the location and enemy design.
Of course even the gameplay itself is reminiscent of the Plumber’s second western coming and its Japanese counterpart.

The main character, a little King, runs and jumps just like any platform hero, but he’s clearly a non-violent dude.
Akin to Mario, has the ability to grab and throw enemies using them as impromptu weapons and tools.

This is the trick up the game’s sleeve.

Each and every creature that populates this world has some sort of special ability that can be used to navigate the levels and solve environmental puzzles.
A grabbed enemy can be held on the main character’s head or under him.
A drill enemy will destroy boulders and allow us to walk on spikes, while an ice enemy will transform an impassable lake in a comfortable road or a waterfall into practical platforms to explore the level vertically.

Taking notes from experiences from games such as Capcom’s DuckTales or Nintendo’s The Adventures of Link, AdamTheOtaku - or that Balrog guy, or whoever made this game! - sprinkles the boring first levels with brisk action and good ideas, enhancing an otherwise flat and predictable title.

And by the end of the game - which clocks no more than three hours - you’ll find yourself tempered by the fire of its trials, able to appreciate the efforts of its creators.

In the end what will the truth be?
Do games need to be really that perfect?
Or it’s the players who need to be educated?

Indie games have this thing, this tendency to pick only two out of the following three: original gameplay, good graphics/sound, lack of bugs.

Curse of the Crescent Isle doesn’t pick any.

But if it has heart, who cares?