An homage to an homage of Game Boy homages
I like the Playdate for a specific kind of game. I don’t want 40-hour epics, I don’t want something deep or explorative. I want something short or with a gimmick — just something that I can jump into to take up 15-20 minutes while I’m waiting for something else.
Mateusz Michalak’s The Fall of Magic Castle is just that. It’s a short couple hour experience that is more of an homage to Link’s Awakening than a full adventure like it. It’s the sequel to his first game, Magic Castle, which was an equally short, simplified turn-based JRPG (don’t worry, we don’t need to know anything about the first game to play this one). This game is an action adventure, and uses a VERY simple control sequence where we run around and tap the A-button to hit enemies and interact with things. The game focuses on a pair of characters, a boy and his sister, but in standard classic RPG style gaming uses just one sprite on screen to represent both. The main hero attacks with A, and by pushing B we can utilize his sister’s abilities, namely magic and potions.
Oh, and it uses the crank for some of the spells, so there’s the gimmick!
Again, it’s simple and very straightforward. We’ve played this game, or games like this, a million times. This one is just on a yellow handheld with a crank. There are some control and hit detection issues (we have to be close enough or else we won’t land damage) and the game does kind of place enemies and tasks around without a real method why, but The Fall of Magic Castle fits into that optimal PlayDate methodology: help me burn a few minutes in between my own randomly placed tasks.
This review is based on a code sent to SideQuesting by the publisher. Images and video courtesy Publisher. This video first appeared on The SideQuest for February 27, 2026.
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