Title: The Legend of Gwen
Developer: Wiwigames 
Publisher: Flynn’s Arcade
Release Date: February 16th, 2023
Reviewed on: Nintendo Switch

Introduction

The Legend of Gwen is an indie developed action-adventure platformer that brings both difficulty and a retro style feel to the player. As a new student at the school of sorcery, Gwen must defeat a lurking evil within a time limit.

Synopsis

You play as Gwen, a newly enrolled student at the school of sorcery, who strives to become the best witch in the world. You arrive at an unfortunate time, where an evil has flared up and has absorbed nearly everything at the school. Now without teachers and other students to learn from Gwen must teach herself how to navigate and defeat the obstacles in her path.

The Legend of Gwen focuses on difficulty in a platforming setting, when not in the overworld of each moon. With 8 worlds to explore and 6 or more levels per world you will experience many failures and repeated deaths.  

Dying over and over makes it feel like a souls or rouge like game with a whole different genre twist. Use your wits when maneuvering through the game world and enjoy the ride it takes you on.  

Analysis

The game has a variety of levels, enemies, and secrets to come across. While traveling the many locations you can use 6 types of wands that can allow Gwen to fire different projectiles. You can also find in game upgrades like quick dashing that come in handy during boss fights. Other things that seem to be interesting is collecting different seeds for use in the garden. Obtaining stars to progress is rewarding when you move to a new area, but no checkpoints are offered in the timed levels, so it changes your playstyle as you trudge through the different portions of the game. Once you establish a method you can cut down on the time clock as well as take out or avoid the many enemies and death traps that await you.       

The gameplay 

The game combines platforming action under a time constraint and because of these implementations the gameplay can be of greater difficulty. You visit various moons that have several levels. Each of the main levels has you collect a certain number of stars in the level and to complete the level you must reach the goal with all the stars. These Stars will allow you to enter a boss fight. Defeat the boss and the gate will open to the next area.  

When you spawn in the level you can rotate the camera in four stationary views at 90-degree increments, this allows you to better see the platforms you are trying to reach as well as discover secrets within the level. You have a certain number of lives within the level, and you will have to start over each time you fall, are attacked once, or run out of time. You can receive power ups that allows you to dash and shoot magic projectiles to avoid and take out the enemies.

Other levels also offer gameplay that allows you to control Gwen and another character named Corki separately that creates new ways to collect the stars and complete the level. You can also collect gems which seen to be used to unlock various areas and secrets. In game sign says coming soon so I would expect updates or unlocks later in the progression of the game. We shall wait and see.

Final Score

The Legend of Gwen: creates an atmosphere that focuses on navigating an area in a certain way that forces you to make a plan and hone in your speed, agility, and street smart skills to collect the star pieces and reach the goal in an efficient manner. The challenge can be fun, but the game has a few areas in which it suffers also because of some other challenges. Turning the camera is handy but at other times it can cause confusion and create more issues, this is mostly noticed by either accidently pushing the button mid-jump or hitting the wrong bumper. This coupled with a dark background while trying to jump on a dark gray platform can be frustrating. Also, the fluidity of your movement while aiming can be another point of frustration. When aiming projectiles it can be tough and if you miss it takes a while to readjust and shoot another, this can be a critical and lethal mistake if your enemy is quick. Overuse of sound effects can also get repetitive so be prepared for that also. If you enjoy a bit more challenging type of game, you may enjoy your time here in The Legend of Gwen. Will you die trying to save your fellow students, teachers, and school or will you be the top witch of your class?      

Shane Kelley is a Senior writer for Boss Rush Network, as well as a writer for Another Zelda Podcast. His favorite game is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. You can find him on Twitter to talk video games, Marvel, and axe throwing.

Sources: Taken by Author