So you’ve conquered the Castlevania Anniversary Collection, and 505 Games’ Bloodstained: Curse of The Moon is set to hit June 18th. So, what do you do in the meantime? Right now, you can check out the free demo for Andrade Games’ Heidelberg 1693, which is another punishing 2D sidescroller that takes many of the mechanics of Konami’s classic, tweaks them, tosses in a few new ones, and the result is pretty awesome!
The story for Heidelberg 1693 has you as a musketeer ordered to terminate the “Moon King”, a thought-to-be illegitimate relative of Louis XIV of France, known by his nickname “the Sun King”. Your job is to locate and kill the Moon King, due to his treason for seeking the throne of Louis via the help of dark science. As a result, you’ll have to battle your way through herds of undead, ghouls and monsters to get to the Moon King.
Currently, the demo features three stages with one boss fight. Instead of a whip, you have a musket, which must be reloaded after every shot, but is also the way to truly defeat certain enemies. Don’t worry, because you also have a rapier that can be used in close combat, as well as adjustable direction for jumping. Enemies can hurt each other as well, so you can use that to your advantage.
Similar in style and difficulty to other throwbacks such as Slain!, Heidelberg 1693 requires patience and understanding enemy patterns in order to exploit their behaviour. The game will be heading to PC first, and then the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. Head on over to its itch.io page and check it out!