It is no easy job being the King’s Arch Chancellor.  Especially when the king is, to put it nicely, not always the best decision maker, or simply put, a competent ruler. Nevertheless, despite putting up with the childish antics of the King, our Arch Chancellor manages to talk his way into a vacation, and soon enough he is able to relax and not have to deal with the king. However, this vacation does not last long at all.  Events soon occur which call the Arch Chancellor to action, despite his reluctance to complete them. In AGWAK2: Darkside Adventures, (a so-called sequel to the original fantastic game, A Game with a Kitty, using a similar graphical engine and new characters) this game continues the series in a new environment, with lots of new surprises in store for the Arch Chancellor. AgwaK2: Darkside Adventures brings fantastic artwork, great music, and challenging game play that will test the most hardened game veterans, yet still allow casual gamers to enjoy the charm of this quirky game.

The game starts with the Arch Chancellor resting on his vacation, when the King soon disturbs his rest. The King informs him, that Princess Daphodil had visited the kingdom earlier, and had been playing a game of hide and seek with the King, when she somehow managed to lose her crown. Therefore, the King orders the Arch Chancellors vacation over, and tells him that he has to find her crown. Cursing under his breath, the Arch Chancellor agrees to go look for the crown, despite wishing he did not have to do so. So begins the quest of the Arch Chancellor and his journey to find the lost crown of the princess.

You begin the game by controlling the Chancellor, with the King trailing behind you, as you begin to explore the level and try to advance to the end. Along the way, different signs will offer help, tips, or suggestions to guide you to the next screen. For example, one of the signs will suggest that you use the king’s crown, to bounce yourself to a higher platform. These tips will help ease you into the game as you begin to explore each area, and advance. Along the way, there are many enemies who wish to stop you, and many assorted obstacles and jumps that you must navigate in order to advance. However, you are not defenseless. The Arch Chancellor is able to bounce on enemies heads to defeat them, or by collecting stars from treasure chests scattered throughout the level.  He may fire these stars at his enemies (by pressing the control or 'C' key) to defeat them, or to destroy star blocks that may block his passage to another area. With each successful completion of a level (either by finding a key to a secret area or by finding the star at the end of the level), more of the level map will be revealed, which will allow you to proceed to new areas. The Arch Chancellor will also learn new moves, throughout the game, that will aid him in not only defeating different enemies, but also solving different puzzles that he encounters along the way. Such as learning the run move, which allows him to run much faster than he did before.

If you have played A Game with a Kitty, the artwork in the game will seem quite familiar. However, in this game it looks much more polished and more vibrant than it did in A Game with a Kitty. More colours are used in the different environments, enemies look different, and more variety in the scenery of a level, show that this game is quite different from its predecessor. It all looks fantastic, from the first level, to the later levels; each one has its own charm, as you advance to different areas within the game.

The music is excellent.  While it does not stand out as much as one might expect, its quiet ambient nature fits in nicely with each scene. It does not interfere with the action on screen and it is subtle enough that you may miss the music as you are playing. Nevertheless, it sounds great and just fits the easygoing nature of the game.

What makes this particular game, different from other platformers is its challenging game play. The game is challenging, not only with the different enemies you will face, but with the different puzzles that also exist, challenging you to advance to different areas, as well collect keys, and different items as well. The challenge is not too difficult I must stress, as it will challenge hardcore gamers and still be an enjoyable experience for casual gamers.

The only minor concern I had with the game was the feel of the controls. It seemed a bit loose in most cases, mostly when picking up objects and throwing them. It will probably take you at least 15 minutes to get a good feel of how the Arch Chancellor moves and attacks in the game, before it feels natural.

In conclusion, this was a fantastic game and I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of platforming games in the style of Mario, Sonic and many other characters. This is a worthy “sequel” to its predecessor A Game with a Kitty, so check it out for yourself.