First off let me say that Gameloft’s Castle of Magic is beautiful. I mean its absolutely stunning. From the large and candy coating colored levels to the inventive and and enormous bosses at the end of each stage. There’s so much that Castle of Magic does right that its almost unfortunate that I have to proceed to my main gripe with the game.

O.K, so, my primary complaint, and this is a big one too. The controls are just not as precise as you need them to be to pull off the platforming antics this game demands. The first few times you fall of a ledge or into a pit can be chalked up to your fault. But by your 20th inexplicable fall or death, you begin to realize that maybe it isn’t your fault. Castle of Magic’s virtual d-pad is just not adequate for the job. Too often you cannot accurately direct jumps or target enemies. Ducking is entirely too sensitive, too. If you thumb so much as slips even a hair toward the bottom part of the d-pad, your little magician slams to a halt and ducks. The fact that the controls are not matched for Castle of Magic is a huge disappointment because, as mentioned, this game does so much right. You have been pulled into another realm by an evil wizard, fortunately, this fantasy world turns you into a magician as well. And with your newly acquired powers, you set out to rescue your kidnapped sister and collect as many purple gems as possible. These gems are similar to the gold rings you find in Sonic games. When touched by an enemy, you lose gems but can reclaim them. There are also many powers your wizard can acquire, such as grabbing a magical feather that turns you into an archer enabling you to fire arrows that not only pierce enemies, but they also create impromptu ladders for climbing walls.

Where Castle of Magic shines though is in its level design that hearkens back to the golden days of platforming games like Mario Bros. There are tons of secret rooms loaded with coins, hidden stars, and plenty of other secrets to uncover.But, as stated prior the enjoyment from playing these fantastic levels is marred by the shoddy controls and instead of allowing you to feel nostalgic and have fun, you will most likely find yourself cursing about missing the same jump for the last ten of your lives.

All-in-all, Castle of Magic is a great game that has had a great injustice done to it in the way of bad controls. The virtual pad in Gameloft’s Hero of Sparta worked great, so it is a mystery as to why the d-pad in Castle of Magic just isn’t up for it. Too often will you find yourself struggling with moving and jumping and it results in a frustrating death. I certainly stuck with it, though, in hopes that practice would make perfect and I wanted to see what delights appeared on my screen next, such as the colorful candy stage or the loss of gravity that turned things upside-down. I really hope for an update that addresses the controls — barring that, and external controller because for once on the iPhone, I really wanted a physical d-pad. Give the lite version a download and see if you can get around the controls in Castle of Magic, because if you have the patience, there is a hell of a game waiting for you.