Johnny“Evil Wizard contains crude humor and zany moments that not all players may enjoy (although we sure hope you do). The game jokes about fictional characters that are not meant to depict real life people or our own beliefs. Our goal is for players to have fun, laugh and enjoy their time. Oh, and get some sweet, sweet revenge!”
You had me at crude humor! This is the “warning” the devs start with prior to loading into the main menu. Love it, and very intrigued with a smirk to see what they have in store for us. Evil Wizard is developed by Rubber Duck Games and published by E-Home Entertainment Development Company Ltd. It originally launched on Xbox and PC on May 25, and will be coming to the Epic Games Store in Q3 and to Switch and PlayStation consoles in Q4 this year as well.
The game is a 2D pixel art action RPG where you play as the evil final boss you would find in a game. After being thwarted by a bunch of pesky adventuring heroes, you set out to regain your long-lost powers and reclaim what was taken from you. Your character is driven by revenge as he faces off against heroes, solves puzzles and defeats a variety of traps to retake your castle.
Playing as the titular character Evil Wizard, who I shall dub EW for the rest of the article, you get to slash at your enemies with a sword and wield the magical powers of ice, fire, void, lightning, and the earth to let loose against your enemies. You won’t have all the magic abilities straight up. EW will progressively gain access to the new elements to wield and open multiple action bar slots to cast them. You can mix the different elemental spells together to create some brutal attacks against your enemies who are vulnerable to certain magics.
I have found this game not entirely easy – in fact it’s damn challenging. You must plan your attacks by using the right elements, and dodging is your best friend in Evil Wizard. The number of times a quick dodge has saved my ass against a boss is numerous. Even the everyday hero minions can be challenging, especially if you start getting swarmed with their attacks.
The bosses I encountered have been great and the combat mechanics will keep you on your toes. But the best part of the battle is the banter between EW and the boss. Some have a backstory of being a former partner of EW or some snotnose punk looking to make a name for themselves. Whatever the case may be, you are sure to have a few laughs.
There is a lot of exploring to do including some secret places, and certain areas are only accessible once you have learnt certain spells. For example, an impassable waterway is now passable with the simple cast of the ice spell to freeze the water. Exploring also allows you to find EW’s minions like Rubito and D. Monique. D. Monique is your resident minion who upgrades your gear for you. She needs blood stones found in the world or taken from executed enemies. You can upgrade EW’s sword to give better attacks, cloak to give more protection or your staff to open new spells slots.
One of the fun things that I love about this game is helping your minions. Like Rubito, he asks you to find his rubber ducks. Most of them are found in secret areas with a chest. The duck you find is wrapped up and you must take it back to Rubito to reveal what rubber duck you have found for him. My favourite ones I have found so far are Obi-Duck Kenobi and Rubber Downey Jnr.
I have also been introduced to Gregor the resident monster hunter who will cut you in on the bounty reward after you kill the monster he is after. I’ve found a few monsters but haven’t dropped one yet. Maybe a few more upgrades are needed. The music and sound effects are spot on for playing an evil character doing evil things. One thing I would have liked to see is the developers go further with the voice acting in the game instead of reading constant pop-up speech bubbles.
The game has a lot of hilarious moments with its evil humor and fart jokes. It even breaks the 4th wall with the player. Bad guys laugh at EW for having a player help him. Saving your game is as simple as finding a bathroom and letting EW do his thing.
Overall, I have found Evil Wizard to be challenging but a lot of fun. I’ve missed the old 2D console games and Evil Wizard brings back that style in a big way. It is a fairly linear progression, and I can’t see a massive amount of re-playability, but it provides a lot of laughs and references in the real world and will challenge even the most experienced gamers out there.
This review utilised a Steam key provided by Uber Strategist and Evil Wizard is available now on Steam and Xbox, and coming later to Epic Games Store, Nintendo Switch and PlayStation.
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Chris Inglis
