Castaway (Switch) Review

When I first heard they were making a game based on the 2000 Tom Hanks movie Cast Away, I thought—why now, after more than two decades? Luckily, that wasn’t the case. Instead, Castaway is an homage to The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. Perhaps “homage” isn’t a strong enough word, because this game looks, feels, and (almost) plays exactly like a 2D Zelda game. That’s great in one way, more Zelda is great – but also there’s not a lot of it.

Castaway is billed as a “concise” game, and it certainly lives up to that description. In the game’s story mode, you play as Martin, who has crash-landed on an alien planet and had his dog taken by baddies. You progress through a series of dungeons, each featuring one of Martin’s missing weapons and culminating in a boss battle—hidden behind a boss key. Sound familiar?

It’s basically Zelda-lite. The weapons are almost the same: a sword, a hookshot, and there’s pickaxe as well. All of which function as they do in Zelda. You navigate screens much like you would in a 2D Zelda game. While it’s not entirely a Zelda rip-off, the enemies are heavily inspired, and there’s a health meter as you attack them. Martin’s Health is restored by fruit hidden in plants and under rocks. The entire game takes under an hour to complete the story—remember, they did say it was concise.

Story mode can be played in standard Normal mode, against the clock in Speedrun, or in the extremely challenging Unfair difficulty. There’s also a Pacifist mode and one where you’re invincible. It’s a short story, but at least there are multiple ways to play it.

After you beat the story, you unlock another whole half of the game: The Tower. This mode features 50 levels of challenges to get through in a single run. You’ll encounter different power-ups and breaks every 10 levels, but otherwise, you’re on your own. Sometimes you’ll get useful power-ups like an orb that flies around you taking out enemies, or a coin magnet to help you collect coins and level up faster. It’s all the luck of the draw, and while it starts out easy, the difficulty ramps up quickly.

The developers at Canari Games have done a great job of recapturing the 2D Zelda graphics and refreshing them—though some of the sprite work is awfully familiar. The music also captures the same vibe as Link’s Awakening—again, awfully familiar. The swordplay and other combat mechanics are similar, but I feel like some of the timings are off, leaving you vulnerable to damage for too long. Also, please let me remap the buttons—the B button not being the sword argh.

If you’re craving more 2D Zelda, Castaway will give you a small taste of that. While the story is cute, it is admittedly very short. The game’s Tower Mode is an interesting take on the 2D Zelda format, fitting it into a different genre. There’s not denying though just how much has been inspired from Link’s Awakening and other 2D Zelda games. A fun, short little romp, made almost all by one person – cheap and cheerful.

Rating: 4/5