Aggelos 2 Key Art
Image: WONDERBOY BOBI, PQube & Pixelheart

Sometimes a developer wears their heart and their inspirations on their sleeve. See if you can guess what the primary inspiration is for WONDERBOY BOBI, developer of Aggelos 2? While it's a cruel irony that the world hasn't seen fit to give them access to the official Wonder Boy license, they've done the next best thing and made a series of tribute games. The original Aggelos was a nice little old-school exploration platformer, and the sequel looks to build on it in every way.

The color palette has definitely seen an upgrade here, going from Master System-inspired hues to something halfway between Mega Drive and SNES visuals. The music remains steadfastly Sega-core, with nostalgically tinny FM synth tunes accompanying the action, and with most of the game's sound effects being old-school synth chords, too.

Despite its obvious old-school inspirations (including art, creature design and music clearly riffing off the classic Wonder Boy series), Aggelos 2 is very much a modern metroidvania under the hood, with a complex and interconnected dual-layer map, and the ability to switch between Angel and Demon forms, each with their own perks and skills, plus a bit of Ikaruga-esque polarity-switching used in the platforming challenges. There's also a lot of mobility options, including flight and wall-climbing, making for a more vertical world than your usual Metroid-alike.

While I've sadly not had a chance to play this one (though I do hope to find the time for it... after I finish the first one), a good friend and streamer was sent an early copy and allowed to showcase it pre-release. As someone deeply picky about their old-school games, they were more than pleased with Aggelos 2, saying that despite it being full of modern design tropes, it feels retro in an oddly authentic way. Not many games get to be the best of both worlds, so it's fitting that a game with a form-switching protagonist hopping between two of them nails it.

Aggelos 2 is out now for £16/$20, with a 20% launch discount until September 10th, and a bit more off the price if you own either the original Aggelos or classic Castlevania tribute game Chronicles of The Wolf, both of which are fun times.