Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege absolutely commits to the feel of an old NES action game, and for me that commitment came with too much of the old frustration too
I need to be upfront here. I went into Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege expecting something else entirely, so the game caught me off guard. Once I realized what it was doing, I could at least respect the intent. This is a straight-up love letter to old-school NES action platformers, and I mean the whole package, not just the visual style.
That dedication is obvious from the start. The pixel art is gory, grim, and atmospheric in exactly the right way, and the chiptune soundtrack does a great job selling the whole late-80s vibe. The setup is solid too. Set in late-17th century Europe, you play as ex-soldier Rudiger as he takes up the Spear of Sacrilege to stop the corrupt priest Father Pacer and save the Holy Roman Empire. There are 21 stages to clear, several bosses to beat, and a clear reverence for Castlevania-style design running through the whole thing. It also has couch co-op, which is a nice touch.
The problem is that Saint Slayer does not just borrow the cool parts of that era. It also brings back a lot of the stuff I do not miss. Rudiger moves slowly, jumps lock you into your momentum the moment you leave the ground, and getting hit sends you flying backward. Every enemy encounter feels designed around that stiffness, which means you need to be extremely deliberate with every step, every jump, and every attack.
Your spear is also slower and more awkward than I wanted it to be. You can throw it, but that option is limited, so you cannot lean on it too much. You can also get some temporary upgrades that change the effect of the spear launch. To be fair, the spear does have one genuinely clever trick. You can launch it into walls and use it as a platform to climb, and that gives the game a bit of identity beyond simple retro imitation.
Still, most of my time with Saint Slayer was defined by friction. Health pickups are scarce, enemies are relentless, and the game is brutally punishing from start to finish. Boss fights pushed that even further. Some attacks felt so hard to avoid that the fights crossed the line from demanding to annoying.
I understand that all of this is deliberate. The developers clearly wanted to recreate the exact feel of those old games, and I think they succeeded. The issue is that recreating something accurately does not automatically make it enjoyable now. A lot of crusty old NES games felt awkward because of design habits and technical limitations that we have long since moved past. Paying homage to that era does not mean you need to preserve every bad habit too.
So no, I did not like Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege much at all. But I can also see the audience for it very clearly. If you have been waiting for a game that fully embraces that stiff, punishing, old-school action-platformer feel, this might be exactly your thing. I am just very much not that guy. Thanks for reading!
