Sometimes you feel like being the bad guy. Well guess what, that's exactly who you are, an evil wizard, an action RPG where you play as a once proud final boss that's been beaten and humiliated by a group of heroes, losing control of his evil castle in the process. Now it's up to you, the player, I mean that quite literally as that's what you're referred to as, to help this wizard boss reclaim his domain. If you couldn't already tell, Evil Wizard has a great sense of humor, though it is on the crude side. In fact, players are even given a warning message about this right as you start playing. Sexual innuendos and crass jokes are littered across this adventure, so if that's not your thing, well, you might not get all that much out of this one. Why, you ask? Because in my opinion, the game's humor is nearly its entire identity. Without it, you have a pretty mediocre standard fair action title. Outside of the comedy, your core gameplay consists of exploring the castle and reclaiming areas while unlocking new abilities for the wizard. As you explore, you'll come across various enemies, with combat being extremely basic. Use your master sword, you get that reference, to take down baddies and dodge out of the way with your dash ability. You can mix in some of your spells as well, though these are also used to solve different environmental puzzles. More on that in just a moment. The moment-to-moment fighting in Evil Wizard is nothing special as I've mentioned, but it is quite challenging. While I found the combat engine merely serviceable, I can appreciate accessibility options which allow you to tweak how much damage enemies deal out, so if you are getting frustrated, fear not, the difficulty is more or less adjustable at any time throughout your campaign. I do want to give a shoutout to some of the boss encounters in this title however, which also lean heavily into the humor of Evil Wizard, and they're far more entertaining than the standard enemy engagements. So, about those puzzles. The castle does indeed have quite a few. Many of these puzzles consist of using your spells like ice to freeze lakes in order to reach otherwise unreachable areas, or an earth spell to deflect back lightning. These are just a few examples, but the majority of puzzles, while amusing, are not all that difficult to decipher. Still, I appreciated the change of pace. Evil Wizard does feature a map, along with a teleportation system. The map isn't especially great and I did find myself lost on a few occasions, but the teleporting works well enough. Saving is also done at bathrooms, kind of like No More Heroes if you ever played that, and should you fall in combat, there is no major punishment for death. As you progress further into the castle, players will also meet new characters, some that want you to go slay specific monsters, and others that offer equipment upgrades. Again, nothing that you haven't seen before. In the end, you'll be enjoying Evil Wizard more so for the laughs than the deep gameplay experience. It doesn't do anything exceptionally bad as far as action RPGs go, but it also isn't exactly an overachiever. But it did make me laugh my ass off. I liked a lot of the references in this game from Sonic the Hedgehog to Persona. There's a lot of the references in this game from Sonic the Hedgehog to Persona. There's a lot of funny stuff here. The pixel art utilized is quite charming as well, and I also like the design of the castle. I think Evil Wizard looks pretty nice overall, with a 16-bit aesthetic that's probably pretty familiar to a lot of you indie gamers out there at this point, but it fits the vibe of the game's script. It's cute, and the dialogue is easily read with players even being able to increase the font size so that they can read it easier. As for that sound design, it is shockingly good here, eclectic to say the least. There's some little jazz pieces, quirky over-the-top synths here or there, accompanied by spurts of voice acting which aren't nearly as brilliant as the soundtrack, but they are funny at times, they're just not all that well delivered unfortunately. Honestly, sometimes I couldn't tell if I was laughing with the actors or at them. Maybe a little bit of both? Whatever the case, Evil Wizard is not a great action RPG, but it's a decently good comedy adventure. With an understanding that most of your enjoyment will come from an immature script, of which I personally liked, you just might end up having more fun than you might expect with this one. And damnit, who doesn't need a laugh these days. Ugh, running away from my own lair. And I got deer poop on my robes too. Huh? 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