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Castle In The Darkness on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information

Quick menu

Castle In The Darkness is a fun and challenging shout out to the early days of video games! It's an action exploration platformer with some RPG elements, much like games from the Castlevania or Metroid series. It's super fast-paced, challenging, and full of secrets!

Castle In The Darkness is a metroidvania, indie and platformer game developed by Matt Kap, Nicalis and Inc. and published by Nicalis and Inc..
Released on February 05th 2015 is available in English only on Windows.

It has received 1,251 reviews of which 959 were positive and 292 were negative resulting in a rating of 7.4 out of 10. 😊

The game is currently priced at 9.99€ on Steam.

The Steam community has classified Castle In The Darkness into these genres:

Metroidvania Indie Platformer Action Difficult Adventure Pixel Graphics RPG Retro 2D Great Soundtrack Singleplayer

Media & Screenshots

Get an in-depth look at Castle In The Darkness through various videos and screenshots.

Castle In The Darkness screenshot
Castle In The Darkness screenshot
Castle In The Darkness screenshot
Castle In The Darkness screenshot
Castle In The Darkness screenshot
Castle In The Darkness screenshot

System requirements

These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.

Windows
  • OS *: Windows XP or later
  • Processor: Pentium 4 or higher
  • Memory: 1 GB RAM
  • Graphics: 256 MB or higher
  • DirectX: Version 9.0
  • Storage: 120 MB available space
  • Sound Card: Any

Steam Price & Best Deals

9.99€ Buy Now

User reviews & Ratings

Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.

8 hours played
July 2026
El juego podía ser excelente, pero por una serie de cuestiones, se queda en muy bueno a secas. Los pinchos que causan muerte al instante es una decisión absurda. No tanto porque hagan insta-kill, sino porque están posicionados para molestar. No para causar un reto, están posicionados para hacer la vida del jugador más pesada. El 90% de mis muertes han sido por pinchos El mapa es excelente, lleno de secretos, pero los puntos de guardado son irregulares. Y que haya que recorrer muchas habitaciones desde el punto de partida hasta el boss, es mal diseño, por desgracia. El juego me ha gustado mucho, tiene muchos secretos, la dificultad sería la adecuada si no tuviera los pinchos, pero ese par de detalles hacen que muchas veces te desesperes. Si te gustan los plataformas / metroidvanias, es un muy buen juego.
Read the review on Steam
7 hours played
July 2026
"Mostly Positive" is crazy to me. This game is so good. It doesn't hide what kind of a game it is at all, and it takes the premise and knocks it out of the park. The controls are snappy. The bosses are fun. The level design is unique, challenging, and rewarding. You might die a lot, (I did), but the game is built around that so you 1. don't lose progress, collectables, or money on death and 2. have frequent checkpoints, especially near the bosses. There are games where frequent deaths can be incredibly frustrating and then there are games that know how to work around that so when you die all you want to do is keep playing and try that boss/platforming challenge again. This was a collaborative project by two amazing developers, 1. the dev behind The Binding of Isaac and 2. the developer of Astalon and it totally feels like a crazy weird/awesome hybrid. I prefer more action/platforming than Astalon has personally and this game has tons of both. It takes the best of both worlds from those game and creates an amazing metroidvania. EDIT: Wanted to touch on something I saw in the negative reviews - Literally not once during this game did I feel like I needed a map. People complaining about that blows my mind. I'm someone who constantly uses maps in games, but this game is designed amazingly so you don't need a map. This game is clearly underrated and I have no idea why. Don't let the "mostly positive" turn you away from this game if it looks like something you'd like or if anything I said sounds like it would be up your alley.
Read the review on Steam
6 hours played
July 2026
Pretty neat little game! I came back and played this after having played Astalon and Lovish, more recent games by Matt Kap, and this one is a lot less refined in comparison, but you can see the design philosophy here that would eventually evolve into those games. There's a lot of secrets to find, some pretty well-designed puzzle platforming, and combat feels good. The Metroidvania elements are a bit light; progression through the game is pretty linear, and every area has a few secrets and branching areas that you'll have to come back to after you have a later powerup, but it's not a huge maze. It's got a pretty catchy soundtrack, too, although I feel like all of the really good tracks got saved for later areas and the beginning of the game is a little underwhelming. Also, be aware that this is a tough game. It pays homage to a lot of NES classics, and it definitely aims to be as challenging as some of them were. My biggest criticism would be an overreliance on instant death spikes; they often feel like they're just sprinkled everywhere. They're on floors, falling from ceilings, and even moving around platforms. Occasionally these are used in well-designed platforming sections that are tricky but satisfying to get through, but they're also frequently just there to slow you down. There are multiple times that I'd go through a door, see an enemy in front of me, and react by moving away, only to move right into death spikes that were behind me, for no other reason than to punish me for my gut reaction. But the game goes on deep sales pretty often, so I can't complain too much. For a buck fifty I certainly got my money's worth out of it.
Read the review on Steam
14 hours played
May 2026
Fun and very challenging retro styled platformer
Read the review on Steam
20 hours played
Jan. 2026
Ok, this game is...interesting. It's mostly kinda boring. Honetsly it nails that weird, dreamlike retro feel that many other "retro inspired" games lack. It's the "hard alcohol" of retro platformers: instead of the pitch being "it's the games you played as a kid, but the unnecessary friction removed!" Matt Kap instead leans into the friction for better or worse. The result is a game that is simple and drab enough to maybe actually be a lost NES cartridge. All that said, it has actually pretty fun bosses and the secrets can be fun to find. I say "can" because there are a mix of just-off-screen secrets and legitimately cryptic stuff, but I'd say at least the majority of them are doable without a guide. Overall, this one is fine.
Read the review on Steam

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Frequently Asked Questions

Castle In The Darkness is currently priced at 9.99€ on Steam.

No, Castle In The Darkness is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 9.99€ on Steam.

Yes, Castle In The Darkness received 959 positive votes out of a total of 1,251 achieving a rating of 7.35.
😊

Castle In The Darkness was developed by Matt Kap, Nicalis and Inc. and published by Nicalis and Inc..

Yes, Castle In The Darkness is playable and fully supported on Windows.

No, Castle In The Darkness is not playable on MacOS.

No, Castle In The Darkness is not playable on Linux.

Castle In The Darkness is a single-player game.

No, Castle In The Darkness does not currently offer any DLC.

No, Castle In The Darkness does not support mods via Steam Workshop.

No, Castle In The Darkness does not support Steam Remote Play.

Yes, Castle In The Darkness is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.

You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Castle In The Darkness.

Data sources

The information presented on this page is sourced from reliable APIs to ensure accuracy and relevance. We utilize the Steam API to gather data on game details, including titles, descriptions, prices, and user reviews. This allows us to provide you with the most up-to-date information directly from the Steam platform.

Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.

Last Updates
Steam data 25 July 2026 12:05 UTC
SteamSpy data 28 July 2026 07:48 UTC
Steam price 30 July 2026 18:44 UTC
Steam reviews 28 July 2026 04:00 UTC

If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Castle In The Darkness, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.

  • SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Castle In The Darkness
  • SteamCharts - Analysis of Castle In The Darkness concurrent players on Steam
  • ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Castle In The Darkness compatibility
Castle In The Darkness
9.99€ Buy Now
Rating
7.4
959
292
Game modes
Features
Online players
2
Developer
Matt Kap, Nicalis, Inc.
Publisher
Nicalis, Inc.
Release 05 Feb 2015
Platforms
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