Bard’s Gold is an indie platformer that I was told was the hardest platform game I will ever play. Truth be told, for me, it was indeed quite hard, although I am not honestly really good at platform games. Hell, in Mega Man I kept dying at the “Gutsman” stage at the very beginning because all the mini-platforms that would collapse kept killing me. 
Now this game takes a look at the retro era of gaming in terms of its visuals, and because of that, it was easy to get attuned to playing it. I personally love it when people use the retro look for something modern.
Its overall gameplay reminds me of Altered Beast for the Sega Genesis, where you would venture forth and throw objects at people or creatures to progress. I know there are probably NES titles that have the same setup, but that is the one that stands out to me the most. As you progress through the game, you have to fight an interesting variety of monsters from bats to flying books and many more.
The game itself is timed, and you also have a limited amount of hearts. Hearts in this case represent your health, and it goes without saying that if they get depleted you die. However, death doesn’t necessarily mean you start over. As you progress, you pick up gems and bits of gold which you can use after you die to purchase upgrades for your character to make going easier. This includes starting the next part of the game with added health. I find this to be an interesting, invigorating twist on an old concept.
Also as you play, you will notice there are various game modes…one of which includes a global system that keeps track of your score in comparison to all the other people in the entire world playing Bard’s Gold! If you are a huge fan of platformers, this now gives you a reason to challenge yourself even more; unless others start cheating, in which case you’ll probably say “screw it” and instantly give up.
Honestly, though, I really did enjoy my time playing the game and found it quite challenging and almost impossible to progress. It’s not the hardest platform game I have ever played; I actually give that honor to Ascendant. This game did keep me busy for a while and kept getting me to retry the stages I played, again and again.
Is it worth getting? Yes. If you’re a fan of platform games and want to challenge yourself, I recommend picking up Bard’s Gold. I hope you endure the inevitable suffering as you try to push yourself to get better at it.
An autistic gamer with opinions on games who also enjoys making dumb videos on the internet!