Pampas & Selene - Switch Review

Steve Whiting -

Pampas & Selene is a pocket-sized retro-inspired metroidvania from solo-developer Francisco Tellez de Meneses, known as ‘Fran’. Similar to their 2011 title Unepic, Pampas & Selene effectively serves as a fan service to 1987’s classic adventure game The Maze of Galious. I also love a good buddy adventure game, so I’m excited to try this one!

The Good

Pampas & Selene is presented in a classical 8-bit graphical style and is clearly inspired by not just The Maze of Galious but also many other titles from the NES/MSX era. You can either choose to play single player or couch co-op mode as you control the titular characters. With the click of a button, you can rotate between either Pampas or Selene at any time in the game. Pampas is a more traditional knight-type character who wields a sword, shield and arrows. Selene is a mage-type who can use spells that have different effects on enemies and their styles compliment each other perfectly.

The game world in Pampas & Selene is set up in metroidvania style with grid-like rooms across the Kingdom of Greek and plays out in the typical gated fashion that a metroidvania does. Dotted across the Kingdom of Greek are a number of dungeons that serve as separate areas/stages with a demonic boss at their conclusion. Defeating the bosses, along with finding new upgrade items, is the prime method for unlocking said gates that you encounter along the way. Bosses are challenging but not overly so; they use the rather simple dynamic of speeding up their attacks the more damage they take, rather than unfurling new attack patterns at 50% health (for example); this makes the encounters heart-pounding without feeling overly frustrating.

In the early stages of Pampas & Selene, the upgrades come thick and fast, which means the perceived chore of exploration instead dissipates for excitement and intrigue. With the swathe of upgrades, it’s sometimes hard to keep track of exactly what you’re collecting, but the in-game menu is more than functional for an 8-bit adventure and serves as an ideal explorer’s companion.

TL;DR

  • Co-op gameplay is simple but works nicely
  • Well-balanced boss fights
  • Plenty of upgrades to keep the player engaged

The Bad

The castle is expansive and there’s plenty of game play on offer in Pampas & Selene for the price; however, I guess a negative relating to the 8-bit design choice is the colour palette limitations, which in turn make large areas of the Castle of Greek feel a bit repetitive. The castle’s map is also perfectly symmetrical, which for me made it quite obvious which direction the game would take you next, and that in turn dumbed down the exploration somewhat.

Some of the early game design in Pampas & Selene can be a bit clumsy. I mentioned earlier those mini-dungeons, and some you can access almost straight away. However, to defeat the demons, you first need to complete a side quest that gives you a particular weapon, but it may not be immediately obvious until you’ve already progressed a certain amount of the way through the dungeon. This means that, before the fast travel mechanic is more widely unlocked, I found myself going down a lot of dead ends and having some tedious backtracking.

TL;DR

  • Symmetrical map blunts exploration
  • A few pointless, avoidable dead ends in the early game

Final Score: 7/10

I’ve never played The Maze of Galious and I find myself wondering if some of the limitations in Pampas & Selene are just inherent of them being overly faithful to the design of a game released in the late 1980s. That being said, the nostalgia value should override this concern for most fans of the era.

There are of course better co-op metroidvanias out there, but reviving late 80’s action games is a niche that Fran has thus far perfected, and Pampas & Selene is no exception.

Thank you for checking out our Pampas & Selene Switch review, thank you to Unepic Games for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support: