Delver Quest is a speed running platforming game. It’s meant to be beaten as fast as possible and because of this, I wasn’t really expecting much of a story to be present. Though, to my surprise there is actually a story. The story is that the evil wizard Cloptimus has banned the use of Magic. Now it’s up to Delver to reach the lair of Cloptimus and change his mind about banning the use of magic.
Not much of a story, but enough is here to be kind of fun and interesting. This is a nice departure from what we usually see in speed running platformers.
Delver Quest is a speed running, precision platformer. You are placed in a level with your goal to get each crystal bubble and get to the exit stairs to reach the next level. There are plenty of hazards from enemies, to falling objects, spikes, pits, just a lot of obstacles that are placed in your path
You have a dive attack which you must use to dispatch most enemies to progress, traverse pits, spike strips and all around be able to traverse the level and ultimately make it to the evil wizard Cloptimus.
One of the neat things and rather thankful things about this game is the fact that you have unlimited continues. The reason for this is because it’s meant to be a speed running game and the goal just being to beat the game in the fastest time.
Graphically, the game is pretty impressive with large enemy sprites and Delver himself being larger than I would have thought it would be given this is a speed running precision platformer. All of the in game set pieces like the trees, jump pads, and bee hives were all hand drawn and look really good.
This gives the game a cartoon-like or even child-like quality that is really charming and fun to look at, even when the game can be extremely frustrating at times.
Each of the enemies in the game are different, unique, and are very well animated. Aside from the graphics themselves, the game features a day and night cycle. Now this isn’t like the one found in Castlevania II, but still looks good and adds a bit of charm to the overall experience.
So graphically, the game is awesome overall, and the performance of the game is really well optimized. Performance wise, I am surprised at how well it performs given how insanely fast you’re able to move around the screen. This definitely goes to show just how good a precision platformer can perform on the NES.
Delver Quest has some pretty good in game music. With it being a speed running platformer, the game doesn’t have a lot in the way of different music tracks, at least for each stage. Instead the game features different music for each set of levels. So the forest set of levels has a track, the cave set of levels has its own track, etc.
I think this was a good route to take because of the type of game this is. I mean you’re not going to spend a whole lot of time in these levels, then again you might depending on your platforming skills. Jokes aside, I think it was a great decision to have the music track change with the environment as opposed to having the same track throughout or each level having a different track.
What I find interesting is that Delver makes a sound when you use the dive mechanic, but not while jumping. I was expecting Delver to make a noise every time he jumped and used the dive attack/mechanic. I suspect the reason for this is because you do a lot of jumping and not so much attacking or using the dive mechanic. I mean there is plenty of use of it for sure, but not as much as jumping over enemies, obstacles, and platforms.
Delver Quest clearly has inspiration from games like Battle Kid, Mario, and other games that came before it. But with more forgiving levels than Battle Kid, unlimited continues, and hand drawn set pieces, it has a charm that is unique to it and rather simply unmatched.
Delver Quest is a game that is extremely challenging, a tad frustrating, and a lot of fun to play. If you have never played a speed running game or one of those games that is brutally hard, then you need to play Delver Quest. This game learned from those games’ mistakes with great platforming, challenging levels that become just the right amount of frustrating, there is no reason not to give this game a chance.
Disclaimer: We were provided the game to review
In addition to writing articles, Ryan Byers also creates content for his YouTube channel called "Obscure Games and Consoles", collects video games, and dabbles in video game development.