Harkening back to the classic 16-bit days there’s a familiar flair to Golden Force that works pretty well. Once you get started you can expect it to be a challenging action platformer where you’ll need to choose your hero carefully based on which best suits your style and you can expect to be challenged getting through the stages and defeating some menacing bosses as well. Unfortunately, at least for me, the game gets off to a terrible start with an opening boss battle that can be frustrating for the wrong reasons. Before you’ve even gotten accustomed to the controls, let alone how best to use them, you’re thrown into a battle that exposes some of the game’s tender underbelly mechanically. While people who relish a challenge will dive in regardless more mainstream players may be finished with the game before they even get started.