Lillymo Games presents Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege, a title that takes you back to real gaming. Proper old-school, unapologetic, no mercy gaming. It looks very 1986, it plays very 1986, and everything that comes with it.

“Saint Slayer is an NES-style 2D action game, featuring loads of stages, enemies, and gore set against the backdrop of late-17th century Europe. Play as the ex-soldier Rudiger and wield the Spear of Sacrilege as you save the Holy Roman Empire from the corrupt Catholic priest Father Pacer.”

I know what you’re thinking, because I thought it too, Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege looks uncannily like the original Castlevania. The NES aesthetic isn’t just a coat of paint; it’s a full‑bodied commitment. The colour palette, the crunchy sound effects, catchy chip tunes, the stiff, unforgiving jump arcs, it’s all here. You can’t change direction mid‑jump, enemies respawn the moment you blink, and knockback is as spiteful as ever. There’s no getting around it: this plays like a long‑lost NES game, for better and for worse.

The story’s already been covered in the blurb, so I won’t retread it. You play as Rudiger, initially armed with a dirk so small it feels like the developers are having a quiet laugh. But once you defeat the first boss, you acquire the titular Spear of Sacrilege, the game’s sole weapon from that point on. That may sound limiting, but the spear is surprisingly adaptable. Each boss you slay grants it a new upgrade or ability, and scattered familiars add extra utility. It’s a lean system, but it works, even if modern players might expect a bit more depth.

What you get here is 21 stages of straight‑up, linear platforming. No Metroidvania backtracking, no sprawling maps, just old‑school, left‑to‑right (sometimes right-to-left) action. The game does try to mix things up: there’s a raft section, a gondola ride, and a rather satisfying tower ascent near the finale. Secrets exist, though they’re very much in the “hit a suspicious wall and hope” tradition. But each stage also hides a treasure that unlocks a password, and those passwords grant modifiers to encourage repeat playthroughs. It’s a clever way to add longevity without betraying the retro ethos. The humour sprinkled throughout, from dialogue to charming little animations, that gives the game a welcome personality boost.

While the Castlevania DNA is obvious, I also felt a faint Ghosts ’n Goblins aura wafting through the experience, mostly in the difficulty, which is… let’s say “unashamedly hostile”. As an older gamer raised on limited lives, no checkpoints, and difficulty spikes that could make a grown man weep, I foolishly started on Hard. Ten minutes later, I swallowed my pride and dropped to Easy just to reach the end credits for this review. Even on Easy, Saint Slayer is no pushover. There are no checkpoints. If you die, you restart the entire stage. Lives are limited, and once they’re gone, it’s back to the title screen, unless you spend in‑game currency on continues. It’s authentic, yes, but also occasionally maddening.

I did finish it on Easy, and then again on Normal. Hard mode? Perhaps one day, when I’ve made peace with my mortality. There’s an even harder “Classic” difficulty for those who actively enjoy punishing themselves. There’s no modern upgrade system, but a shop exists to buy helpful items, which feels like a small concession to contemporary sensibilities.

Out now on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch, Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege is a lovingly crafted slice of old‑school punishment. The controls are stiff, the enemy patterns can feel unfair, and bosses demand memorisation rather than improvisation. But that’s the point. It’s a deliberate homage to a bygone era, one that remembers not just the triumphs, but the frustrations too. I really enjoyed it, even when it was busy kicking my teeth in. Highly recommended for older gamers who fondly recall the ’80s… and who probably snapped a controller or two during them. Oh yeah, it can be played two-player co-op.