Apple Knight

Apple Knight opens on a campfire under a pale moon, a horned warrior leaning on his axe beside it, and a single square Play button. Press it and you are dropped into a forest stage as a small sword-carrying knight, with three red hearts in the top corner and four counters beneath them: apples collected out of thirty, lives left, gold, and two kinds of chests found. A hooded archer is already waiting a screen to the right.

Combat comes from two directions. The sword handles anything within arm's reach, and quick swings will stagger a lightly armoured soldier. Apples are the ranged option: you throw them in a flat arc, which lets you soften an archer or a mage before closing the gap, and each one you throw is one less in your stock, so you pick up spares from bushes and crates as you go. Stages are also full of spikes, swinging blades and crushing pillars that hurt enemies exactly as much as they hurt you, and luring a knight onto his own trap is often the cheapest kill on the screen.

Movement is where the game asks for practice. You can double jump, push off walls to climb shafts, and dash in mid-air to clear a gap that a jump alone will not cover. The dash is also the way into most secrets: the chest counter tells you how many are in a stage, and the last couple are nearly always behind a wall jump or a dash you did not try the first time.

Between stages, gold buys stronger weapons, armour, spells and pet companions in the shop on the title screen, and losing all your lives only sends you back to the start of the stage, not the whole game. This copy plays with the keyboard; the on-screen prompt at the start shows arrows or A and D for walking.