• Price: $19.99 USD
• Developer/Publisher: Singles Alliance
• Release Date: June 14, 2024

A review code was kindly provided by Singles Alliance. We thank them for allowing us to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

We’ve previously covered Nintendo Switch games with Filipino creators, and now developer/publisher Singles Alliance has added to that list with Agnostiko ORIGINS and The Great Adventures of Nedmapagmahal. Let’s take a look at this platformer!

You might be wondering about the word “mapagmahal” in the title. Apparently, “mapagmahal” means “loving” in Tagalog.

The game is described as an adventure game “for hardcore gamers who want to test their skills.” The developer warns that this requires “critical thinking, logic, and strategy”; it was created with speedrunners, streamers, and “pro gamers” in mind. It’s not meant to be a relaxing experience, and you’re probably going to be frustrated a lot while you play.

There is a basic story – your character, Ned Mapagmahal, confesses his love to a coworker and is rejected. He jumps from the top of the building into a portal that transports him to another land. An old man tells him that he’s the subject of a prophecy, and he must defeat an evil king.

The story and instructions are provided in both English and Tagalog, which is kind of neat. The English translation could be improved (they say Ned’s “in love with her colleague”). But you can still understand everything.

Gameplay is deceptively simple; jump and hit monsters with a baseball bat, and move boxes and planks of wood around to help you reach higher ground. You have an HP bar, but it doesn’t seem like there’s a healing option.

Enemies and environmental hazards such as spikes can deplete your HP – once you run out of HP, you have to completely redo the stage. There aren’t any checkpoints.

Characters will give you hints about how to complete the stage. I hadn’t realized that we could return to the left side of the stage, so the first one took me a while to figure out. You may find yourself restarting stages due to a lack of HP, or you might get stuck.

There were some glitchy elements where I’d kind of freeze after jumping down and landing “in” a platform. But it’s also possible to get stuck somewhere because you didn’t place boxes in the right place, and you’ll have to start over.

You have to memorize where to go and what to do as you learn from your mistakes and keep trying to complete a level. The game is quite challenging, and I often wouldn’t have thought of the right way to advance.

I really like how there isn’t a timer. The “old school” graphics were charming, and the music is fun and energetic. My only major complaint was that if you accidentally hit “start” instead of “continue” on the main menu, it starts the entire game over again and you can’t get back to the stage you were on. A stage select option would have been nice.

The Great Adventures of Nedmapagmahal won’t be for everyone, but if you think you can handle the difficulty level and some occasional frustration it might be worth a try!