Last updated on January 3rd, 2026 at 05:10 pm
The Curse of Issyos – Action Game Review
The Curse of Issyos is a Action/Adventure game from Abylight SL, first launched in 30th April 2020.
It’s rated 12+ and currently has 89+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes The Curse of Issyos Stand Out
The acclaimed indie game The Curse of Issyos is finally available for iOS and tvOS devices, after years of popular demand. Enjoy this renowned game created by Locomalito, author of other gems such as Cursed Castilla and Super Hydorah, on your big or small screen.
► LevelUp – “A great reconstruction of the action-platform genre of the eighties”.
► Indie Games Plus – “The Curse of Issyos is yet another fantastic example of the man’s love for old games and the care he puts into his work”.
► Destructoid – “It's a hard game, but it feels very fair. It's all about watching and learning, and then skillfully pulling off attacks at the right moment”.
Defkalion was fishing at the quiet blue sea when he heard the voice of the Goddess Athena. “Hurry up”, she said. “The isle of Issyos has been cursed by the Olympus!”
And so, fearing for his daughter Delia, his only family left, the fisherman sails back to his home, where the adventure is about to begin.
The Curse of Issyos is a retro-styled action platformer with nothing but the classics of an old 8-bit game: a good bunch of enemies and bosses, linear and open scroll levels, secrets to discover, and a background story inspired by Greek mythology. It doesn't try to mimic a retro system in particular, but it's coherent with its own limitations in the use of colors, sprites and chip sounds.
Features:
● Compatible with MFi, XBox One and PS4 controllers.
● Haptic vibration.
● iCloud support.
● Game Center achievements and leaderboards.
● Play in landscape or portrait orientation.
● Look and feel of a console game from 1987-1988.
● Based on Greek Mythology.
● 30+ soundtrack by Gryzor87.
● 7 levels, 9 bosses and more than 40 unique enemies.
● A secret level that can change the curse of the game.
- Game texts in English only.
This Action game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, The Curse of Issyos is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 18th September 2020
Recent improvements include:
- Fixed a bug that prevented leaderboards and achievements from working.
Download & Availability
The Curse of Issyos is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get The Curse of Issyos on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
We beat this game cause Its so easy.
We wish more mobile games were like this. Small fee, no commercials no gatcha, creative play.
Super cool game! It reminds us a lot of castlevania but in a Greek mythology world:) great graphics for the retro fans and super awesome chip tune soundtrack! We have other games you these developers and have enjoyed them all:) Works decent enough with the touch controls but we personally like to use our Xbox controller for a nice lag free experience :) if you like castlevania then Id recommend this to you.
Love it definitely a fan of Castlevania will enjoy this with a Greek Mythology take instead.
If you like 8-bit classic arcade games, this one is built on the same fundamentals. As a player you need to practice to improve, but it takes patience. The sword and spear mechanics are also well polished, as is the timing. Highly recommended.
Locomalito is the new Shigeru Miyamoto. Please bring 8-bit killer also to the app store.
This is one of the best games Ive played,but it would be a lot cooler if the armor gives you extra health and if you can get the armor more often,but its still a awesome game.
We bought the game to show our support. Now please port this to Nintendo Switch! Thanks.
Love the overlay, controller support, not to mention it's a fantastic retro styled game. Hope they make more love letters to the past like this.
If you have and MFI controller than this game is effectively a masterpiece of 2D platforming. Borrowing elements from great games like Castlevania and Metroid (especially Castlevania), and yet avoiding the mistakes of those games, means that this game is essentially perfect. Good writing, good level design, and fantastic boss fights. The only downside is the length. We didnt want it to stop haha. Great soundtrack as well. If you love old school games from the 80s and 90s then this is a must play.
- This is unplayable without a controller and theres no reason for that to be the case. 2. A common trope in reviews is to designate the reviewed media as a Love letter to . Conversely, this is a Hate Letter. The art/aesthetic is great but, in terms of gameplay, its the worst aspects of early console games collected in one place. Its like a satire of early video games – bad level design, bad hit detection, luck dependent progress, enemies with movement patterns that dont match the limitations of player movement, worthless power ups and illogical allocation of health/lives.
If you love classic games such as Castlevania, give this a shot. It controls well, has great retro pixel graphics, and authentic sound. We played this years ago on the PC where it is free but purchased the game for iOS to support the developer.
We love that this is a retro pixel game that plays by the rules of actual 8-bit gaming: limited palette, pixels are all the same size, animations take place on a pixel grid, actual chiptune soundtrack. A lot of games that try to look like this fail because they arent faithful in these ways. The gameplay is smooth and gratifying on a SteelSeries Nimbus on Apple TV. So glad to finally have a great platformer on tvOS. Worth many times its price. We cant wait to keep playing.
Please have a option for custom (resize & position) virtual controls. Besides that, this game is really good. Thank You.
The game is great and the music makes u feel like ur playing nes game The only problem is the control is to small and most of the time we press down instead of forward and thats really annoying and makes u get hit from the enemy so please have floated control and adjustments for this fix control and then Ill say 10/10 is this game worth.
Looks to be a great game but playing on an iPad the the buttons and d-pad are way too small. Please add an option to make them larger and customize their positions.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.0.1
- Size: 83.55 MB
- iOS: 13.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence, Infrequent/Mild Realistic Violence, Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes
- Developer: Abylight SL
Last updated: 18th September 2020 | Genre: Action, Adventure | Developer: Abylight SL