G A M E R E V I E W
ALWA ’ S
AWAKENING
Review by J . Luis
Alwa ’ s Awakening from Elden Pixels is an NES-inspired adventure game that is sure to make gamers of a certain age feel all warm and fuzzy inside . The game stars Zoe , a Magelike heroine from another world that has been pulled into the land of Alwa to save it from an ultimate evil baddie and their four arch-mages .
The game is truly gorgeous with some fantastic animation that is silky smooth and will make you want to bust out that NES gathering dust in the attic . Alwa ’ s Awakening plays off nostalgia in the best possible way , but it might not quite be the game you think it is from the screenshots you see , much like games of yesteryear . This isn ’ t Shovel Knight , or even the Mega Man like game it calls to mind , instead Alwa ’ s Awakening is a weird mix of genres that don ’ t always play well with each other .
Your goal in the game is simple : collect four pendants from the four bosses so that you can access the magical warp to the final boss . It ’ s an easy enough concept , but the layout is a bit weird and may turn a few people away . The game isn ’ t set up with stages but instead it relies on the Metroidvania style of play . This would be fine in and of itself , but the game isn ’ t anywhere as deep or lengthy as either of those titles , so you ’ re going to be backtracking the same few rooms dozens upon dozens of times in very short order .
This gets really frustrating as traveling from one end of the world map to the other doesn ’ t take all that long . I can ’ t tell you how many times I saw the same passageways during my adventure to the point of frustration . Alwa ’ s Awakening is more than happy to send you to the leftmost part of the world to grab a key for a door on the rightmost part of the map . This happens with a few other items as well . This also leads you to getting lost quite a bit ( at least it did to me ), not because the map isn ’ t good , it works great in fact , but because everything just sort of looks the same after a while .
The gameplay is simple much like most NES games it emulates , but it works well enough . Zoe is equipped with a magic staff that can be used
Genre : Adventure , Indie Developer : Elden Pixels Publisher : Elden Pixels
Platform : PC
" Alwa ’ s Awakening is a game that tries to stay as close as possible to the authentic 8-bit look with sweet pixel art , a soundtrack filled with catchy chiptunes and so much charm it ’ ll bring you right back to the NES era "
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