Alwa’s Awakening Review

<p><em>Alwa&&num;8217&semi;s Awakning<&sol;em> is a labor of love from a small development team with a lot of heart and it&&num;8217&semi;s reflected well in the game itself&period; It was developed by a very dedicated four-person team over the course of about two years and I&&num;8217&semi;m incredibly impressed with what they were able to create&period; <em>Alwa&&num;8217&semi;s Awakening<&sol;em> is a Metroidvania NES style game where you take on the role of protagonist Zoe who was summoned to this world to help destroy the evil that is threatening it&period; To do so you&&num;8217&semi;ll need to travel across many different areas and learn new abilities across the 400 plus unique and challenging rooms this game has to offer&period; Your quest to save the land of Alwa will be very reminiscent of the NES era in all the best ways&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The 8-bit and 16-bit eras of gaming have experienced quite the resurgence over the last few years with games like <em>Cave Story<&sol;em> and <em>Shovel Knight<&sol;em> earning quite a bit of attention and critical acclaim&comma; and for good reason too&comma; but there have been a lot of games that have tried to capitalize on this retro reawakening with mixed results&period; As a result of this new popularity of retro goodness&comma; it can sometimes be difficult to find the standout titles in the flood of games that aspire for greatness but ultimately fall short&period; <em>Alwa&&num;8217&semi;s Awakening<&sol;em> is not one of these games at all and is worthy of both your attention and the praise it has already received&period; <em>Alwa&&num;8217&semi;s Awakening<&sol;em> does a great job of capturing that retro feel and spirit while mostly leaving the negative design choices of the 80&&num;8217&semi;s and 90&&num;8217&semi;s back in the past where they belong&period; However&comma; the positives&comma; like the sense of exploration&comma; challenge&comma; and fun were placed front and center and do a wonderful job of infectiously spreading across all corners of this lovely game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;125830" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-125830" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-125830" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;05&sol;29141846&sol;AlwasAwakening02&period;png" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"576" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-125830" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Alwa&&num;8217&semi;s Awakening&comma; Elden Pixels<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The story of <em>Alwa&&num;8217&semi;s Awakening<&sol;em> is simple but I wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t have it any other way&period; Just like many games of the NES era the story was meant to throw in some context&comma; background&comma; and give players some reason and motivation for their journey&period; The gameplay was always front and center as it should be&period; A story is nice in a game but for retro-style games&comma; we really don&&num;8217&semi;t need too much&period; We just need a cause to fight for and a weapon and we&&num;8217&semi;re ready to go&period; All you really need to know is evil is rising up in the land of Alwa and Zoe&comma; who you&&num;8217&semi;ll be playing as&comma; has been summoned to fight back and save the land from the evil that threatens to close in around it&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll want to save this world too&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s charming and warm with characters and dialogue that reminded me of <em>Earthbound<&sol;em> and <em>Shovel Knight<&sol;em> at times&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Zoe has a wand that you can use to vanquish enemies&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll acquire new abilities along your journey to destroy the wide variety of enemies you&&num;8217&semi;ll encounter&period; From boss fights to run of the mill enemies&comma; <em>Alwa&&num;8217&semi;s Awakening<&sol;em> has great attention to detail&period; I love the design of both the enemies and the world itself&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll go to many different areas&semi; from dungeons to forests to towns and they all have their own unique look and feel too&period; This game was very deliberately developed and you can tell the four team members were confidently all moving in the same direction throughout the entire development cycle&period; Combat works really well&period; In fact&comma; this game controls great&period; It also features full controller support across a wide range of controller options&period; I personally chose to use an Xbox One controller and I could not have been happier&period; Everything worked very well&period; The platforming elements also work really well&period; I got some <em>Castlevania<&sol;em> vibes when I was exploring and maneuvering around different areas&comma; particularly <em>Bloodlines<&sol;em> but everything feels much more open and less constricted or crowded&period; Zoe has a bit of a floaty jump&comma; almost like Yoshi in <em>Super Mario World<&sol;em> but a little looser&period; It works well though and helps line things up&period; I never felt like I didn&&num;8217&semi;t have good control over Zoe and that&&num;8217&semi;s really important in a game like this&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;125831" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-125831" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-125831" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;05&sol;29141924&sol;AlwasAwakening04&period;png" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"576" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-125831" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Alwa&&num;8217&semi;s Awakening&comma; Elden Pixels<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The difficulty was just right&period; Things got tricky at times&period; I even grew to hate the death count on the continue screen but in all honesty&comma; I actually enjoyed having that&period; It reminded me of the era this game is so proudly inspired by&period; There aren&&num;8217&semi;t actual game overs though&period; Sure&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll die but you can hit continue after chuckling at your death count and then you&&num;8217&semi;ll just go to your last save point&period; Save points are spread out <em>perfectly<&sol;em>&period; Right after I got past certain sections that I struggled with a bit there would normally be a save point&period; I may die later from a different challenging area but I don&&num;8217&semi;t think I was ever forced to repeat previous sections because of a different section&period; It doesn&&num;8217&semi;t feel like there are too many save points either though&period; The team ensured there was just the right amount&period; The game&&num;8217&semi;s platforming and combat are the same way&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s some challenge here and there but everything feels and controls well enough so when I failed in an area I knew it was my fault and just kept trying to get past that spot&period; I was very pleased with how the team handled everything&period; I was very reminded of <em>Metroid<&sol;em> when it came to encountering sections I wasn&&num;8217&semi;t sure how to get past&period; <em>Alwa&&num;8217&semi;s<&sol;em> <em>Awakening<&sol;em> has <em>just<&sol;em> the right amount of trial and error where I&&num;8217&semi;m satisfied with my feats and rarely frustrated&period; It has a great learning curve and the game design helps teach you by having to get past specific areas and&sol;or enemies where you&&num;8217&semi;ll learn how to play the game well&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a constant conversation between the game and the player and it&&num;8217&semi;s one of the best and most important things that Elden Pixels took from the NES era of game design&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;125832" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-125832" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-125832" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;05&sol;29142002&sol;AlwasAwakening10&period;png" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"576" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-125832" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Alwa&&num;8217&semi;s Awakening&comma; Elden Pixels<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Alwa&&num;8217&semi;s Awakening<&sol;em> is a wonderful game and I think it belongs right up there with <em>Cave Story&comma; Shovel Knight<&sol;em> and other indie retro releases that borrow the best elements of the earlier eras of video games while still injecting their own character&comma; design&comma; and level building that makes the game feel like a new experience&period; <em>Alwa&&num;8217&semi;s Awakening<&sol;em> may feel like an older game in its graphics&comma; music&comma; and structure but it never feels like it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t belong in this golden age of retro throwbacks that we&&num;8217&semi;re in the middle of enjoying right now&period; This game is bound to be a classic years from now and I wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t have it any other way&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PC Review Copy for Alwa&&num;8217&semi;s Awakening was provided by Elden Pixels for the Purpose of this Review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;