So here we are in 2022 and a new NES game has just been released. Truly it is a time of wonder. Alwa’s Awakening has been around for a fair while now and we’ve covered the Switch version of the sequel Alwa’s Legacy, which we really enjoyed. When it was announced that the first game was getting the NES ‘demake’ treatment it had us interested. What we weren’t expecting was the NES version of the game would actually be bigger than the original and end up being the definitive way to play it.
Alwa’s Awakening is basically a 2D Metroidvania adventure
spread over a single interconnecting world. Our hero, Zoe, explores the region
picking up spells and other magical objects which in turn then let’s her have
access to more areas to explore. Zoe must enter dungeons, defeat boss monsters
and then, of course, take on the big bad to save the land. You know how it
goes.
It’s helpful then that the game is incredibly vibrant, imaginative
and designed beautifully. We came away thinking we had never really had an
adventure quite like this and if you go back to the NES days there would indeed
be very little to compare it to. Battle for Olympus, Faxanda possibly or the 2D
Zelda but this is undoubtedly better than both of those games.
Each region and area are easily identified and different looking
and how the game has managed to be squeezed down into the limitations of a NES cartridge
is absolutely astounding. Even walls of bricks or different woodland areas are
distinctive from one another which really helps to keep the player engaged - and
also works as a handy navigational aid.
All this would mean nothing though if the game didn’t handle
well and we are happy to say that it plays like a dream. Zoe, is perfect to
control. There’s no sluggishness or lose feeling that some NES games have.
There is also a distinct lack of all those NES tropes such as slowdown and
flickering, and Alwa can get pretty busy at times. It’s remarkable.
Zoe has a handful of things to help her along the way which act
as puzzle solving tools and weapons. As well as her standard staff which she
can use to just bash things with there are three spells available which can be
upgraded as you go. The first one you will find is the magic block which you
can conjure to use to activate switches or give yourself a boost for jumping.
Later you can also make it waterproof so that it can be used to travel across
rivers.
Next is the bubble which allows Zoe to float upwards for a
while and can later be upgraded to last for much longer. Last is the lighting
bolt which is a more offensive based spell but can also be used to open certain
doors. There are other objects as well such as your handy map and upgrades to
your magic but for the most part it’s using the three core spells that will
progress you through the game and some of the puzzle rooms require all three to
be used in quick succession.
We found progress to be fairly steady as well. There are
plenty of save points and the general difficult is challenging without be
completely hardcore. There were certainly a few bottle neck points where we kept
dying repeatedly but overall there shouldn’t be much here that overly frustrates
you – especially if you are used to NES games. Obviously, if you are playing digitally
you also have the save state option and the game holds up well enough if you
are playing this way to still be challenging and enjoyable.
Overall, Alwa’s Awakening is both a wonderful game and a wonderful
achievement. It fits perfectly on the NES while also being modern and forward thinking
in its design and play mechanics. There’s little doubt that if this had been
released in the days of Nintendo’s flagship system then it would be sitting easily
in the all the top 10 NES games lists across the internet. But it’s not just living
off a nostalgic kick either as it can also go toe to toe with the many other
Metroidvania titles out there and stand above most of them. It could turn out
that turning Alwa’s Awakening into a NES game is the best thing that ever
happened to it as it really seems to have found its home now. But no matter
what format you can find it on you should be playing it as it’s pretty much
flawless.
Overall 10/10
We were lucky enough to play the game both on the original NES cartridge as well as digitally thanks to Elden Pixels and Retro Bit.
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