Developer & Publisher: Shiro Games
Genre: RPG (1)
Sorry, I couldn’t write about Air Raid because I couldn’t get the game to work. Enjoy this RPG review instead!
Do you enjoy it when video games reference other games? Sure, everyone does. It show’s we’re all part of the same club. I think it’s required by law for every game to say “it’s a secret to everyone” or “it’s dangerous to go alone.” So if you like a game that has a few references to older games than you should love a game that’s nothing but references. What, that sounds lazy and kind of obnoxious? Too bad you didn’t tell the makers of Evoland. In their world every reference to another game is clever and necessary no matter how obvious it is.
The basic idea of Evoland is a good one. It’s a game that goes through the evolution of RPGs from the early 80s to the modern day. However, it falters in the execution in a couple of key areas. The first is that it goes through the evolution far too quickly. As you move around the overworld you will find treasure chests that upgrade aspects of the game like graphics and menu screens. It’s fun in the beginning to collect chests and see what’s going to change. However by about a fourth of the way through the game it pretty much looks and plays like it’s going to for the rest of the game. If, like me, you are a fan of games from the 8 and 16 bit era than you are going to be disappointed. The game moves through these eras way too quick leaving most of the game to have graphics more in line with a low-end 3DS game. If I’m going to play what is basically nostalgia the game I want to spend more time with Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy VI than I want to spend with a digital 3DS game. I feel like they were missing the point.
The other problem is that the game itself just isn’t designed very well. The people who made the game obviously thought that we would be so entertained by the references that we wouldn’t care about the weak gameplay. The turn-based sections are especially boring and seem to only exist so you can say “hey, that’s like Final Fantasy.” It’s mostly just pushing the attack button without any of the strategy or tension of real turn-based games. The Diablo section is nothing but a barrage of enemies who drop “funny” upgrades which don’t actually do anything. It’s just button mashing which once again misses what made Diablo so fun to begin with. The Zelda sections are a bit better, but there are hundreds of games that do Zelda action better. The worst part is that most of these sections take place after the evolution has already happened so there’s not even the novelty to enjoy anymore. There’s just shallow gameplay.
I don’t know maybe I’m just getting jaded in my old age, but I think a game needs to do a little more than simply reference older and better games. Any fan of RPGs has already played all the games referenced, and instead of playing a bad version of Final Fantasy they can very easily find the real thing and play. I get that the makers of the game love video games, but that doesn’t excuse lazy design. RPGs have been my first love for almost thirty years no, so I am definitely the target audience with this game, but I enjoyed it less and less with each new objective. I just with the developers had something to say besides “video games are fun and we should talk about them incessantly.”
So as you can probably guess this one is going to rank fairly low. I am excited that it’s my first RPG ranking, but it’s not a very auspicious start. I do like it enough to get it out of the red section, but I would much rather play Galaxian any day. At least the designers of Galaxian understood the fundamentals. Also, I bought this game in a collection with its sequel on my Switch so just be ready. We haven’t heard the last of Evoland!
1. Galaga
2. Pac-Mania
3. Mickey’s Racing Adventure
4. Metro-Cross
5. Gaplus
6. Dragon Spirit
7. Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour (GBC)
8. Red Sea Crossing
9. Baraduke
10. Gamma-Attack
11. The Legend of “Valkyrie”
12. Galaxian
13. Evoland
14. Gyruss (2600)
15. Looney Tunes Racing
16. Birthday Mania
Next time: I think I’ll stick with Switch. Just be warned, I have a lot of cheap boring games for it
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