Alwa’s Awakening is a fantastic exploration platformer
Elden Pixels’ Alwa’s Awakening has been around for a while now, but it’s just had a brand new release in the form of an authentic “8-Bit Edition” for NES and Evercade. While the original game was designed to resemble NES games in a “modern retro” style, this new version is actually straight-up an NES game — and despite running on more limited tech, actually has more stuff in it than the original release.
With that in mind, it’s a great time to check out this game if you haven’t already. The Evercade version comes in a double-pack with the equally excellent Cathedral from Decemberborn Interactive, while the NES version is available through a variety of storefronts. So let’s take a closer look!
In Alwa’s Awakening, you take on the role of Zoe, a young girl who, after passing out in front of her computer one night, found herself mysteriously transported to the land of Alwa. She has been summoned by the people of Alwa to fight back against the oppressive Vicar and his four Protectors, who have enslaved the land and plunged it into an age of darkness.
For some reason, the land of Alwa is a tad short on heroes — the only one you find has retired and is content to spend his life fishing and guarding his precious blue orb (which, yes, you can pinch), and thus it’s up to Zoe to sort things out once and for all.
Alwa’s Awakening prides itself on being a truly freeform, open-structure exploratory platform game. It makes a point of not placing a big flashing objective marker on the map for you to follow, and aside from the opening sequences, it’s not all that specific about which order you might want to do things in.
Like most games of this type, you will sometimes encounter obstacles that you’ll need to come back to later with additional abilities, but for the most part, at any given moment, you’ll have plenty of choice in terms of which direction you might want to go next. While exploring each of the game’s distinct areas, you’ll often find connections to other regions of the map; when you do so, you’ll often have to make a difficult choice as to whether to continue exploring the place you were in, or check out the new area.
As in most games like this, the areas are interlinked, though, and taking the latter option can often open up a useful shortcut that you can take advantage of later. There are also numerous warp portals around the map for faster travel over long distances, so it really does pay to indulge your curiosity.
Combat in Alwa’s Awakening is very simple. In the opening of the game, Zoe acquires a staff which she can use to bonk monsters on the head; a short-range but effective attack. There’s a solid hitstun system in place where enemies that take more than one hit can be prevented from attacking with well-timed attacks, and the power of Zoe’s staff can be upgraded by locating the aforementioned blue orbs, the game’s main collectible.
The boss fights against the four Protectors are all pattern-based, meaning you’ll need to find suitable ways to avoid their attacks, then use the available openings to boop their snoot while they’re still within reach. They’re challenging but fair, and make good use of the game’s mechanics.
Speaking of mechanics, the main “upgrades” that Zoe will acquire over the course of Alwa’s Awakening include three magic spells. One allows her to create a block which she can push around, stand on or use to weigh down switches; another allows her to create a bubble which floats up and allows her to stand on it for a brief period; and the third provides a ranged magic attack that can be used to attack from afar and open certain doors.
These abilities are all simple to understand, but often used in creative ways. For example, there are some sequences where standing on the block Zoe can create doesn’t let her quite reach a platform, and her bubble bursts before she can get high enough also. The answer, in this situation, is to do both; use the block to get a bit of extra starting height, then release the bubble from a slightly higher altitude, allowing her to reach the platform.
One aspect of Alwa’s Awakening that is particularly worthy of praise is its checkpoint system. Various rooms on the map are marked with stars on their entrance passageways, which indicates that they are checkpoints. Entering these rooms and activating the flame within restores Zoe’s health to full, saves the game and acts as a checkpoint.
You might think those latter two things are the same, but no; one of the most player-friendly things about Alwa’s Awakening is that if you die after reaching a checkpoint, any progress you made after that checkpoint is actually maintained when you respawn, meaning you won’t have to re-fight bosses, redo difficult platforming sequences to reach items or otherwise find yourself frustrated. It’s a small, simple touch, but much appreciated; while it arguably does ease the difficulty of Alwa’s Awakening a little, the overall challenge factor of the game as a whole more than makes up for it.
Alwa’s Awakening is, at times, quite a tough game. There are some very precise platforming sequences where you’ll need to pay attention to the variable arc of Zoe’s jump according to how long you hold the button, and make creative use of the spells to progress. Monster placement is also often quite fiendish, meaning you’ll need to time jumps and drops carefully so that you can defeat enemies on small platforms without taking damage.
One contributing factor to the difficulty level is that Zoe can’t take much damage; she has just three hit points and the only available upgrade to this is an optional water flask which, when full, allows her to refill her energy once. Moreover, the water flask only works if that last point of damage taken was from a monster or projectile; falling into spikes, water, fire or other dangerous environmental features is always an instant death. And, in a fun touch of adding insult to injury, there’s a death counter on the game’s continue screen.
But then to make things more entertainingly complicated, there are plenty of secrets in Alwa’s Awakening, too — some of which require you to make an educated guess as to whether or not something that looks dangerous is actually safe. In the first dungeon, for example, there’s a room with several spike pits, but if you climb down into the room below, you can see that one of these pits appears to lead into a new location with an item for the taking. Sure enough, dropping into the corresponding pit in the room above causes you to fall right through the spikes into the “secret” room.
This sort of thing is pure NES game design, and it fits right in with the overall feel of Alwa’s Awakening’s 8-bit edition. Yes, for those accustomed to things being a bit more explicit, it might be frustrating to encounter things like this — but as noted at the start of this piece, Alwa’s Awakening is a game that deliberately does not tell you where to go or what to do; it trusts you to explore for yourself and experiment. After all, the penalty for death isn’t all that harsh, given the aforementioned checkpointing system — you see how it all fits together?
Alwa’s Awakening is a truly excellent game. While it’s true that we’re not exactly short on open-structure exploratory platform games these days, there’s enough that is distinctive about Alwa’s Awakening to make it stand out from the crowd. So what are you waiting for?
Alwa’s Awakening is available now for NES/emulators and Evercade.
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