Alwa’s Awakening

Genre: Metroidvania

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in Alwa’s Collection, along with Alwa’s Legacy)

Alwa’s Awakening is a Metroidvania released on PC in 2017, ported to Nintendo Switch in 2018, and then later ported to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2019. This is a game that is clearly inspired by Nintendo Entertainment System games not only in its look, but in multiple elements of its game design.

For the presentation, this means simple pixel art visuals and a chiptune soundtrack, and while neither of these is especially noteworthy, they both do a good job of evoking the era of videogames that inspired this game. This game also features a story that’s also very clearly inspired by the games of that era, with poorly-localized melodrama about an evil megalomaniac taking over the world, magical relics to collect, and a hero from another world whose personality and motivations are as major an element in this game as her dialogue… which is to say, virtually nonexistent. About all we get for a personality for her is her name, Zoe.

The gameplay here is mostly good though, providing players with a lot of area to explore, and new items to collect that gradually allow for greater traversal, although not quite as much as one might like, with progression being a bit on the slow side. Also, players will definitely want to go into the game menus and turn on the game’s “assist mode”, as one of the bigger issues with this game is its absurd challenge level, with very little player health, difficult jumps, and hazards that can kill you in one hit. The game is still very difficult even with the help this game mode provides, but at the very least dying won’t send you all the way back to the last save point.

In the end, Alwa’s Awakening is a decent, but not great, Metroidvania that does a good job of recapturing much of the magic of old-school Nintendo Entertainment System games, while also unfortunately bringing back memories of how frustratingly difficult those games were. Fans of the genre who don’t mind a challenge may find this game to their liking, but for most there are other Metroidvanias that will be more deserving of attention.

tl;dr – Alwa’s Awakening is a Metroidvania with an old-school aesthetic and design inspired by classic NES games. Unfortunately, it’s not just the aesthetic that’s inspired by those older games, with the progression being a bit slow and the difficulty being overly high. It’s still worth a look for fans of the genre who have the patience for a game like this, but for most there will be better options on the Nintendo Switch.

Grade: C+

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