Alwa’s Awakening Review

Hey guys, today I finished Alwa’s Awakening, here’s a little review.
It’s a charming NES-style platformer that’s enjoyable if you can be patient with it’s flaws.
alwa's4The platforming is quite slow paced, with the challenge being more about planning your actions in advance, rather than muscle memory and super fast reactions. So it likely will play a bit differently than what you might expect, and if you’re expecting something fast paced you’re definitely going to be disappointed.

Also the game is a bit rough around the edges, and there’s some parts that look a bit rushed. Such as, well… the ending. A slightly more complex upgrade system could have helped make things more interesting too.

But if you can look past all that, the game offers some unique gameplay mechanics (you can create blocks and bubbles to aid in platforming and combat) and super appealing art, and should keep you busy long enough to justify the price point.

I’d definitely like to see a sequel or similar game with improved gameplay and polish.

Anyway, I’m always looking out for NES style games because the style really appeals to me. Is there any great ones you know of? Besides the obvious stuff like Shovel Knight, 1001 Spikes, etc.

I feel like there’s a lot of them out there, but few that do a really great job of bringing the best elements from the past and present together.
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13 thoughts on “Alwa’s Awakening Review

  1. Ahmed

    Hard game, confusing direction, unfair direction, half the time trying to figure where you are going.

    Not fun game at all.

    Reply
  2. Lscander

    For me,I would like to recommend Momodora:Reverie Under the Moonlight and Crosscode.They are all classical style games with good quality.The Phoenotopia mentioned before is also great,and the remake may come out in mid-2018.

    Reply
  3. RSC

    Have you ever tried those two freeware games ?
    Akuji the Demon by E. Hashimoto, simple yet effective, with the time challenges adding some replay value. Very eary NES style.
    Eternal Daughter by Derek Yu : a great metroidvania tribute that is a bit on the difficult side. Count 10+ hours of varied gameplay.

    Reply
  4. daawsomeone

    if you are looking for classic style games Phoenotopia is a fun totally free flash game inspired by Zelda games. its 2D side scrolling has a well written story and it just looks great. I think the graphics might be 16 bit its not quite the style of like shovel knight or Alwa’s Awakening but if is well done and the dev is working on a remake that may be on a major console and steam. warning like most classic games the controls have a learning curve and the game can be pretty challenging.

    Reply
  5. Dutczar

    I once bought some cheap Indie game “Top Hat” because I got a discount for it after completing a card collection. I didn’t beat it, mostly because it has some moments of bullshit moments fairly early on of pixel perfect jumps and stuff, I kind of gave up after the 2nd boss. That said the 3rd world is the main character tripping balls on a pirate ship if I remember right, so maybe I’m missing out on something. It does have a nice looking art style, even if it’s more like a flash game than an NES game with vibrant colors.
    Maybe check it out if you have nothing else to do, but it has “Mixed” review for a reason, really only buy it if you have nothing else to play.

    Reply
  6. y2k_bug

    The guy who made I Wanna Be the Guy is currently making an amazing Castlevania-esque game called Brave Earth. It already has a Steam page with a trailer that really hypes up the potential of the game. The game is most similar to Castlevania 3, so its focus is entirely on good old-fashioned action platforming. It’s coming out in 2018, according to the developer, who is already 6 years late on his initial promise of 2012, but I can tell that it’s going to be an amazing, memorable game, and it’s honestly my most anticipated indie game.

    Reply
  7. Oxybulyx

    It looks really cute, and I want it. NOW! :stars:
    Anyway, if you want some retro-style games, outside of those Hawaii listed, there’s the Esacpist (I don’t know what it is, found it on some Steam library.), Hotline Miami 2 (idem), Chibi knight and Super chibi Knight, two short, cute, LoZ2-style games, and of course, Terraria, the best thing ever in the history of best things.

    Reply
  8. SamHawaii

    There are a lot of Point and Click Games like that out there, like Thimbleweed Park by Ron Gilbert, or in th free to play area the Deep Sleep series you can play at Kongregate. I would also recommend Broforce, especially if you are into 70s to 90s Action Films. There is also a free version of this game called Expendabros which is based on the Expendables movies. For platforming I liked the 2 AVGN games (the frst one tends to be a little unfair sometimes).

    Punch Club is also great.

    Reply

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