Review – Earthion – Gamerview

If you are reading this review, it is because you are a fan of navinha games. Or, to the intimate. And yes, Earthion is full of your attention! Not only for being a game made in the mega drive engine and has an absurd soundtrack, but for being a game. You start and do not want to stop playing until you finish, while warming your heart with the nostalgia of a game that could have existed in the 1990s and sold horrors in the 16-bit generation.

Produced by Japanese developer Ancient Corporation, Earthion was released on July 31 to PC and will reach consoles in September, including one with a miniature of the game’s arcade. Already the retro collectors will be able to purchase the Mega Drive cartridge next year by Limited Run, although it does not yet have an official date to leave.

New game with old taste

In the plot, the resources of the earth exhausted and humanity fled to Mars. Invasive forces took advantage of the breach to attack the earth, starting a new space war. Leading the fleet is the protagonist Azusa Takanashi, riding her yk-iia ship for 8 distinct phases full of technology and bizarre creatures.

Right on the Earthion home screen we see the affection of the developers with the game. It’s okay “old-school”, with simple menu and a sound effect of selection that came out straight from Streets of Rage. After all, the whole trail is made up of the master, who worked on the famous Beat ‘in Sega Up and also in Actraiser, among many other games.

Earthion presents a gameplay consisting of the common shot and alternating between secondary weapons, among several options, with a level of force that increases as you collect green fragments of slaughtered enemies. You also have a shield that zero when hit, but recharges after a few seconds. And, as you could not miss, you have lives and continues. But don’t think the game is easy: it’s just 2 lives and 3 continues. After that it is game over, as in the old days. Unless you play easy, the challenge is huge.

In the larger difficulties you will need to memorize the phases, boss standards and, especially, finish the phase with the adaptation capsule, which allows you to choose an improvement bonus (image below) to follow for the next phase. These are improvements such as increasing the initial level of shots and extra life, among other options, which make a total difference to advance.

The capsule occupies the space of a secondary weapon, leaving its arsenal limited but offering a good exchange at the end of the phase. I only managed to finish the game like that, taking these bonuses. The phases play with different styles and guidelines, for example with horizontal navigation. There are time that rains enemies on the screen and there is time when the scenario tightens the spaces like in R-Type, another shmup of the old ones. This alternation makes everything very fun, with difficulty that increases and decreases without following a pattern.

Yuzo Koshiro do Brasil

Earthion has a wonderful pixel art look, too neat in animations and palax. In some parts the game simulates 3D animation, just to give the air of grace. And you can modify the way the game is presented on screen: on curved or flat tube TV, square, staggered and more. I could see for the screenshots of the review, right? And the game also offers extras, such as playing old demonstrations and the initial prototype version.

Now the soundtrack… my ours, how much good music! All phases have their own songs, one better than the other, with that strong taste of Mega Drive. By the way, Yuzo Koshiro recently came to Brazil at Retrocon, in his first passage throughout the country, and did an amazing. He was so thrilled with the warmth of Brazilian fans who want to return next year, according to his statement made to Warpzone. May it come!

Earthion is a classic game with modern face, which brings all the best of its kind. My only criticisms are to the absence of the bomb, the bad visibility in some stretches of the phases (because of the color reed) and the duration, which only extends for more than 3 hours if you want to reach all the achievements – which are many, with specificities for each phase. And of course, trying to finish the game in the “beast” and snobbing difficulty with their initials on the scoreboard.