Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 17/Dec 00:01

Eternum EX – Review

In the last few years, we have seen a lot of rereleases of retro games, often with enhanced visuals and save states, but also new game releases that draw inspiration from many popular old-school titles. Eternum EX is part of the latter, as developers Radin Games and Flynn’s Arcade drew inspiration from retro titles such as Ghosts’n Goblins, Baluba-louk no Densetsu, Bomb Jack, and Psychic 5. While we haven’t played all of these titles from the 80s, all of these games are classics in their own right. Will Eternum EX stand proudly amongst the greats, or is it a lukewarm decoction that relies too much on gamers’ nostalgia goggles? Story In true arcade game fashion, Eternum EX only has a blurb of text at the beginning and ending of the game. For us, this sufficed, as games like these don’t require a very captivating storyline to be entertaining. In this case, Sir Arthur has grown old and is sadly yearning back for the days when he could go out adventuring. To restore his youth, he travels to Samarnath, an evil subterranean kingdom, where he must collect five magical orbs. Upon doing so, he might get a second lease on life and regain everything he has lost. Graphics Stuck somewhere between the 8 and 16-bit generations, Eternum EX has fairly decent visuals for a retro-inspired project. Arthur looks nicely animated, and the limited enemy cast looks well designed. Not all enemy models come with impressive animations, however. The game has differently themed worlds, which often means that the backdrops are different and some new assets are added to the mix. Everything is kept fairly basic, which is not uncommon for an arcade-like title with pixelated visuals. All in all, everything looks quite good. Sound The sound design of Eternum EX is quite good when looking at what the game is aiming to be: a retro-inspired arcade title. Every world has its own background tune, and the SFX provide the necessary feedback for the onscreen action. The soundtrack itself is not bad at all, but it’s not as catchy as many of the titles Eternum EX is inspired by. Gameplay Eternum EX is an old-school arcade title that consists of a lot of platforming and some action segments. Your goal is to collect all the treasure chests with Sir Arthur in each level of the different worlds, eventually fighting a boss at the end of each world. It’s a very straightforward experience that doesn’t really throw you any curveballs whatsoever. You just explore the different levels, collect chests, avoid or kill enemies, and make it out via the portal that opens up at the end. You can either pick the mode where you only have three credits but can save after completing each world, or the arcade mode, where you have unlimited credits but cannot save at all. While the latter may sound daunting, the game can be beaten in around an hour if you’re somewhat experienced with action-platformers. Truth be told, there really isn’t that much more to say here. The controls are responsive, the gameplay loop is fairly entertaining, but everything does feel very basic, even for a retro-inspired title such as this. There is no real character progress, there are no upgrades, and all of the levels play out in the same way, albeit with more dangerous hazards being thrown at you. There is a power-up that turns Sir Arthur’s close-range attack into a ranged one, but generally, this power-up only lasts a few seconds, and if there are no enemies nearby, it more often than not goes to waste. We would have perhaps loved a few more permanent upgrades, but given that the game is only around an hour to play through, we understand that upgrading your character would be rather tricky to embed into the gameplay Conclusion Eternum EX is a fairly run-of-the-mill retro arcade title, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. While very short, the game offers an entertaining gameplay loop, fun boss battles, responsive controls, and period-correct audiovisual design, which is all these games truly need. After beating the game once, we probably won’t be picking this one up any time soon, but it will still provide retro game enthusiasts with a fun evening. If you’re a fan of titles such as this, this one might be worth checking out.