Platforming runners have always been fun, easy to get into games, becoming more popular over the years. EarthNight is super rad, and combines hand drawn art with fantastic retro music in a challenging procedurally generated environment.
It’s a dragon apocalypse and you need to defeat them to save the earth. Taking control of a freelance photographer, Stanley, and a 14 year old high schooler, Sydney, you need to slay all the dragons as you make your way back to earth. The dragons have destroyed all government and there are no military forces left, so it’s up to you two.
Watching over from space, you’ll jump your way down and fall back to earth, running across dragons and taking them out one by one during your descent. The game is entirely hand-drawn, so there are some really great visuals and it’s paired with music that will bring you back to the days of Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. You’ll make your way across dozens of dragons as you avoid enemies and obstacles with quickly learned skill, as there is no way to stop your character’s movement. You can speed up, slow down, and jump over enemies or obstacles in an effort to collect points and pick-ups through each level. Once you successfully make it to the head of each dragon, you’ll need to defeat it quickly and continue down to earth.
If you’re daring enough, you can try and navigate all the way down to earth and avoid all the flying dragons, but the closer to earth you get, the harder the levels get too. In addition to that, both Stanley and Sydney have their own unique abilities that will become necessary to master if you plan to save the earth. Stanley carries a sword to slice through enemies, which helps if you’re not able to manage jumping and controlling that in-air velocity to avoid approaching enemies. Sydney has no weapons, but can dash in addition to her double jump, which you can use to either avoid enemies altogether, or dash through them.
I was able to spend a good amount of time with both Sydney and Stanley’s characters and experience the differences between the two. My suggestion to new players is to start with Stanley and work your way towards Sydney. The double jump/dash mechanic was a bit tricky for me to get used to. Definitely a fun game that’s easily digestible in short or long sessions.
tl;dr: A fun speedrun/platformer game that will test your wits and your patience. Big bonus that it’s coming to Vita as it’s definitely a game that will pair well with the handheld. Awesome music + unique characters/skillsets to choose from. Lovely art style will make it a fun game to watch for twitch audiences.
It’s coming to PS4, PSVita (YESSSSS!), and PC/Mac versions to follow. Look for it Q4 2017.
Need more info? Check out the CleaverSoft website.
-Written by Andrew(@SoAfterISaid)
