Overall most helpful review

Posted on: October 26, 2022

JordiGH

Games: 138 Reviews: 1

One of the best NES games of all time

This game was originally developed as a retro game with mostly NES-like limitations, so this port to the actual NES is remarkably faithful. As far as modern games go, Alwa's is mostly adequate. It's a good, simple metroidvania, not too long, but just the right length. As an NES game, though, it really shines. It has the rare quality of possibly being the only PC-to-NES port that has more content than the original PC game! The Famitracker-composed music was ported to the NES without modification, and the sprites and background and all pixel art mostly came through unscathed, except for some simplifications of the palette. The story and secrets are all there, and even a few new secrets made it in to this port! The mechanics and physics between three simple abilities provide an interesting challenge in almost every room of the game. Nothing feels out of place. If this game had come out during the NES days, it would have been one of the best-known and most loved games of the system. It came out this year and it is one of my most loved games across all systems..

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Posted on: September 1, 2022

ceceron

Verified owner

Games: 523 Reviews: 14

Great casual metroidvania

Haven't played the PC version, but this NES game is well crafted and is a great example of a retro game done right. A nice mix between zelda and castlevania ;)

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Posted on: August 9, 2024

meditativezebra

Games: 113 Reviews: 1

Superb NES Metroidvania

The NES port of Alwa's Awakening would easily be regarded as an timeless classic if it had been released on Nintendo's hardware in the 1980s. The visual styling is superb, the controls are tight, the exploration is clever without becoming inscrutable, and the soundtrack utilizes the retro hardware to craft some impeccably catchy tunes. Alwa's Awakening was always intended as an homage to the 1980s and in this release as an NES title the game has achieved its perfected form. Skip the PC version: the NES release of Alwa's Awakening is what you should be playing.

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Posted on: December 14, 2024

nbrgin

Verified owner

Games: 19 Reviews: 6

Interesting

It's really crazy that the NES demake is actually the definitive edition of the game. But it is, the devs have even gone on record saying that this version is preferred to the modern version. Because it was designed with NES-like limitations to begin with, remarkably little was lost in the transition. They had to redesign the screens to be narrower to fit the NES' aspect ratio, but this isn't even seen as a downside since the old widescreen rooms were seen as too sparse and slowed down the pacing of the game. So the few changes they had to make were seen as an improvement, actually. I skipped the PC version entirely, so I can't compare them myself, but I had a lot of fun with this game. When played without assist mode, it authentically feels EXACTLY like a late NES game from 1991, its design sensibilities are legitimately that old-school. Unfortunately that's not ALWAYS a good thing. Like a lot of games of that era, it clumsily mixes instant-death traps with a healh bar system. Just like the Mega Man instakill spikes of old, it's really frustrating to have all trouble you went to to preserve your heatlh bar be nullifed with one bad jump. If you swallow your pride and activate assist mode you can set it to respawn on the same screen when you die, which makes it less frustrating to drown in the water, but also nullifies the challenge of managing your health bar since you can refill it by dying with no penalty. A more reasonable compromise would have been that if you hit an insant-death trap with more than 1 health, you respawn at the start of the room with 1 less health. That would have made the deathtraps much more reasonable to deal with, without removing the tension from all combat. And it has precedent in retro games since that's how the old Zelda games handled Link falling into a pit, so authenticity is no excuse to not do it that way. This little game design hiccup is the only reason I didn't give it five stars. Otherwise it's really very good.

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Posted on: March 29, 2023

chrlpolk

Games: 640 Reviews: 30

Mixed feelings on emulator…

I admit, I have mixed feelings on computer games requiring 3rd party software - but I guess I’m running it on Windows, right? Okay, I just killed my complaint! On the one hand, I love GOG because for the most part, I can download the games and not have to hunt for necessary software (just option stuff like mods). Feels like it should be like a DOSbox deal, where an emulator comes packaged with the game. On the other hand, just about everyone who buys games on GOG likely already has an NES emulator on their PC. This is actually a fantastic throwback platformer. Don’t let my pickiness dissuade you from trying it out!.

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Close, but not an exact hit

Alwa's Awakening The 8-Bit Edition

The highly awaited NES remake is finally here!

An NES game with new and exclusive content

Use your magic staff

You are Zoe

Explore the land of Alwa

Find new items and learn new abilities

An 8-bit soundtrack

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