Emerald Shores

Wisconsin is the state that brought us the blender, electric guitars and the ice cream sundae. It's also home to Fordesoft, the one-man game developer behind the new platformer Emerald Shores. This is a charming little throwback title that feels like a cross between a 16-bit mascot game and Final Fantasy. And although it's wildly uneven and the gameplay could use some tightening, there was just enough to Emerald Shores to keep me engaged for a couple of hours.

This is the all-too-brief adventure of Alex, a normal guy with spikey purple hair that gets swept up on an important mission to free Emerald Shores. At first glance, this new action game looks a lot like any other cutesy platformer on the Super NES. It has colorful backgrounds, floating platforms and all kinds of predictable enemies to jump on. But around the time you try to stomp that first enemy that it becomes clear that there's more going on here. What you'll quickly realize is that there are some role-playing game elements, specifically leveling up. Alex starts out as a relative weakling, but by killing enemies and collecting coins, he'll gain enough power to beat even the toughest bosses.

While this addition doesn't radically change the way we navigate through platforms, it does change the pacing of even level. Suddenly it's more about going through and killing every last enemy, whereas in other games you would have just jumped over some of the baddies without thinking twice. There's a real emphasis on thoroughly exploring each stage and gaining all the experience points you can, though you need to be careful, because there are no checkpoints and when you die you start over at the beginning of the level.

There's also a second reason why you'll want to thoroughly explore each stage, and that's because some of them have secret exits and hidden items. This is very much inspired by those classic 16-bit platformers, and that includes hunting for secrets. There are a number of extra stages to travel to and power-up items that will permanently enhance our hero, as well as bonus mini-games that have nothing to do with platforming. And when you've completed the main quest, there's a remixed version that changes up the obstacles and level designs.

Even with all the hidden extras and bonus games, Emerald Shores is still a short platformer. Even compared to the 16-bit games its imitating, this adventure is far from epic. On one hand, I like that it doesn't overstay its welcome. But on the flipside, it sometimes feels like the game is rushing through all of its ideas as quickly as possible. There are concepts that are brought up only once and then never heard from again. A good example of that is when Emerald Shores switches from a standard side-scrolling 2D platformer to a 3D racing game with more than a passing resemblance to Mario Kart. You would think this Mode 7-style stage would be trotted out at least a few times before the end, but it only shows up once. I don't say this very often, but this game needs some filler.

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Unfortunately, that's not the only thing Emerald Shores needs. One of the biggest problems I ran into was the gameplay, specifically the loose control of Alex. He's fine, for the most part, but there are certainly times when his movement is a little too finicky for its own good. This ends up being a real problem when trying to battle some of the early enemies. You'll eventually get to the point where you can take down most bad guys in a single stomp, but those early stages require five or six hits per enemy. The combination of the loose gameplay and the challenging monsters left a bad taste in my mouth early on.

Sadly, the visuals don't help much. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of personality in the enemies and some of the bosses look great, but this wouldn't have been considered a good looking Super NES game. It also has an unusual soundtrack. It's not that the music isn't good, but rather that it doesn't fit the kind of game we're playing. It's moody, downbeat and somber, whereas the visuals are bright and cartoony. There's a real mismatch in tone going on here. That's disappointing.

Emerald Shores is the kind of 2D platformer that is just good enough to be worth playing, but not unique enough to stick with you for years to come. I like the merging of mascot and role-playing, as well as the boss battles and hidden secrets. Sadly, the game is over too quickly and the gameplay could use a little tightening. It's not an essential purchase, but I found a couple hours of fun with Emerald Shores.