Alwa's Awakening

The result is a really splendid example of the form, with enough original ideas of its own within the standard to make it interesting. It’s a good, solid game, that’s occasionally extremely tough, but always fair.

In case you haven't noticed there's a boat load of Metroidvanias coming out recently and Alwa's Awakening hangs with them. Its restrictive without going overboard, allowing the highs outweigh the lows. The ability to chisel away at some tough rooms with a Switch on the go helps make it even more digestible.

Alwa's Awakening is a game that perhaps manages to achieve its aims a little too well, with moments of great platforming action and a well-designed overworld being hamstrung by antiquated problems like an unforgiving checkpoint system and an unhelpful map. We'd give this one a light recommendation; there's plenty of quality to be found despite some flaws and it's evident that a lot of passion went into the development, although we would also add that there's nothing about Alwa's Awakening that screams “must play”. If you're a fan of retro action platformers or Metroidvanias, Alwa's Awakening is certainly worth a go, but if you aren't a fan, this isn't the game to change your mind.

Ultimately, Alwa’s Awakening feels like the foundation to what might have been a rather more substantial revisit of the glorious 8-bit like so many before it.

Alwa’s Awakening is a truly excellent game. While it’s true that we’re not exactly short on open-structure exploratory platform games these days, there’s enough that is distinctive about Alwa’s Awakening to make it stand out from the crowd. So what are you waiting for?

Alwa's Awakening offers a solid challenge and a great sense of exploration which makes it a satisfying experience.

It's not a great game due to how slow it is and the enemies are so non-threatening, however the level design and exploration aspects are fantastic. This ain't half bad for a more casual, chilled out kind of game.

Final Thoughts Alwa's Awakening is a very fun and polished Metroidvania that has finally found its way to the Nintendo Switch, a console where things come full circle on a Nintendo console, what with the game paying homage to Metroid and other action platformers of the Nintendo Entertainment System era. We had a lot of fun playing the game for this double review, so we highly recommend that you get it today!

If you’re looking for an experience that in almost all regards feels like it’s a lost NES title, some warts and all (I’m looking at you, fake walls) Alwa’s Awakening does an almost disturbingly good job of it. Though the pacing may be a bit on the slower side there’s a solid adventure to be had with your humble hero Zoe, and the option to reduce downtime retracing your steps is a modern convenience I can really get behind. It may not be for everyone, but it should check pretty well every box for its intended retro-loving audience.

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