This past Saturday, I trotted around the Indie Mega Booth like one of the Bushwhackers, looking to jump into the ring with every indie game I could find. My arms waving in a power walk, I sped from game to game, relying on anything that could catch my eye to catch my time. If it wasn’t for the big screens in their booth, I very nearly would have run past Echoes of Eridu. Thankfully I didn’t, because OMG ROGUE-LIKE MEGAMAN!
The team behind Batterystaple Games had no qualms telling me that their inspiration for Eridu lies in the Blue Bomber; they’re fans, and they want to see more of the style of game that the classic series brings. Without any modern MegaMan games to satisfy their adventuring, they had to create their own.
Echoes of Eridu follows much of the same recipe as the Capcom series: 2D platforming action, earning powers from bosses, big levels with tricky jumps and plenty of enemies, and a plot that includes the pre-requisite “robots are rebelling” narrative. All of these work well within the game, as I found the controls to be fluid and responsive and the action to be extremely familiar. The visuals are big and bold, and what I’d expect from a modern MegaMan X game. My hero Nina (one of two selectable at this time) jumped across the screen, charging her blaster and launching projectiles every which way. Her red armor was a great contrast against the blues, silvers and greens that make up the demo levels. The music’s retro-styled fast-paced bleeps and bloops resonated with my inner nostalgic twelve year old.
It all seemed incredibly familiar and welcome.
But Eridu has a few things that separate it from the classic game. For one, it’s completely rogue-like. That is, its levels are auto-generated, resulting in a new experience each play through. The big challenge with this style of experience is balancing the risk-reward that the original MegaMan games pride themselves on. They were expertly designed, with each section of a level being both thematic and cohesive to the next. Certain jumps in one section had resonating gameplay effects to other areas. How Eridu will solve for this is yet to be seen, as the obstacles will need to be unique and not sporadic. Thankfully, a forgiving death/respawn mechanic is built in to help in times of extreme challenge to allow players to experience the entire level. That helps in a rogue-like, and it will help here when players will probably fall to their deaths over and over.
The game’s loadout system works to provide a good amount of customization before running through a level. Blasters, armor, shoes, and special moves can all be chosen and tweaked, and during my demo I would find myself settling on the 4-way burst and double jump as my go-to choices, but only after a few failed attempts at surviving one laser-infested section. The ability to increase my health slightly with the armor I select helped in my battle against Iron Vanguard, the boss of the demo. The equipment choices have a nice +1/-1 design, in that selecting one attribute decreases another. Balancing and finding the best loadout will be crucial to individual playstyles.
As good of a time I had with the demo playing by myself, Eridu is designed for co-op play as well. Nina and Ace are the current characters, but stretch goals in the game’s Kickstarter include more possibilities in Jam and Blitz.
With the game’s open homage to the Father of Action Platformers, and its welcome additions and changes to the formula, I’m hopeful that Eridu can deliver on promises that modern gamers expect to be kept from the genre. Either way, there isn’t that long of a wait to find out. Echoes of Eridu is coming this November to PC, is on Steam Greenlight and is currently seeking just $20K in Kickstarter.
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