The story in this game is rather interesting and I am excited to see how the story plays out in the final game. So far it’s good and leaves me wanting to play it more. This is really what you want in a game and isn’t something usually seen on the NES platform. This is a nice breath of fresh air so to speak when it comes to the NES and its library.
Echoes of the Unread plays like a puzzle platformer with metropolitan aspects to it. You start out in the library and you have to get money in the vending machine to purchase a cough drop to soothe your throat. The way you get the money is by transporting yourself into a book. Once you find the money, you have to defeat a boss, then you make your way back out of the book and back to the vending machine to purchase the cough drop..
Once you purchase it, you unlock the ability to sing with music notes traveling out of your mouth. These can then be used to dispatch enemies, as well as solve environmental puzzles. These puzzles are then used to unlock various items as well as pathways to continue your journey through the library and eventually to freedom from the evil librarian.
The journey you take to get the money is presented as your standard platformer that has various enemies to avoid and platforming mechanics found in most games of this genre. Once you get the ability to sing, it really opens up the puzzle aspect of the game while still keeping the platforming mechanics as a base.
With that being said, there is a lot of backtracking as is found in most metropolitan games as this is a staple of the genre of game. It’s not something that is too much of an issue and is something I came to expect, even in this early demo.
Echoes of the Unread is an NES game so these aren’t the latest and greatest graphics. But for an NES game this game is very well presented. You have a lot of detail to the character you play as along with the NPCs you interact with. The animation in the game is very fluid and fast paced. I mean it feels like the game runs at 60FPS which is unheard of for an NES game. I mean I know it’s not, but the animation and scrolling of the game help to make the game feel very fast and smooth.
With all of the speed this game has, I expected there to be some flicker or at the very least some slowdown. To my surprise however, there isn’t any. There isn’t any flickering of sprites, and no slowdown of any kind. All of this is a clear indication that the game is expertly optimized for the NES.
The music found in Echoes of the Unread is what one would expect for an NES platformer. It’s upbeat, slightly repetitive and yet fits the game as it should. What I really like about the game music is that it will change depending on if you’re in the library or you’ve entered a certain area, and of course changes when you go into a story book stage.
Sound effects in the game are nothing to write home about. The sounds of enemies, when they are jumped on or dispatched using Rhapsody’s singing, all sound right for the game. Speaking of the singing coming from Rhapsody , it’s high pitched and kind of surprised me when I first heard it.
Luckily, the sound doesn’t last long as the note doesn’t travel very far. Given this is just a demo of the game, we will see if this gets changed eventually or if Rhapsody’s singing lasts longer. Coming back to the music in this game, it’s really well done and varies by quite a bit. With this being just a demo, I am really excited to see how far they take the musical score.
As of originally starting this review, the demo wasn’t available yet, though by the time this goes live, it will be.
If you like action platformers with puzzle elements and a bit of a metropolitan sprinkled on top, check out this demo and back the game on Kickstarter. As of writing, there are only a few hours left to back it.
I would highly recommend downloading the demo, playing it, and backing the game if you’re able.
Those interested can back the game on Kickstarter here.
In addition to writing articles, Ryan Byers also creates content for his YouTube channel called "Obscure Games and Consoles", collects video games, and dabbles in video game development.