The story of Jane Austen’s 8-Bit Adventure is that as Jane Austen, you’ve been sucked into this 8-Bit world where characters from your book have come to life and are causing mischief. They have taken the novels they are a part of, taken the pages they don’t like and have scattered them around the 8-Bit world. Now it’s up to you as Jane Austen to collect these pages and put the books back on the shelves of the 8-Bit library.
Jane Austen’s 8-Bit adventure blends elements found in the games like Super Mario Bros and Castlevania in a unique and fun way. The game is a classic platforming game with really solid jumping mechanics that make the platforming fun instead of frustrating. The element of gained abilities as seen in games like Castlevania set this game a part from other platformers found on the NES.
You initially have the ability to jump and use your quill as a weapon. You can use your quill to break objects and take out enemies, but also throw it as a projectile, though the number of throws is limited by the number of teacups you’re able to collect.
The additional abilities you can unlock and really how they are unlocked is a departure from other games that feature unlockable abilities. How Jane’s additional abilities are unlocked is by completing a stage. Yes, you read that right, simply complete a stage and you’ve unlocked a new ability. As for the abilities themselves, they are run, air dash, ground strike, fireball, writer’s block, and locksmith.
With the ability to run, airdash, and locksmith, these are passive abilities that are needed to progress through the game. The rest of the above mentioned abilities require the use of teacups you collect in order to be used. Fireball shoots a fireball at enemies in a straight line and uses one teacup per use. Ground strike is as it sounds, a downward attack that kills the enemy directly below Jane, and uses one teacup. Writer’s block is an ability that I like to call a screen-clearing ability, as when used, it kills all enemies on screen. This uses the most teacups per use which is ten, as it’s the most powerful ability that Jane has at her disposal upon unlocking it.
Each stage will have you exploring 8-Bit England and feature creatures and enemies you either can avoid or take out using your various abilities. Some of these stages are themed after Jane’s books like the second stage which is Pride and Prejudice. Exploring each stage and collecting enough pages will earn you the ability to take on the end stage boss and defeating said boss, you will be brought back to the 8-Bit library and a new ability will unlock.
Watching the game passively be played or playing the game yourself, it’s hard to believe that this game is the first NES game from BitWise Reprise. It looks and performs so well, the game seems like it was a game you could have pulled off the shelves back in the late 1980s, with Jane’s walking animation and facial expressions being NES perfection. Each stage is filled with bright and beautiful colors and a surprising amount of detail and as you move about each stage, the scrolling effect is fast, fluid, and responsive. With the large stages, enemies, book pages, and platforms all moving about the screen, the game has a lot going on and isn’t something you would typically see in an NES platformer.
So how does all of this graphical beauty translate to performance? Well like I said, it seems like a game you would have pulled down off a store shelf back in the 1980’s. It’s like BitWise Reprise has been making NES games for a few years and have pushed the NES to it’s absolute limits. There is no slowdown of Jane, enemies, platforms, any of that. You remember the sprite flicker that most NES games had back in the day? Yeah, well that doesn’t exist here in this game either.
The music found in Jane Austen’s 8-Bit adventure sounds really good for an NES game. There are both public domain tracks in the game along with original compositions from the games developer Matthew Justice. Each track fits the game like a glove, never feeling repetitive or annoying, instead being catchy and fun to listen to.
Having a bit of insight into how the NES handles music, it makes the music and sound in general for this game that much more impressive. In the interview with Matthew Justice you will find below, he goes over that and more.
Jane Austen’s 8-Bit Adventure is an NES game that’s in a class of it’s own. There isn’t another game quite like this. Blending two genres seamlessly while at the same time having zero performance issues, is nothing short of a phenomenal achievement. You would need to either watch the game being played or play the game yourself to really grasp just how amazing this game is.
Jane Austen’s 8-Bit Adventure is the first game from BitWise Reprise on the NES and certainly doesn’t seem like it. It’s like they’ve been making NES games for years and I can’t wait to see what the next game from them will be.
I want to thank Matthew Justice of BitWise Reprise for sending the physical copy of Jane Austen’s 8-Bit Adventure and for taking the time for the interview.
I encourage you to check out this amazing game on your platform of choice using the link below.
