Earth Atlantis was one of the many indie titles I purchased on sale in the Nintendo E-shop, mostly due to its astounding aesthetic, fair price, and monster-hunting game play. It was developed by Pixel Perfex and published by Headup in January 2019. With two possible modes to play, Quest and Hunter mode, it is described as a side-scrolling shooter with up to 25 massive mechanic sea creature bosses and four pirate ships to contend with.
The story itself is minimal. In fact, it appears in a single screen and tells us:
‘The Great Climate Shift’ struck at the end of the 21st century. Ninety six percent of the earth surface in under water.
Human civilization has fallen. Machines have adopted the shape and form of marine animals. The ocean is full of creature-hybrid monsters.
You are a ‘hunter’ and the new journey beings…
–Earth Atlantis
Every time you load the game, you’re provided with the directive. There’s a distress call from the Weat Sea (I’m not sure if Weat was meant to be West). We’re given locations of targets to take down, and oh, watch out for pirates.
After I scratched my head, I pushed forward, expecting stronger game play. It’s relatively simple, and the controls are smooth. You command an armed submarine as you weave through an underwater world, shooting at enemies–upgrading as you go. The upgrade system is very simple. When you destroy an enemy, they may drop power-ups that increase your ammo count, e.g. shooting one to two “bullets” and so on. They also can drop health if you’re lucky. Also available are boxes and barrels that contain additional weapon upgrades such as electricity or heat-seeking missiles.
Once you arrive at a target on your map, you’re confronted with a “boss” such as a large fish, a hoard of electric jellyfish, or an massive crab that hurls rocks with impressive speed. These fights come with varying difficulty, but I’ll say that most were teeth-grindingly hard. What makes it a challenge to enjoy at times is that if you die, you start at the last save location and must upgrade all over again. It can become tedious to have to travel around the same area and shoot some nonsense enemies to get your level of power-ups back. I would’ve quit a lot sooner if it weren’t for the gorgeous artwork.
Everything has that hand-drawn look, almost steam-punk. If you pay close attention, you notice the remnants of human civilization in the background like the Statue of Liberty. It’s quite the immersive world, and the designs of the monsters are quite clever.
It’s understandable that Earth Atlantis has its limits regarding map size and mechanics, and I believe the developers utilized what they had to the best of their ability. If you cleared two targets on your map, three new ones would appear. A wall may crumble and open a newer (albeit small) section. Sometimes the location of the upgrade barrels change as well.
Earth Atlantis makes for a decent casual game, something to hop in and out when commuting or waiting for your next doctor’s appointment. It’s currently available in just about every platform. If this piques your interest, I inserted the trailer below.
Has anyone played Earth Atlantis? I really want to know what you think of this game! Are the bosses as hard as I think they are? Let me know on our Discord!
Source: Pixel Perfex
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