Eversion

Developer: Zaratustra Productions | Publisher: Zaratustra Productions |Release Date: 2010 | Genre: Platform | Website: Official Website | Format: Digital Download

The flower kingdom’s Princess has been kidnapped by the Ghulibas and only the intrepid hero Zee Tee can rescue her. The simple plot, along with the very retro 8bit look and sound is some of the reasons I never really took notice of Eversion. That is until it came to my attention that there is more to Eversion than just platform hopping and gem collecting.

After starting up the game and receiving a ominous quote from master horror writer, H.P Lovecraft, things sounded a lot more promising and the warning that this game is not for “children or people with nervous dispositions” sent my expectations into overdrive. This was completely dashed once I actually started playing and was surrounded by sugary sweet cheerfulness and colour.

The pure platforming action was entertaining, the gem collecting was cool but the “hero” was a fluffy little flower/asterisk thingie and the enemies were about as menacing as wet sponges. The gameplay was sound however and the retro styled music extremely good, so I kept playing and this is when I discovered what all the “eversion” fuss was all about…

Gameplay

Eversion spots are basically invisible trigger areas (marked by a slight change in music and graphics when you stumble across them) that allow you to use your eversion button to switch things up a bit. Clouds might become solid so you can now use them as platforms, previously solid blocks might become breakable and moving enemies might become stationary objects. This leads to all kinds of cool puzzles and the level layouts are all really nice, making good use of the eversion function to challenge your platforming skills. Each eversion alters the graphics and audio however and there are quite a few “levels” of eversion but that’s all I’m prepared to say. The old adage “you can’t judge a book by its cover” is certainly true for this title.

Is it Worth Paying For?

Eversion is a free game so what reason is there to fork out cash for it on Steam? Well supporting Indie developers for their great work is always nice but if you are not the charitable type there are loads of nice extras to entice you. Firstly the Steam version is in “High-Def” (still looks like 640×480 to me but very nice none the less) and has some nice Steam Achievements. The game is quite short so the achievements add some longevity for completionists. You can also unlock a time attack mode with Steam leaderboard support but judging by my rankings it’s not going to be easy to get anywhere near the top spots.

Eversion definitely fits the bill for a cult classic and a lot of people will turn their noses up based purely on its looks.  Unlimited lives and a checkpoint system might make it sound like a walk in the park too but I was grateful for the gamepad support as there are some very tricky jumps. If you just play in order to reach the flag at the end of each level you’ll be done with this game in under an hour but take the time to explore and learn its secrets and you’ll be in for a much more fulfilling gaming experience. Playing it alone at night also comes highly recommended, trust me on this one. Whatever you do don’t just dismiss this as a Mario Bros clone as it will be your loss.