Alright, how about something a little more off the wall with something I picked up a little while back after it was featured on an episode of Austin Eruption?
Ebenezer and the Invisible World is a Christmas Carol-themed Metroidvania, taking place after the events of the novel where Scrooge is reformed and fighting the unrepentant spirits of the damned with a cane and a pocket full of plum puddings and roasted turkey.
Yes, really. And it plays it entirely straight. A young industrial capitalist received the Scrooge treatment, but it didn't take due to the interference of a mysterious 3rd party, so it's up to Scrooge to scour Victorian London for clues to how to save the young man's soul, whacking ghosts that look like they stepped right out of an episode of The Real Ghostbusters. Fitting, really, considering the Ghostbusters once busted the 3 Spirits of Christmas.
For the most part, this is an extremely straightforward Metroid game, with the exception that Scrooge doesn't really gain abilities himself. Instead, you run across the ghosts of various spirits who possess things like the Double Jump or Glide because of their talents in life. If you do a side quest for them that ranges between being insultingly simple and "oh come on, where the hell do I need to go", that ghost will join you and lend its aid on command. Heirlooms take the place of Relics (though the trophies still call them "Relics"), and the Children of Man (you know, those kids representing mankind's failures hiding under Christmas Present's robes) take the place of Familiars (though, again, the trophies still call them "Familiars").
On that note, one of the game's more glaring issues is that it feels like it needed way more time in the oven, because there's a distinct lack of polish. Apparently, the game was extremely buggy at launch, but my issue is more with how the game is extremely bad at times about conveying important information to the player. For instance, I went nearly the entire game before discovering that the ghost who attacks with an iron ball is supposed to be your wall-breaker ability, and the ghost who slams the ground is supposed to be your floor-breaker equivalent. I know. It sounds obvious in retrospect, but the game never mentions that these attacker ghosts have an alternative use, and your cane can break items out of certain walls and floors on its own. I kept waiting for dedicated upgrades I already had. Similarly, there are enemies throughout the game that possess a red aura and cannot be damaged with your cane. I did figure out on my own that you're supposed to attack those with your red-colored spirit weapons, but again a final layer of polish to make these things more clear would go a long way.
Like most games in this genre, the game is exceptionally easy, particularly since there's a combination of attacker ghost and relic you can get extremely early in the game that gives a huge attack bonus that scales with the amount of gold you're currently carrying. This combination absolutely trivializes the tiny handful of bosses in the game, another thing that could have used an additional development pass. Besides being small in number and extremely easy to kill, the bosses are also just extremely forgettable.
Overall, a decent game, but aside from the novel premise if you've played one of these before you've basically played this one.
Topic: Backlaugust 2026 - (Splatoon) Raiding the Backlog (Read 12035 times)
