EarthNight Review
Dragon race.
The auto-runner is a genre that seems to have fallen out of favour in recent years. After mobile hits like Temple Run and Rayman Jungle Run and indie gems like Canabalt and Bit. Trip Runner first exploded onto the scene, this addictively simple style has been less prominent in game design. EarthNight revives the auto-runner in a technicolour blaze of glory, and while it’s not perfect, it certainly can’t be called generic or uncreative like some past efforts in the genre.
There’s a stereotype of game design, particularly for triple-As, being heavily focus-tested and cynically straight-jacketed into playing it safe. How true that is I can’t personally attest, but what I can say with near-certainty is that EarthNight didn’t suffer such constraints. It’s weird and like nothing I’ve played before, and I love it for it.
The story goes that Earth has been invaded by dragons, and the survivors have fled on spaceships. Two unlikely but brilliant heroes take the stage: Stanley, an old, bearded hipster with a sword; and Sydney, a fiery Jamaican school girl with dragon spirit powers. These defiantly atypical fantasy heroes are EarthNight’s first stroke of genius.
Pick your protagonist and the run begins with you facing your first space dragon. Starting at the tail end, you run across their undulating body, jumping on enemies, finding powerups to use and gathering valuable collectibles. Make it to the end, and you have a limited time to stab the space dragon in the head with your sword or spirit power. You’ll then free-fall through the outer layers of the Earth’s atmosphere, looking for new dragons to fight and eventually making your way down to Earth itself – if you survive long enough.
The very nature of EarthNight being an auto-runner means it maintains a relentless pace. Hordes of enemies are thrown your way, along with dopamine-surging heaps of loot and multiple pathways through every level. And yet, with all of this going on around you, your jumps are pretty much all you can control. And this is where the main distinction between the two characters lies.
Stanley is simple: powerups excluded, he can jump once and control the speed of his descent. Sydney, on the other hand, can double-jump and has two forms of diving – straight forward and down at an angle – as well as being able to stomp directly downwards. Jump on an enemy and her double-jump even resets. She’s a powerhouse.
Stanley is simpler to control, and benefits from his sword being able to attack directly in front of you when you collect the right powerups. But in every other way, Sydney has the edge. Verticality is crucial in EarthNight, with higher platforms often containing rarer treasures, and the collecting of said treasures requiring precision. It goes without saying that having double-jumps and dives at your disposal is a godsend.
There’s also a really neat bonus mechanic in which chain-jumping on enemies in a combo of five or more will heal you. It adds a whole other dimension to the platforming and can be a real lifesaver. Unsurprisingly, Sydney’s acrobatics are super useful for this too. This is purely subjective, but I’d also argue that while Stanley is charming, Sydney is the star of the show from a design perspective.
Speaking of visual design, hoo boy, EarthNight knows how to impress in this area. Psychedelic vibrancy shines from every square inch of the screen. The sheer imagination that has gone into crafting the dragons and the nightmarish creatures riding them is breathtaking. If that wasn’t enough, every frame of animation has been painstakingly painted by hand.
EarthNight’s soundtrack is also outstanding, offering a mixture of chiptune beats and full orchestral tracks. The love of retro games is palpable – some of the music was apparently even composed using an original GameBoy. It’s brimming with energy and atmosphere, creating the perfect vibe for space dragon-slaying.
As for the actual structure of the game, EarthNight has a couple of tricks at its disposal to pad out the vaguely rogue-lite mechanics. Your currency in this bizarre dystopia is water, earned from picking up treasure, while a variety of magical teeth, eggs and scales are obtainable from each dragon. These can be spent on unlocking and upgrading powerups for subsequent runs.
There are weapons that let you fend off enemies; boots which give you an extra jump; cookies which act like Mega Mushrooms from Super Mario; force fields that protect you from taking damage; and a lot more. These powerups add another layer on top of this deceptively complex auto-runner. The main downside is that it can be tricky remembering what they all do, as their utility isn’t made apparent during a run.
Powerups, of course, also play a vital role in staying alive. Levels get more dangerous as you progress, with increased numbers of hazards and enemies. One of my main complaints is that some of these feel a little unfair and hard to dodge in later levels, like giant foes that follow and fly straight at you, stout creatures belching huge laser beams, and platforms that are supposed to disappear and reappear you to jump on but with timing that is just a bit… off.
Powerups do help mitigate these challenges somewhat, as does learning the eccentricities of levels. But my main frustration with EarthNight remained the tendency for you to take damage that’s out of your control at times, falling into dangers you can’t see and encountering swarms of enemies head-on which are difficult to jump your way through safely.
EarthNight is a resolutely non-conformist auto-runner. Its artistry is second-to-none, with creativity and soul that are worth the price of admission alone. Sometimes its eagerness to cram as much as possible into a typically simple genre can frustrate and overwhelm, but its boldness should be celebrated.
[Reviewed on Switch]