EarthNight

I've never played any runner game after my early teens when touch screen phones were all the new rage. So imagine my surprise when I fired up [i]EarthNight[/i] and saw it was a runner. Still, it's not a typical endless runner like those simple mobile games. There is an end goal - [b][i]slay the EarthNight dragon.[/i][/b] [h3][b][i]Taste the Dragon![/i][/b][/h3] The story is vague, but not in a good way. You have a short cutscene that acts as an introduction, raising more questions than answering. There are two endings tho, so that's nice. But, honestly, the story isn't even that noteworthy once you do [i]"unlock"[/i] it, nor will it be the reason you'll be playing this game. That be the gameplay. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3395475520 As with every runner, your character is always, well, running. And as I already said, it isn't endless. Each stage has you try and [b][i]get to the dragons head and stab it to death[/i][/b]. But it won't be easy. Between you and that goal stand a lot of enemies. At first, you don't really have many means of dealing with them; Just a bonk on the head with your foot. Sadly, there are only a select few enemies you can actually bonk and kill, the rest damage you if you touch them. But don't worry, you can get that health back by chaining bonks together. The only way to deal with enemies resistant to the normal bonk is...You guessed it - with a [b][i]Super-Ultra-Mega-Giga bonk![/i][/b] It requires you to climb very high up and then drop down to the ground, turning all enemies in your immediate vicinity into weird jellybeans. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2713197776 Besides the bonk, each character has some unique gameplay playstyle to consider; Stanley, due to his lush beard, has a higher jumping vertical than Sydney, but she can double jump and lunge forward or downward. Thus, I found Sydney better at the running part, but the dragon killing is where Stan is the man. His attack is easier to properly execute since some dragons require you to watch the animation and click at the right moment to maximize damage. I say [i]some[/i] because each dragon has a specific manner in which you must attack the head to kill it. Otherwise, you'll simply fail. And what good is a dragon-slaying champion who doesn't slay dragons, I ask you? So if you don't want to be sent to the gulag, pay attention to the visual cues each dragon "boss fight" offers. As for the levels, the game is separated into 5 levels, or rather, [b][i]5 layers of Earths atmosphere[/i][/b]. Each is host to different dragons, with unique enemies and level designs. You can skip some layers with fancy skydiving manoeuvres, but two are mandatory - the 3rd and 5th layer. Regardless, I strongly advise against skipping, well, [b][i]the game[/i][/b]. You'll miss out on many dragon ingredients you need for powerups and upgrades. The levels also hold plenty of secrets, mainly Dragon Eggs you'll need to upgrade or unlock powerups. Since levels are procedurally generated, the location of these secrets may elude you, but it's always gonna be high up in the sky. So trying to climb up by bonking enemies heads and jumping off of them will take some time to master. It's also considerably easier when you do unlock some powerups, like the double jump for example. With that, we segway into the last part - [b][i]powerups[/i][/b]. At first, you have none, so the game can feel a tad dull and bland. But once you start accumulating more scrap that turns into [b][i]water[/i][/b], the game's currency, and unlock a few of these bad boys, the game feels and plays totally differently, getting a second wind. The gameplay is more fluid, traversing the levels is extremely fun, and the feeling of dullness or tediousness is nowhere to be seen. And mixing different powerups of the same cloth creates [b][i]combo powerups[/i][/b], that come with their own unique fun abilities of course. And lastly, [b][i]the presentation was great[/i][/b]. The art style might not be to everyone's liking, but the abundance of colourful and quirky enemy units, all with their own weird animations, made traversing the somewhat boring procedurally generated levels a joy. And this excellent enemy design extends to the dragons as well. When you see a [i]Clown[/i] or a [i]Frog[/i] Dragon, you'll forget that some are just mere colour reskins. During this whole dragon-slaying ordeal, weird upbeat chiptune music plays. I wasn't a fan of it at first, but it grew on me, especially when combined with the games overly wacky cartoonish visual style, and it just works. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2714075323 But, I won't lie to you. While in the end, I enjoyed [i]EarthNight[/i], my initial impression was quite the opposite. After about 20 minutes, I vamoosed out of the game, wondering if I should continue. No powerups and limited movement were a killjoy. The game was just not fun. But I stuck with it, past its shaky and slow start, and in the end, got a delightful runner for my troubles. Just know, it needs a second or two to transition to a full sprint. But when it does, and everything clicks, [i]that's when the fun begins.[/i] [quote]If you enjoy this review, come and read more wisdom from the [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40407656-Gospel-of-Sv.-Prolivije/]Gospel of Sv. Prolivije[/url].

Hwoooo! I bought this purely on the presentation and bonkers idea of [strike]sky[/strike]space-diving to earth through stratospheric layers of dragons. I can't quite place it but there's an almost 80s/90s era SEGA spirit or energy about EarthNight. I'm reminded of things like NiGHTS, Space Harrier, ToeJam & Earl and Earthworm Jim. At times certain Amiga games like James Pond 2: Robocod or Magic Pockets with their weird collectibles. It's all a bit unreal and dreamy but also lively and chaotic. EarthNight is great when you're flowing, bouncing off enemies, sliding off slopes and collecting all the special items, but when the procedurally generated levels throw a monster zoo at you and there are few ways to ascend, it can get frustrating. It's a very [i]busy[/i] game, visually, so you'd expect the readability to be top notch. Unfortunately there are times when items, scenery and foreground parallax will obscure enemies. Certain pick-ups and enemy types are easy to miss in the sensory hail and the sequences where you have to stab the dragons to death (it's surprisingly graphic with Stanley, the sword wielding dude) can be really difficult because the visual and aural cues are hard to make sense of. They feel a lot fuzzier than they ought to be. All that said, I did enjoy my time with EarthNight because it feels unique, and I've played a fair few runner games. There's a lot more depth to this than first meets the eye with some exciting secrets to look and listen out for and various items that have satisfying effects like the 'embiggening cookie' (self-explanatory) or 'mind control' which allows you to ride cosmic space cows. I said it was weird. I stuck around for one of the endings but don't have much desire to do any more diving for dragons. Personally, I think it's worth it just for the beautiful and illustrative visual rush accompanied by some excellent dynamic chiptune music.

Time Surfer es uno de los mejores "endless runner" que he probado nunca. El juego usa la mecánica básica del género, añadiendo el extra de inercia que introdujo el también brillante Tiny Wings, y rematando la faena con un sistema de rebobinado del tiempo simplemente brillante. Este EarthNight, sin llegar a los niveles de absoluta genialidad de mi querido Time Surfer, consigue colocarse cómodamente en el olimpo de un género que hace ya más de una década que aparentemente cayó en el olvido. Y lo hace usando fuerza bruta: con un apartado visual absolutamente apabullante y una originalidad que por momentos resulta desconcertante. Al fin y al cabo, el juego va de matar dragones voladores que han destruido la tierra, tirándonos desde nuestra nave espacial que orbita en la estratosfera, usando una suerte de espíritu mágico que habita dentro de nuestra protagonista. O algo así. La verdad es que tampoco he terminado de entender la historia. Yo lo único que sé es que el juego es despampanante y que correr por el lomo de dragones colosales es una experiencia sorprendentemente divertida.

Hard, annoying, difficult, random. I tried my best but i simply can't recommend it. 2/10

The dragon apocalypse could have been optional ... but so far I don't feel I'm stabbing Falkor the luck dragon (🎦) ✌. However, I think I'm going to strongly disagree with the fact that this is a PEGI 7-rated game!

This game outclasses every other autorunner I've played. If you like the visuals, try the game. If you came here cuz you were browsing the "surreal" tag, like me, you likely won't be disappointed. Just because it's an autorunner doesn't mean it's simple. You have dozens of moves you can execute per character, tons of upgrades and power ups, and everything is oozing with personality. If you purely read the negative reviews for this one, know that some of them are just incorrect.

Extremely charming blend of an endless runner and a roguelite. The art style is way more charming than the screenshots initially lead me to believe, and it's well worth trying out. It's sort of like if you threw Shadow of the Colossus, any endless runner, and "Toe Jam and Earl" into a blender.

Its shocking how few reviews this game has, looks absolutely fantastic and plays pretty well. give this game a try

it's disapointing for the hoir something like that- gdchvmd

[table] [tr] [th][h1] My Playthrough [/h1][/th] [th]https://youtu.be/dmr_Pyxg8m4[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td][h1]The Review[/h1][/td] [td]A really fun platformer. The art is beautiful and the music is 10/10.[/td] [/tr] [/table]