Eagle Island Twist Review
Nearly two years ago, I reviewed the game Eagle Island. It was a roguelite action platformer game with an emphasis on combos and featured a unique weapon. In Eagle Island, the player’s companion owl was also their only method of attack, joining the Pokemon series in the category of “this feels like animal abuse but apparently isn’t.” In the end, I thought Eagle Island was fine but its different facets didn’t come together all that well. Last week, developer Pixelnicks released Eagle Island Twist, which billed itself as an entirely new game built from the bones of Eagle Island. I was intrigued by this idea, and wanted to give Eagle Island another shot because the game’s major Summer Solstice update came out too late to qualify the game for that year’s Russell Revisits article, so I was happy to take a look at Eagle Island Twist.
Where Eagle Island told a story of heroism and rescue, Eagle Island Twist’s story is a bit less inspiring. Apparently set on a parallel island, Eagle Island Twist starts with protagonist Fia and her trained kookaburra Kusako smashing an impressive museum artifact and unleashing a mischievous spirit. The spirit takes the form of Fia’s shadow twin and promises her a series of torments that she must endure to retrieve the shards of the broken artifact. After this, the newly minted Dark Fia flees into the island, hiding behind challenges and monsters for Fia to defeat.
Unlike its roguelite predecessor, Eagle Island Twist is a conventionally structured level-based platforming game. The controls are the same as Eagle Island, but are put to use in new ways. Many of the levels don’t make serious changes beyond a theme, such as all enemies use explosive attacks or the level is constructed with an emphasis on verticality and aerial combos. Other levels make some drastic change to the game’s core mechanics. These include a level where Fia is absent leaving players to control Kusako directly and a level where Fia throws Mario-style fireballs instead of her avian friend. Possibly my favorite is a sadistic level that sees the player reduced to only one health and features a plethora of tricks and traps designed to kill players at the exact moment they think they’re safe. Then there are the levels built only as references to other games including Superhot and Super Smash Bros.
The levels with small changes are reliable fun because each has enough of a twist to keep things fresh but doesn’t try to do too much. I enjoyed all of the levels with larger mechanical changes, but their increased variance might have some players stuck for several minutes with something they don’t enjoy. As for the referential levels, I thought it was interesting to see how Eagle Island’s mechanics were adapted to other ideas, but it never really worked and I couldn’t help but feel like I’d rather be playing either the real Eagle Island or the game it was referencing. Personally, I don’t have a problem with developers referencing other games they like, but I’d rather they stayed as small references instead of these in-depth ordeals. These sorts of levels make me feel like developers don’t have confidence in their own game.
Another new feature of Eagle Island Twist is the collectable items in most levels. In each level, players are trying to retrieve one of the fragments of the artifact they broke at the beginning of the game, which all look like a big blue gem. In addition to that, there are coins, seeds, and emeralds that can be gathered. Seeds serve the same purpose in Twist as they did in the original game, but this similarity makes them feel out of place. Because each level is custom made to use specific mechanics, using seeds to open loot chests for additional abilities disrupts the bespoke feeling of the levels. Moving further away from the original Eagle Island, coins are no longer used to purchase items and health, but now serve two purposes. The primary use for coins in Twist are a measurement of the player’s performance in the form of medals. Each level has a silver and a gold medal coin threshold, but I like this system more than most because it can be accomplished two different ways. If players manage to dispatch multiple enemies in quick succession, they’ll receive, among other things, bonus coins, so a mechanically talented player will be able to achieve a good medal score. But there are also troves of coins hidden in secret areas throughout the levels, meaning exploratory and inquisitive players also have a good chance to earn medals. I appreciated this because it allows different players ways to succeed their own way.
The final collectable is entirely new for Twist and it is the secret emeralds. In every non-boss monster level, an emerald is hidden somewhere, often in a sly, out-of-the-way portion of the map but sometimes behind a puzzle or difficult platforming section. Once retrieved, these emeralds can be exchanged at specific unlockable portions of the world map for powerful new magical feathers. These new feathers are like those in Eagle Island because they need magic points to work but have more interesting effects. Because they’re a challenge to earn, I won’t spoil anything the game’s promotional material doesn’t cover. One of the new feathers is remarkable because its primary purpose is not in combat. Instead, the Astora feather teleports Fia to wherever Kusako ends their flight, either colliding with something or reaching the end of their trajectory. This makes navigating levels and discovering hidden areas far more accessible. Another of the new feather is the radiant Lumara feather, which causes Kusako to fly noticeably farther and faster as well as ricochet off surfaces. It’s a blast to use but I couldn’t help but think it was just a souped up version of the lightning-oriented Zephara feather. I think the relative lack of creativity is only noticeable compared to Twist’s other magic feathers, and it’s a delight regardless.
After having spent time with both Eagle Island and Eagle Island Twist I still don’t know that I’m totally sold on the game’s core mechanics, they don’t totally click with me because I’m a lower energy, slower paced gamer. But both games are solid, have a good artistic design, and include plenty of accessibility options to make sure gamers of all stripes can enjoy their time. And since Eagle Island and Eagle Island Twist are sold as a package deal, that’s two solid and well-supported games for only $13. Perhaps these games aren’t for everyone, but I don’t think anyone will regret the purchase.
Buy this game at full price
It’s worth every penny they’re asking
