Since the genesis of web-based gaming, many artists have tried to create expressive art that can only be found in the independent scene.

Edward, by Buzzwerd and TrueDarkness, is a game that takes classic platforming, and tries to present it in a very artistic and profound way. But does it truly feel like a work of art, or did it fall shorter than a midget on a banana peel?

The look of this game is really quite appealing. All the characters and levels are very stylized, using a classic vector look and minimalistic coloring. While this style is usually used to cut corners in art production, it mostly works well for this game.

Throw in an excellent selection of musical scores that further breath an air of atmosphere into the game and you almost have a breath of fresh air with this game (this is also a pun because Edward uses hot air to attack his enemies… GET IT!?!?).

With all of this visual and audio stimulation going the right way, it’s very unfortunate that this midget game had to step on the banana peel.

The storyline in this game starts out somewhat deep, hitting on themes of dark vs light, blind vs enlightenment… etc. It’s all rather emo. What really makes this attempt at profoundness even more off the mark is the in-game text that comes from Edward himself. When you kill enemies he says random things that seem like they were scripted by a 14 year old AOL chatter. It adds a huge degree of immaturity into a game that tries so hard to act grown up, but really it just wants daddy’s approval… WHY DON’T YOU LOVE ME DADDY… WHY??????????????????

Okay… so as bad as the themes and dialog are… they aren’t what keeps this game from truly shining. As always, it all comes down to the gameplay and how fun the game actually is.

In this game, you move around… you jump… and you shoot air waves. That’s it. The enemies are not really challenging, especially since you can fire as fast as you can mash a space bar, and there’s really nothing interesting in the way of powerups.

The movement seems to try and make you feel like you are rolling and that you need to pick up steam to get around, which is a nice concept, but ultimately makes this game unresponsive, especially in areas where you need to act quickly to take on swarms of enemy robot thingies.

The levels are pretty well designed, and that is about the only thing that adds a challenge to the game. But after a while, all the levels start feeling the same…. you go up… you hit a switch… you go back down and progress…. rinse, repeat…

I did really love the concept of dying in this game. Rather than having extra lives, you actually fight the reaper to reclaim your progress in the living world. This would have been really cool if it wasn’t hampered by a super long death animation, and a really easy, but painfully drawn out battle with death.

If you die in this game… just stand in front of the reaper’s chest and jump/shoot.. he’ll never hit you, and eventually he’ll do the one attack that drops his defenses. Of course… he rarely does that attack, so it’s gonna take a while.

So all in all… this is not the little game that could…. but at least it tried. In the end… it’s just a mediocre platforming adventure, but it could be worse…. it could be a mediocre defense game right?

[ Play Edward ]