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zaratustraPlatformers are cute, right? Nothing more than super-saturated, saccharine romps through whimsical worlds populated by bug-eyed and harmless enemies... right? Eversion defies the rule by providing a typically cheery world and slowly letting it decay.
Through the titular ability to create "eversions," you cause temporal shifts, which are mostly sinister. Some are harmless and mere puzzle tools: one eversion turns clouds solid, while another wilts a tree so you can pass safely. Soon though, you come across one that turns enemies seemingly ripped from a Master System into hellish monsters that gush fountains of blood when killed. Demonic hands jut from watery depths and out of thin air, and the very fabric of the temporal plane occasionally breaks down and engulfs the world. When you die in these strange areas, the opening text changes from "Ready!" to disheartening phrases such as "Mother," "Give Up," and "Game Over." One time after I got devoured by that Lovecraftian unknown, "Ready!" popped up but quickly (almost subliminally) morphed into "Ready to Die," flashing on the screen. I haven't seen it since, but every time I see "Ready!", at the back of my mind, I fear that those three words will pop up again.
Once you complete the seven stages, you are shown another inversion on standard platformer protocol. Sure, you reach the princess... but like everything else in this God-forsaken piece of code, she isn't as she first appears. Perhaps you have to collect all of the gems thrown about the level to reach the true ending?
Eversion topples platformer convention and provides some neat puzzles through its temporal shifts. It's got quite the atmosphere given its 8-bit graphics, and might even make you freak out here and there. Check it out.
Just in case you weren't
Just in case you weren't being rhetorical at the end: yes, there is a true ending after you get all of the gems and pass an additional level. I found it pretty satisfying.
I'm guessing that Monster Party was an explicit influence on this game. Monster Party would have been much better if it had kept switching registers the way this game does.
Spoilerific
I'll check out the game, but I feel you've spoiled a lot in the introduction. It's a kind of a bummer now.
Really? I was under the
Really? I was under the assumption that I had most people by "super lovecraft bros". Whatever. RE Greg and Patrick: I shall get that platformer critique in as soon as I get my laptop working. I feel pretty isolated without it, as it is pretty cubersome without it (especially since they have a strict 'no games' policy. Don't they understand I am downloading this freeware for strictly educational purposes? At least the main designer from WoW is coming to my campus next week.)
Connecting the dots
Humour me while I embellish a poorly-thought out theory. It's probably in your best interest not to proceed if you haven't played through both "Eversion" and "Star Control II"
Theory : The events taking place in Eversion are set in the same multiverse as those of "Star Control"
Evidence :
=The protagonist of Eversion resembles nothing so much as a sentient flower. The Star Control series is one of the few works of science fiction to feature sentient plant life. (Or at least plant life that is sentient in a way we would immediately recongnize)
=The "Eversion" button, when pressed at the right *time* and *place* allows travel to a similar, but very different, *place*
=After venturing through the "Eversion"s a number of times the protagonist loses control of the process, at times being forced into the darker *places* against his will. This could be very similar to the way the Androsynth were overwhelmed by the Orz after they poked into their dimension.