We’ve had our eye on Earth Atlantis for some time now, posting announcements and updates about the game specifically, thanks to its unique visuals and intriguing premise. Thankfully, Nintendo chose to bring it to the Nindies area at PAX West for players to get their hands on.
The title a part exploration, part monster-hunting, with players venturing deeper and deeper into the ocean—the idea is that the entirety of Earth’s civilizations have sunk or been flooded by the ocean, with humanity long gone (or something along those lines). This means that under the sea, there are many ruins to explore and monsters to defeat along the way.
The art style was based on 16th-century maps, the ones with giant sea monsters where explorers had yet to venture, and as a side-scrolling game, the visuals unfold like ink being penned onto parchment.
The monsters aren’t typical, of course—since they’re based on fallen human civilization, the monsters are mechanical as much as they are mythical in form—which means that players will need to upgrade their ships and weapons as they journey to even deeper depths.
In the demo for PAX, small enemies were followed by a massive mechanical squid that dealt heavy damage—it required some pretty skilled maneuvers, evasive action and well-timed attacks to defeat. If this is any indication of the level of challenge in Earth Atlantis, it will likely be just as difficult and precise as the ink strokes of the art work—which is perfect for folks who love their side-scrollers with a heaping dose of hurt.
That’s not a bad thing—it actually lends itself well to the art style and the theming. As a whole, the demo showcased a rather solid action-exploration title, so it will be interesting to see how the story and gameplay develops over the course of the game when it releases sometime this Fall 2017.
