Echo Isle by developer and publisher Josh Koenig Games—PC (Steam) review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Hello everyone and welcome to Echo Isle! A land with a mysterious lighthouse, monsters prowling the woods, and a wonderful throwback to some classic games I enjoyed in my childhood. Are you prepared to reignite the lighthouse and restore the island in this 2D adventure game? I sure hope you are!
The story of Echo Isle centers around a lighthouse that has been guarding the peace of the island. Unfortunately the lighthouse has gone out and monsters have returned to terrorize the neighbourhood. Luckily for the inhabitants, the Astral Knight Aster has been summoned to the island to resolve the crisis! Can Aster find the Echo Stones needed to bring light back to the island? Only you can help answer that question!
Echo Isle is a short but sweet adventure title that made me immediately think of the Legend of Zelda game Link’s Awakening. No, not the 3D remake, I mean the original Gameboy/Gameboy Colour version. The 2D top down style. Echo Isle takes the hero Aster around the island locating dungeons with Echo Stones in them, solving the puzzles inside, beating the boss monsters, and then claiming the stones. You start off with nothing but your name, but are quickly pointed towards a cave where you can grab a sword. From here you embark, earning new tools to help you explore and fight in each new dungeon. Collect lucky clovers to boost your health, and uncover secret stones to get a hidden reward!
If you’ve ever played a top-down Zelda title, even if it is the Link’s Awakening remake, you have a good idea of the style the game is going for. Once you pick up your sword, you have an action of either using the sword or whatever tool you have equipped. You can swap between tools pretty easily, and you aren’t constricted by ammo which is fairly handy. As you explore the island you will find the game is separated into “screens”. On the island, each “screen” is a block on the map, meanwhile inside a dungeon each “screen” is like it’s own self contained area. The fact I need to describe this for younger audiences makes me feel old though, I have to say. Nowadays you can load a full dungeon instance, but back in the day it was done one screen at a time.
Echo Isle at it’s core feels like a love letter to older games, particularly the Zelda franchise, and I love what it’s offering. While not very long, clocking in at around an hour or a little more, Echo Isle left me wanting to see more. While it wrapped up well enough in it’s own way, I would love to see another title from this developer with a longer game. There’s definitely the potential here, and the way Echo Isle was done leaves me hopeful for potential future releases.
In terms of the aesthetic direction, Echo Isle draws heavy inspiration from retro titles, utilizing a bit-like style that would feel at home on a Gameboy Colour, and a musical suite that matches the aesthetic. More than once I sat back in nostalgia remembering my childhood days struggling through dungeons looking for Owl Beaks, or that one key I was missing in the Tower dungeon because screw that place.
There was only one real glitch that I found, and that was when I accidentally blew myself up with a bomb when I was collecting an Echo Stone. I could move around during the scene that played, but as soon as it was over everything went back to normal, so it’s not a big deal. In terms of dungeon design itself, I’m happy to say that the dungeons are a reasonable length and size, and make good design choices to lead you into getting the new tool within and teaching you to make use of it. While I wouldn’t call the game particularly difficult by any means, that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun. I only died once during the last boss fight, but if you haven’t been searching for the optional hidden things, it may be a lot more difficult for you.
Overall I have to say that Echo Isle is an absolutely wonderful title full of retro nostalgia done right. I highly recommend picking up Echo Isle. It might be a little short but it’s also cheap, so no worry about breaking the wallet. With a fluid control system, some neat dungeon design, and an absolutely wonderful aesthetic, Echo Isle is certain to give you that nostalgic kick you’re looking for.
Score: 9 / 10
