Metroid Database.com

ReVen, a new Metroidvania by Varia Games, has entered its final week on Kickstarter. The game's actually been a little contentious here on staff, but as the biggest Metroid fan site out there, I feel it's our job to let you guys know if there's something interesting out there related to the series. We've known about the game for some time (before they were on Kickstarter), and it's interesting to see how the concept has evolved.

The game is a full-blown Super Metroid clone with a robotic hero on a mission to save the universe from some bioweapon that's killed off an entire space colony and turned them into zombies. The game combines the exploration and upgrade systems of Super Metroid with the weapons system similar to Crysis. The environmental designs and a lot of the enemies look really cool, and there's definitely a strong art focus here. There are a lot of neat visual effects as well, particularly with lighting. ReVen also has a ton of narrative sequences using 'wordless storytelling' and environmental storytelling, something that hasn't evolved too much outside of Super Metroid and I'd like to see more of (rather than more video cutscenes).

One thing ReVen's gotten a bit of flack for is how closely a lot of the elements resemble Super Metroid. (Of course, Shadow Complex was also criticized for being too close to Super...despite a lot of fans chomping at the bit for a "Super Metroid 2".) The biggest similarities are the poses and animations of Syrex are pretty close to those of Samus, and a lot of the power-ups (such as speed booster) are taken directly from the game. Thankfully they stopped before adding a morph ball. Regardless of whether it's too derivative for your tastes, the game has been funded and should be out sometime in 2015, and should be fun to play when it does.

My biggest complaint so far is the animations. It's an alpha build, but it's something I'm certainly concerned about. The developers state they want to put a lot of focus on Syrex since he's what everybody will be seeing for the entire game, but the animations in the current video are really choppy (the Crono Bats could also use a serious facelift). They're assuring backers that the animations will be better since they've met their funding goal of upgrading the game to 1920x1080 resolution. Hopefully they will have enough resources to make a game that not only is very fun to play and has a unique world to explore but also has smooth animations and visuals.

Until next time...
Captain Commando