Eternum EX on Nintendo Switch from Radin and Zerouno Games is a game that pays homage to the old-school arcade classics from back in the day. Learn more about it in our Eternum Ex review!
Eternum Ex is a 2D action platformer in which you take control of Sir Arthur who, as it will surely happen to all of us, has gotten old. Like, really old. Because of this, and with nothing left to lose, he sets out on a journey to Samarnath, a dangerous subterranean kingdom from which no one has ever returned. His goal is to find as much treasure as possible and, in particular, to locate five magical orbs that are able to grant what he most desires: eternal youth.
The game’s controls are simple and to the point, keeping with the minimalist theme of arcade games of ages past. You’ll get to move your character with either the left analog stick or the D-Pad, can jump with the B or X button and attack with the Y or A button. This is for control scheme A, and you can change things around a bit and customize your experience by selecting the control scheme that works best for you from the four available options.
Eternum EX has two game modes to offer: Home Console and Arcade. For Home Console, the game will save your progress at the start of each of the five worlds it has to offer, and you have three continues available for each run you do. Once your continues are gone, you’ll need to start a new run, but you’ll be able to select on which of world you’d like to start your run – as long as you’ve reached the first stage in a world it will be available as an option. For Arcade Mode the game won’t save your progress, but you have unlimited continues, so you’ll certainly be able to play the game in one go to complete it in one session. Thanks to the nature of the Nintendo Switch, both modes are viable since you can just suspend your console to carry on at another moment.
Your task is to collect all the treasure chests in the stage so that the portal at the center of the stage opens up for you to travel to the next stage. There are two types of treasure chests in the game: red ones that can be grabbed at any point, and blue ones that are locked and for which you need to remove the chains around them. To do this, and to open blue and red chests alike, you’ll need to jump from one level below and hit the floor of the platform on which a chest is resting. Why would you want to do this? Because open chests will reward you with a bonus item after you collect it.
These special items include a clock that adds some extra seconds to the timer at the upper center part of the screen, a heart that grants you an extra life, a magical potion that will unleash a flurry of fireballs all over the screen that will make short work of your opponents, a magical crystal that will create a pair of teleporting wormholes in the level, an all-seeing eye that will open all red treasure chests as you approach them, gems that increase your screen, or a thunderbolt that makes you invincible and allows you to shoot fireballs at your enemies.
One hit is all it takes to kill you, so you’ll need to be extra careful as you run and jump around each of the 25 stages the game has to offer. You’ll gain extra lives as you reach specific milestones in your overall score, by finding hearts inside of opened treasure chests or just lying around in a tower, or you can also collect the letters E-X-T-R-A from open chests to be gifted with one extra life.
Each of the five worlds in Eternum EX includes five stages. The first four stages are 2D platforming levels where you’ll move horizontally to explore the entire area as you avoid and defeat enemies and collect treasure chests, while the fifth stage in a world will have you moving vertically as you jump and climb over a tower to make it to the top so that you can battle the boss. The difficulty ramps up considerably during tower stages since you’re not only trying to get to the top as you also need to defeat enemies and avoid fireballs from screaming statues or some grim reaper wannabes that also shoot fire at you.
Eternum EX is a fun and short arcade-style 2D platformer that pays homage to old-school releases while doing its own thing. If you’re good at games of this genre, then you’re looking at around an hour or so for completing the game in either one of its modes. Levels are short and to the point, which is not a bad thing when you’re looking for that type of experience. Are you up for the challenge?
Disclaimer
This Eternum Ex review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Zerouno Games.
