NEScape! | Xbox Review
As a collector of NES cartridges, I’m absolutely loving the fact that home-brew games for the classic console is a thing. It’s so much fun popping new carts into the system I literally played as a kid, but having a completely new experience. NEScape! from developer KHAN GAMES is the latest game in this category that I was able to get my hands on, but I didn’t play it on my Nintendo. Thankfully, publisher 8-Bit Legit brought this one to console. But I enjoyed it enough that I just might have to pick up a physical copy to add to my personal library.
Click and Point
NEScape! is a love letter to escape rooms, through and through. You won’t find a shred of a plot here, whatsoever, and it doesn’t need one. Hey, even real life escape rooms that try to throw in a story of some kind seem like they’re trying too hard. I appreciated that this was simply a series of puzzles with little to no context. Even the title screen itself is a puzzle, which I found absolutely charming.
The escape room here consists of four differently colored rooms. Your goal is to figure your way out of wherever you’re trapped by solving random puzzles. Much like in real-world counterparts, you’re given very little information and must rely on experimentation and logic to solve puzzles. Complete one, and it will reveal an item that you’ll need to solve another puzzle. This continues through three chapters until you finally find a way to open the exit and roll credits.
Gameplay consists of point-and-click style games. It reminds me somewhat of games like Shadowgate, Uninvited, or Déjà Vu, which all released on the Nintendo Entertainment System (as well as other platforms). Much like those titles, NEScape! gives you a cursor to move around the screen clicking on the environment to zoom in, activate objects, or even combine or use items. The game as-is gives you very little instruction, as it wants you to experiment. There is, however, a sort of in-game manual to get you started if you need.
Take a Closer Look
It feels odd critiquing the graphical fidelity of a game that also plays on hardware from over thirty years ago. The NES isn’t exactly known for its photorealistic power. With that said, there’s a very charming artistic quality at play here. Despite relying on pixels, there’s no doubt what items are when you look at them. This takes a small step of difficulty away and allows you to focus on the actual logic instead of figuring out what a jumbled mess of squares is supposed to look like (something present in earlier titles on this platform). There are even nice touches of shadows and reflections that make this stand head and shoulders above the vast majority of original games from the 80s and 90s.
I particularly enjoyed the music. The game is intended to be completed in an hour (OK, maybe not your first play-through), but it still provided a different theme song for each section of the game. This kept it from getting egregiously repetitive while also setting a strange mood that fit well with the escape room motif.
What I found most entertaining is the sheer thought process that went into putting these puzzles together. “Clever” doesn’t quite do it justice. The feeling of elation I had when finally opening a locked drawer or seeing a much-needed item finally come into view brought me back to my youth when that sense of discovery was awesome.
NEScape! Final Verdict
It’s pretty safe to say that I highly recommend NEScape! to anyone who loves puzzle games and/or escape rooms. Some may get frustrated by the outside-the-box thinking required to complete it. But even then, this seems like a perfect game to play on the couch with a friend trying to figure out exactly what the game wants you to do. The only other downside is that there’s not much replayability. Once you’ve solved the puzzles, you’re more or less done. For the price of a decent cup of coffee, there’s a solid weekend game here that is most definitely worth your time. My hope is that more home brew games get ported to modern consoles, because it’s a ton of fun to feel like a kid again.
To hear me talk more about NEScape!, be sure to listen to next week’s podcast episode.
This review is based on an Xbox copy of NEScape! provided by 8-Bit Legit for coverage purposes. It is also available on Nintendo Switch.
NEScape!
$4.99
Pros
- Clever Logic Puzzles
- Great Pixel Art & Music
- Lots of Love Poured Into It
- Satisfying Solutions
- Fun with a Friend
Cons
- Requires Patience
- Little Replayability
