E.V.O.: Search for Eden
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| E.V.O.: Search for Eden | |
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| Developer(s) | Almanic |
| Publisher(s) | Enix |
| Release date(s) |  1992 1993 |
| Genre(s) | RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | Super Famicom/SNES |
| Media | cartridge |
E.V.O.: Search for Eden (Japanese ４６億年物語 46 Okunen Monogatari "4.6 Billion Year Story") is a Super Nintendo Entertainment System game developed by Almanic and published by Enix about a character whose goal is to evolve into the dominant life form on Earth and live in Eden where Gaia, a goddess personification of earth, lives.
The game's music was composed by Kōichi Sugiyama of Dragon Quest fame.
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[edit] Gameplay
E.V.O. is a side-scrolling platform game with role playing elements. Your character has two basic moves: a jump and a melee attack (usually some form of bite), though mammals also have a "kick" option to attack enemies behind them. By eating defeated enemies, players gain "Evolution points" that can be used to modify the creature they are playing as. These improvements include bigger jaws, scales, horns, fins, longer neck, jumping ability, swimming ability, flying ability and more. By evolving, your character gains more hit points, greater speed, stronger attacks, and even certain special abilities such as flight.
There are also four types of crystals. Yellow crystals give tips and reveal points of the story. Red crystals allow the main character to morph into special powerful creatures that can be recorded in the evolution log so that they may be called upon later via Green crystals. (One notable addition about Red crystals is that the resultant form is quite different depending on the body size of the player at the time.) Green crystals, of which the character may only possess one of at any given time, allow your creature to revert to a past, perhaps more powerful form. Blue crystals grant the player an unusually large amount of evolution points. These points can then be spent on various improvements to customize the main character.
The game uses a hub system similar to Super Mario World, with each level consisting of a single overhead map from which the player can choose a variety of stages to play. As the player completes stages within the map, new areas are unlocked for them to explore.
[edit] Story
E.V.O. tells the saga of life's evolution on Earth, with a subtext of a creation myth. The player takes the role of one of many billions of life-forms created by Gaia, the nurturing and benevolent daughter of Sol (aka God, personified as the sun). Among the creatures known as "life", there is a competition to evolve, and the greatest life-form will eventually be granted the privilege of entering the Garden of Eden and becoming the husband and partner of Gaia.
The story takes place over 5 stages of life's evolution: the Age of Fish, the Age of Amphibians, the Age of Dinosaurs, the Age of Mammals, and finally the Age of Eden.
As the game progresses, it soon becomes apparent that some mysterious external force is interfering with evolution on Earth in a destructive manner. Strange crystals not native to Gaia appear across the planet, and creatures which eat the crystals are transformed into monsterously powerful beings that dominate all other life-forms, over-consume resources, and disrupt the flow of evolution. In each Age the player character is tasked with confronting the species transformed by the crystals and defeating them so that the evolution of life can continue on track.
In the final Age, the Age of Eden, the player learns that a mysterious entity is controlling the world's other life-forms and sending them against the player. This entity turns out to be Bolbox, a life-form that has evolved into a freakish and evil advanced being (it's actually just a big blob) by consuming the crystals, believing itself to be the first human, but in reality it is a gigantic one-celled organism. In the game's final battle, the player and Bolbox fight to determine who will gain entry into Eden and become Gaia's partner. Bolbox is defeated, and the player joins Gaia in Eden and is granted the gift of intelligence.
It is also revealed that the crystals were introduced to Earth by an advanced civilization on Mars, who misguidedly wished to help Earth by speeding its evolution with the crystals. Upon realizing the dangers the crystals create, the Martians decide to leave Earth alone and simply watch it until it becomes advanced enough to interact with Mars.
[edit] Reviews and legacy
Upon its release and for many years after, reaction to the game was mild, but generally positive. Jonathan Dunder of The Free Information Society gave the game five stars, citing it as "a classic in gaming history" although admitting that "the gameplay can get somewhat repetitive." [1]. Justin Holmes of AllRPG called it "an RPG that's a little more engaging than most" and "very original both in concept and gameplay." [2]. As evidenced by sites such as Gamespot[3] and Gamefaqs[4], players of the game had similar, if not more glowing, comments about the game's originality and overall underrated quality.
Few games have ever touched upon the subject of Evolution in a creative and effective manner that is also enjoyable to the average gamer. Along with several games such as 1983s Evolution and the 1998 Evolution: The Game of Intelligent Life, Maxis has been the leading developer in games that focus on entities adapting to their circumstances in games such as SimEarth (released in 1990) or, more relevantly, SimLife and Spore. The former, released in the same year as E.V.O. in Japan, highlighted the problem game developers faced in created games with as much flexibility as can be found in SimLife or E.V.O. Namely, the issue was that it was difficult to incorporate coherent and structured gameplay into the system, easily displayed by the fact that SimLife ranks among Maxis's least popular and least well-known Sim Games. Although it received little notoriety upon its release, the reviews clearly indicate that it developed into an underground hit, arguably the best success of an evolution-based game.
[edit] Notes
- ^ E.V.O.: Search for Eden Review. The Free Information Society. Retrieved on September 8, 2007.
- ^ E.V.O. - Search for Eden - Review. AllRPG. Retrieved on September 8, 2007.
- ^ EVO - The Search For Eden for SNES. Gamespot. Retrieved on September 8, 2007.
- ^ EVO - The Search For Eden Reviews. Gamefaqs. Retrieved on September 8, 2007.
