Alwa’s Legacy, the sequel to Elden Pixels’ Alwa’s Awakening, is coming to Nintendo Switch on September 29, following its PC release earlier this year.
Alwa’s Legacy is a “thoroughly contemporary take on the metroidvania genre” that sees players using magical items and abilities to explore the world, solve puzzles, and fend off enemies. A new character upgrade system allows players to customise the hero Zoe’s skill set, focusing on either offensive, defensive, or exploration abilities.
Where Alwa’s Awakening was a homage to the genre’s 8-bit roots, Alwa’s Legacy takes couples visual inspiration from the 16-bit era with modern game design principles. Despite taking place in the same world, with the same protagonist, and after the events of the first game, Alwa’s Legacy is described as “standalone experience which can be enjoyed separately” rather than a direct sequel.
“Alwa’s Legacy is a huge step up for us in every department. We’ve already had some glowing praise from the Steam community and we’ve made sure that when the game is released on Nintendo Switch, it’ll deliver the best version it can be on that platform,” said Mikael Forslind, Game Designer for Elden Pixels. “Nintendo has been such a massive inspiration for us and Alwa’s Legacy is in many ways a love letter to some of the amazing memories we’ve had growing up with their games. At the same time, we put every effort into creating a modern experience, so we feel we’ve ended up with a product that has its own voice. We think and hope Nintendo Switch fans are going to love Alwa’s Legacy and we can’t wait for them to experience it later this month.”
Alwa’s Awakening was itself an excellent game—in my review, I called it “a modern-day NES game, built with all the charm of the games of that era and all the creativity forced by technical limitations, but with a modern design sense that makes it far more approachable.” I’ve yet to play Alwa’s Legacy myself (despite buying the PC version at launch!), but by most accounts, it’s similarly effective at combining its retro aesthetic with modern design.
Alwa’s Legacy comes to Nintendo Switch on September 29. It’s available now for PC via Steam.