Alwa's Legacy

Nintendojo: by Robert Marrujo

Short but sweet, Alwa’s Legacy is a must for both retro fans and fans of quality, exciting Metroidvanias. The visuals tout some of the best pixel art on Switch and are joined with a killer soundtrack and sound design. With clever dungeons to explore and an intricate overworld to travel, Alwa’s Legacy will have players ensnared from the beginning to end. Having played Alwa’s Awakening adds some extra nuance to the adventure, but starting fresh with Alwa’s Legacy won’t leave players in a lurch, as it does plenty to solidify this as its own distinct game. Don’t sleep on this one; Elden Pixels has created a 2D platformer for the ages.

Use a Potion: 8.5 / 10

Alwa’s Legacy is a whole lot of fun to play, with the enjoyable level design, varied assortment of abilities, and wonderful world coming together to make for a memorable adventure. I had a really good time exploring my surroundings and using my ever-improving abilities to uncover secrets, whilst the battles with bosses always made for neat showdowns too. It does have some imperfections, most notably with the easy to beat enemies, the back-tracking, and the water level (a personal pet peeve… *shudders*), but these are minor issues in what is otherwise an exceptional and very well-designed Metroidvania-style adventure.

Nintendo Life: 9 / 10 by Mitch Vogel

Alwa's Legacy is an excellent example of how to do a proper sequel; it takes everything that the original did well and builds on it, adds in a few new ideas of its own, and corrects the issues that were previously present. It may be a little on the short side, but Alwa's Legacy is the special sort of game that only comes around once in a great while, reminding you of the kind of quality that's possible when a dedicated crew puts in the time to make a polished and tightly designed final product. The best Metroidvania on Switch? That's entirely subjective, of course, but those of you who enjoy the genre owe it to yourselves to give this a try.