| Environmental Station Alpha | |
|---|---|
 Official ESA Steam artwork | |
| Developer(s) | Hempuli Oy |
| Publisher(s) | Hempuli Oy |
| Designer(s) | Arvi Teikari |
| Composer(s) | Roope Mäkinen [1] |
| Engine | Multimedia Fusion 2 [2] |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release |
|
| Genre(s) | Metroidvania |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Environmental Station Alpha is a 2015 Metroidvania created by Finnish indie developer Arvi Teikari (known professionally as Hempuli).
The player character is a robot who must examine a vast bio-dome space station which was mysteriously abandoned, despite still holding signs of life. [3]
The player explores the vast side-scrolling maze of the space station, consisting of several large areas. At the beginning of the game, many areas are inaccessible, so the player must acquire items that grant the robot new abilities (like a grappling hook, the ability to double jump, etc.), and then backtrack to previous areas to find previously-inaccessible paths leading deeper into the station. [4]
Jed Whitaker of Destructoid scored the game 7/10 and said, "[o]verall, Environmental Station Alpha didn't reinvent the wheel when it comes to Metroidvania games, but it certainly helped satisfy my appetite." He praised the game's pixel art aesthetic and bosses, writing that "[t]hese confrontations are some of the most satisfying boss battles I've had in a game in some time"; however, he was less enthusiastic toward the game's mandatory backtracking to find new pathways, which he said could be either "rewarding, or tedious depending on the amount of time needed." [5] John Walker of Rock Paper Shotgun also gave the game a positive review, calling it a " Metroid -alike pixel platformer that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, right up until I didn’t any more. And yet, I find myself recommending it." He said that "[t]he fine balance of Metroid games is often underestimated by those wishing to emulate them, but Arvi Teikari and Roope Mäkinen demonstrate a rare skill of precision" but wrote that the game was too difficult for his tastes, labelling its later sections as "fiddly and over-complicated." [6]
A speedrunning community has developed for Environmental Station Alpha, with the game having been run at the speedrunning marathons European Speedrunner Assembly [7] [8] and Games Done Quick [9] [10] multiple times apiece.
Metroid is an action-adventure game franchise created by Nintendo. The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from Space Pirates and other malevolent forces and their attempts to harness the power of the parasitic Metroid creatures.
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Metroidvania is a genre of action-adventure video games focused on guided non-linearity and utility-gated exploration and progression. The term is a portmanteau of the names of the video game series Metroid and Castlevania, with games in the genre borrowing from both series. Typically based on two-dimensional, sidescrolling platform gameplay, Metroidvania games feature a large interconnected world map the player can explore, although parts of the world will be inaccessible to the player until they acquire special items, tools, weapons, abilities, or knowledge within the game. Acquiring such improvements can also aid the player in defeating more difficult enemies and locating shortcuts and secret areas, and often includes retracing one's steps across the map. Through this, Metroidvania games include tighter integration of story and level design, careful design of levels and character controls to encourage exploration and experimentation, and a means for the player to become more invested in their player character through role-playing game elements.
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