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E.V.O.: Search for Eden is one of those lesser-known SNES games that has more recently gained traction as people rediscover the SNES. The game takes a number of seemingly-conflicting ideologies: evolution, the Biblical concept of Eden (at least the name), and the whole "Gaia as Mother Earth" thing and strings it together in a game where you start as a fish (not a single cell organism, you skip that part) and choose to evolve different parts to make a superior organism and eat other animals for life and "evolution points". It's a neat concept, and something that was more or less stolen for Spore years later.

The best combination in the beginning of the game involves the Angler's Horn and the first Jaw upgrade. It may take a little time getting there, but once you get the Ocean of Terodus, it will be easy street to eating all the fish and racking up some 1200 points (I got a few bonus pieces of meat in the process).

The final boss in the first world is stupid easy--a simple boss tactic of "boss rams into the wall, get out of the way, and attack like mad while they're dazed" that is often the case in Nintendo games, where you'll only really get screwed if you get in their way.

Unfortunately, the boss of the next world is not at all like that, and so mean and nasty that you'll probably have to not only evolve yourself to the max of what the world gives you, but save your current creature than "re-evolve" into it from a green crystal to get full HP again, which should buy you enough time. In case you thought that you should grind for evolution points that will last you through the rest of the game, well, you can't.

Other than that, it's a pretty easy and short game. It has its own faults, such as the fact that the main villain is only first mentioned sometime after you've beaten almost 60-70% of the game. It's also worth noting that while you can evolve to a human, he's pretty weak in comparison to other bodies you can get in the last stage of the game, and trying to get to that stage is a bit difficult either way. The only hard part of the game besides boss fights is trying to find yourself around a maze with warps, which can be accomplished with maps found practically anywhere online. And of course, some bonus areas can be accessed in which you'll discover a spoiler that there's more to work than just some pagan gods.

Did I mention hit detection stinks? If I didn't, there's that. Other than that, the music is okay too...you may recognize "The Final Tower of the Guy"'s music from I Wanna Be The Guy is taken from the boss's theme of this game.

Review originally written May 2015.

FINAL RATING:   

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