Eagle Island has one of the best demos I’ve ever played

There’s a new owl boy in town

I’ve been following Eagle Island for a while after seeing some awesome looking GIFs of it on Twitter. It’s a procedurally generated Metroidvania and/or roguelike about a boy and his pet owl that he has trained to attack at his will. 

I know some of you just groaned at the buzzwords of Metroidvania and roguelike. I too am getting sick of every indie game under the sun billing themselves as such (add survival to that list). But I actually have faith that Eagle Island can pull it off after playing its demo, which you can grab here.

Eagle Island reminds me a lot of the SNES games I grew up on, and especially The Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse, one of my absolute favorites of the ’90s and seemingly a forgotten gem.The platforming is fluid, the ability to pause mid-air to air your owl’s attacks in any direction feels natural and fun, and there is a ridiculous amount of loot to find including upgrades. While I’m iffy about any game that offers procedural generation, the levels found in the demo feel natural and unrepetitive, which is great considering the final product is to have an actual story, unlike most roguelikes.

Right now Eagle Island is hoping to secure funding on Kickstarter, asking for $25,777 with an estimated launch date of July 2018. I personally backed the game for £10 (around $12.40) the moment I finished the demo (I’m a sucker for owls and boys I guess), then decided to let you all know about it. The Kickstarter campaign ends on Monday, May 15, and as of the time of writing is at $22,335 of its goal. I’m crossing my fingers that it gets funded, as I really want to play the finished product; I expect it to be a hoot!