The Story of Emberwind

The kingdom of Grendale is being invaded by gremlins and it is up to you to save the day. You are Kindle, the only fire gnome amongst the gnomes of Grendale and the local watchman. With the help of your inventions and your snow owl friend, Wick, you can achieve this.

The Review: What is Emberwind?

Emberwind is an action platformer that has Super Nintendo written all over it. You go around and whack gremlins with your staff, unlock new moves and abilities, collect gems and other treasures and save the people of Grendale by lighting lamps and fireplaces to scare away and destroy the gremlins. As you progress, you increase your health by acquiring treasure and your strength by finding and freeing hidden fairies on each level. Every now and then, if you look hard enough, you can also unlock a new move which will allow you to jump further or higher, avoid taking damage, discover new ways to deal damage, or move faster.

Emberwind is incredibly polished. The graphics are old school and if I didn’t know better, I’d swear the game is from the Super Nintendo. The sprites are drawn nicely, the characters have great animations and there really is nothing about the look of the game you could complain about.

The music of Emberwind is orchestral and atmospheric, and it makes you feel heroic from the beginning to the end. The sounds fit the characters well, and none of it is bothersome like in some other games. Again, the game sounds like it should belong on a 16-bit console and this is a major plus for me.

The basic premise of Emberwind is simple. You get an objective for each level which you need to complete while scoring as many points and finding as many secrets as possible, and then you return to your owl and leave the level. At the end of each area, there is a boss, and you also get a flying level here and there. It’s really worth it to find as many secrets you can, since points give you extra health bubbles, while other collectibles increase your strength and other abilities. The game also tracks your time for each level, and you can revisit previous levels to beat your old records, which will also grant you extra points.