Echo Isle is heavily inspired by The Legend of Zelda, and it’s not afraid to show it: The retro graphics bear a striking resemblance to Link’s Awakening, the main character wears a blue tunic and wields a sword, and he navigates dungeons to collect items and keys to fight bosses and gather magical MacGuffins. But where Echo Isle shines is how it takes the best parts of a Zelda adventure and shrinks them down to their essence — I finished the game in a little more than an hour.
The game starts with the main character falling from the sky onto Echo Isle, an island protected by a magical lighthouse that has mysteriously gone dark. While you don’t have any equipment to start, within a matter of minutes, you’ll find a sword, and from there, you’re off to the familiar Zelda loop: exploring the world, finding a dungeon, finishing the dungeon, and using whatever new items you have to get to the next one.
To replicate the retro feeling, each screen in Echo Isle is a square, which isn’t just a charming tribute to the classics: It helps each screen feel focused and approachable as you traverse the island and delve into dungeons. It also means that text boxes are small, so text and dialogue have to be snappy to fit, something more games should emulate.
That dedication to smallness applies to just about everything in the game. The overworld map is just 25 tiles, meaning there’s only one village full of characters to see, and only four dungeons to explore (with a final tower that’s more of a good old-fashioned boss rush). There’s no fast travel, but you don’t really need it because you can walk from one side of the map to the other in just a few minutes.
There are four additional pieces of equipment, and they take obvious inspiration from Link’s Awakening, too. I was delighted to find the game’s equivalent of Roc’s Feather in the first dungeon, and for the rest of the game, I was hopping all over the place just like I used to while playing the Game Boy Zelda games as a kid. Yes, there are bombs, but because Echo Isle streamlines resource management, there’s no ammo or even money to worry about. The only thing you need to keep an eye on is your health bar, and thankfully, there are pots everywhere that you can smash for hearts.
In reducing everything down, Echo Isle pays homage to the best of a Zelda game instead of feeling like a poor imitation. With so many games nowadays focused on sprawling worlds that are often clogged with boring filler, it was refreshing to dive into Echo Isle’s little, polished world. And perhaps best of all, I finished most of it over my morning coffee.
Echo Isle is now available on PC.