E.V.O.: Еденді Іздеу – Даму Жолы

1992 video game

E. V. O.: Search for Eden is a 1992 action adventure game developed by Almanic Corporation and published by Enix for the Super NES. Combining traditional platforming mechanics with experience and leveling mechanics originating from role playing games, E. V. O.: Search for Eden involves the player navigating a creature through a number of side scrolling levels while undergoing bodily evolution to cope with ever changing environments. It is heavily based on Almanic's original title, 46 Okunen Monogatari ~The Shinka Ron~ ( 4.6 Billion Year Story: The Theory of Evolution), released in Japan in 1990 for the PC 9801. Spanning a period of over a billion years, the game's story involves Gaia, daughter of the sun and mystical embodiment of the Earth, guiding the player through five distinct geological periods of the planet's history. Beginning the game as a fish, the player must travel across the planet defeating enemies and gaining the strength to evolve into more powerful and complex organisms before eventually earning a chance to enter the paradise realm of Eden, becoming Gaia's immortal partner. Most critics enjoyed the originality of E. V. O.: Search for Eden, but criticized the tedious gameplay and subpar graphics.

E. V. O.: Search for Eden is a side scrolling platform game where players must navigate a creature of their own design across a number of environments resembling Earth's past. The game is divided into five distinct geological periods: the Cambrian Period and the Ordovician Period of the Paleozoic Era ("The World Before Land") from 500 million years ago to 450 million years ago, then the Carboniferous period ("Early Creatures of Land"), the Mesozoic Era ("Age of Dinosaurs"), the late Neogene period ("Ice Age"), and finally the early Quaternary period ("Early Man"). Each period has its own map screen, which is divided into various levels. While each era takes historical liberties with both its inhabitants and time frames, the player's choices for evolution are dependent on the current era of play, ranging from aquatic bodies during the Age of Fish to mammalian physiology during the Age of Man. As the player progresses through each level, other organisms are encountered who must be confronted by biting, ramming them with horns, jumping on them until they are defeated, or jumping over them to avoid them. Defeated enemies leave behind meat which the player can consume to grant them "evolution points" used towards upgrading specific body parts. The body of the character controlled by the player is divided into eight sections which can be upgraded by spending evolution points, making them stronger as well as changing their appearance. New abilities such as tail swings, greater jumping ability and increased movement speed can also be obtained through evolution. As the player takes damage from enemy creatures, one may restore health at any time by either consuming the meat of their foes, eating nearby plant life, or by undergoing selective evolution. At the end of each level, the player must face a stronger boss character in order to progress, requiring much more effort to defeat than a typical foe. There is no game over mechanism, if the player's character loses all their health points the player is revived by Gaia and sent back to the game's map screen with a deduction of roughly half of their Evolution Points. The game utilizes a built in battery backup save system for storing game data. The player may record progress directly to the cartridge to be continued at another time, and store up to fifty previously created creatures using the game's built in "Book of Life" feature. Although the design staff had opted to give a fantastic rather than scientific representation of evolutionary theories and planet development, the crew was assisted by teachers from local schools to provide information on geology and biology to the programmers.

The music for E. V. O.: Search for Eden was originally composed by Koichi Sugiyama for 46 Okunen Monogatari ~The Shinka Ron~. Motoaki Takenouchi, a former student of Sugiyama's, adapted the music for E. V. O In late 1992, select pieces from the game were performed by the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra during their second annual Game Music Concert series in Tokyo, Japan. Two of these pieces, "Great Hymn of Nature, Earth" and "Sorrow" were made available on the Orchestra Game Music Concert 2 album the following November. In December of the same year, an official soundtrack for 46 Okunen Monogatari ~The Shinka Ron~ was released exclusively in Japan by Apollon Records. Rather than featuring the same instrumentation present in the game, the 46 Okunen Monogatari Symphonic Synth Suite soundtrack was composed of music also re recorded and arranged by Takenouchi.

GamePro magazine praised the game's originality and overall design but found fault with the visual presentation of the title, stating "although this game has an interesting concept, the sluggish game play and average graphics may make you return to the caves." AllGame was even less positive about the game, giving it two stars out of five. The website additionally likened the title to the then upcoming and highly anticipated Spore by Maxis, calling E. V. O.: Search for Eden the "original success story" in life simulation gaming and the standard for which it would be judged.