E.V.O.: The Search for Eden (SNES) review "E.V.O was a bizarre and original SNES game that mixed elements from an RPG with that of action platform game, adding it’s own unique elements producing a very original game that was interesting to play through and also providing new features that most gamers hadn’t experienced before. The game also had a very strange storyline that absorbed various ideas from the story of Creation and the Charles Darwin theory of evolution. Two theories of life that most people tend to believe in and also disp..."

E.V.O was a bizarre and original SNES game that mixed elements from an RPG with that of action platform game, adding it’s own unique elements producing a very original game that was interesting to play through and also providing new features that most gamers hadn’t experienced before. The game also had a very strange storyline that absorbed various ideas from the story of Creation and the Charles Darwin theory of evolution. Two theories of life that most people tend to believe in and also dispute over. To collate the two stories into one was an interesting move by Square/Enix, which produced a very interesting new view and also keeps everyone happy in the process.

Basically, you are a fish that has been chosen by Gaia, the daughter of God to enter the Garden of Eden if you can survive a challenge. You must learn to adapt to an environment and evolve to survive it. If you continue to do adapt in such a way you will become the most dominant species of the timeline, defeating various foes and becoming a host of different creatures in the process. Starting as a small fish you must overcome various obstacles and enemies and manually change your body into a more efficient killing machine, by killing stronger enemies and making parts of your body stronger you will eventually rise to become a human being, the strongest and the most intelligent creature in the world.

The story of the game covers five areas of history that you will have to survive in. and will also provide a rival species trying to become the most dominant species and will stop at nothing to defeat you. After conquering the oceans and doing battle with sharks you will become an amphibian, waging war with an army of insects. You will then enter the age of dinosaurs where you will rage against beasts of the sky and revolutionary mammals, wishing to claim the world as their own. After this you will become a mammal yourself and wipe out the existence of your former self and you will eventually become man and be able to enter Eden.

As a creature you will be able to roam through areas full of other creatures that you can interact with. Some will flee from you in terror and will shiver in your overbearing presence and some will just see you as prey and will kill you instantly. At the beginning, you will start off as a fish with very weak jaws and a small body; therefore you’ll have to become stronger be evolving areas of your body. When you kill an enemy it will drop meat, which you can gulp down, giving you some health and also some EVO points. The type of creature you kill will be the deciding factor on how many EVO points you will receive and also how much you will regain.

EVO points are the key to your success in the game and are the essential factors to evolution. When you gather an amount of EVO you can choose to evolve an area of your body. Increasing your jaws will give you a stronger bite, increasing your fins will increase your speed etc. Of course this will vary on the type of creature you are. The most effective and powerful body parts will cost more EVO points than weaker ones, as with enemies, the bigger, the more EVO points you’ll pick up and the stronger you’ll become. Evolution will occur in this way most of the time but there are two other factors that will make your creature evolve.

If you are suddenly exposed to a change in environment then your body will instantly evolve to allow you to survive. If you are fish and you jump on land then your body will automatically evolve feet to allow you to walk on land and if you are a land creature and you enter the sea you will grow fins in order to swim. Doing this will cost you no EVO points and will also replenish your health for free. Another factor that allows evolving is coming into contact with crystals. If you eat a red crystal you will evolve into a whole new creature temporarily, this creature will tend to be stronger than anything you have previously evolved to and will definitely be the most dominant creature in the timeline. One useful feature in the game is the ability to create a log of all the creatures you have evolved to, this is handy because if you devour a green crystal then you will be able to change into any one of your creatures that you have saved in your log.

A lot of creatures will attack you on your progress and their death is essential for you to become the dominant species. You’ll find that all bosses are very hard to overcome and they tend to be a lot more evolved than you are, even in your strongest available form they will be very hard to overcome. They will be tend to be a lot faster, have far more damaging attacks than what you can dish out. The sharks are faster and have bites that will be more destructing than your puny chomps, which is an obvious trait that follows in almost all of the bosses you will encounter. Although the Queen Bee has to be the one of the toughest game bosses that has ever been created and I do not exaggerate when I say this.

E.V.O has to be one of the most original SNES games and is something that must be a part of your SNES collection. If you are an RPG fan then you will find this game appealing and also if you dig action games then you will enjoy this to the core. Prepare for a challenge, however as this game has to have some of the most hardest bosses ever seen. The unique features will allow you to have lots of different combinations to create some funny looking creatures and also build a killing machine that will rise as the dominant creature. Whatever you believe in then you’ll find that the game has something for you and will provide you with a unique gaming experience that you are seriously missing out on.

Community review by goldenvortex (July 11, 2004) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.