Review: EDGE (Wii U)

The Final Grade

A-
Outstanding
grade/score info

1-Up Mushroom for...
Tons of content, innovative gameplay, creative level design, high replayability.

Poison Mushroom for...
Controls are hard to master, small and fast moving platforms can be a challenge to get onto.

There are plenty of great eShop games inbound for Wii U, and developer Two Tribes is adding to that list by bringing three of its games to the console. Not only that, but it’s offering each of these three games at a meager $2.00 for a limited time! EDGE is one of those games, and it’s a steal at the price currently being offered. If you own a Wii U, and haven’t experienced EDGE on another platform, then you need to download this game if you are even remotely interested in puzzle or platformer games.

EDGE looks and controls in a deceptively simple manner. You control a cube using either the joystick or d-pad and you must guide it to each level’s goal. Surprisingly, that’s pretty much it. You would think that something like this would get boring very easily, but EDGE has a lot of tricks up its sleeve to keep you enthralled at all times. For example, the game has a letter ranking system that tracks how fast you’ve completed each level. There are collectable glowing prisms scattered throughout the level to help you, which award short bursts of speed to the player. Not only is this essential when going for the best time, but collecting every single prism will allow you to reach S and S+ rankings too, which are the highest possible scores. This effectively gives EDGE tons of replayability, as I found myself retrying levels multiple times in order to beat my previous scores.

EDGE time, a key mechanic of the game, also helps you achieve the best time and serves as a vital mechanic when traversing certain obstacles in a level. The cube you control has the ability to climb other cubes, and if you stop and balance yourself mid-climb, you’ll stick to the edge and activate EDGE time. True to its name, this maneuver subtracts the amount of time you are stuck to the edge of an object from your overall time in the level, making it extremely helpful in speed runs. Sticking to a moving object is also incredibly useful for getting across large gaps, which can lead to some very clever level design.

Speaking of level design, the game’s levels are absolutely phenomenal. Most of EDGE is focused on getting onto and activating moving platforms, and it is utilized in very creative ways. In some games, you’d be lucky if you encountered a few new mechanics within a certain level. However, in practically all of EDGE’s 100+ levels, a new idea is introduced within its level design. In one level, I found myself landing on blocks that shot me miles up in the air. In a different level, my cube went inside a giant robot that battled another robot, which punched me to a different sector of the level. Another level had a narrow pathway that was the home of a giant snake that moved back and forth, which could knock me off the map. EDGE excited me with its inventive design, and left me ecstatic to see what the next level had in store for me. The 8-bit inspired soundtrack is also outstanding and is a perfect fit for each of the game’s levels.

However, there are a couple of minor issues that hold the game back from being truly exceptional. Getting your cube to land on a moving platform can be extremely annoying at times, especially if it’s small and moving really fast. There were plenty of times where I swear I hit a moving block perfectly fine, yet I would slide off the platform upon landing on top of it. This isn’t too common of an occurrence, but it can be a huge nuisance nonetheless. Another troubling issue lies within the controls themselves, since the cube has its own physics and takes quite a while to master. You see, you can’t just tap the joystick or d-pad in a certain direction to move. Instead, you have to hold it down for a little bit to let the cube fully rotate in the direction of your choice. Even after you master the controls, it can still handle a bit slippery. There were plenty of instances when I thought I let go of the control stick at the right time before an edge, but I’d still fall into a bottomless pit for going too fast. Thankfully, these are not huge issues, as checkpoints are abundant and lives are unlimited in EDGE. Typically, you won’t start too far off from where you died, which is a godsend in harder levels.

EDGE is truly something special. The game oozes creativity and constantly introduces awesome concepts that keep you entertained. The whole experience lends itself perfectly to a pick up and play format, and can be highly addicting when trying to set the best time possible. EDGE’s innovative gameplay, coupled with its fantastic level design, easily makes it one of my favorite games on the eShop thus far.