Clever Cat Games is working on a new original 8-bit NES title called Echoes of the Unread and Mega Cat Studios sent me an early preview build to play. Yes, another new NES game here in 2025. What a time to be alive!
This 2D side scroller seems to have taken some inspiration from classic Metroid and Zelda II as newly collected abilities grant access to areas previously inaccessible. Starting with only a jump, the demo ends after gaining the ability to sing. Launching music notes can activate switches and stun enemies. Also, instead of heart containers, Rhapsody can collect water bottles and refill them at water fountains. Since she can sing, she needs to keep her throat hydrated. Also, thanks to the lenient checkpoint system, each death is only a screen or two away. The final game is planned to have a few difficulty settings so perhaps there will be a “NES hard” setting even though this demo was not.
The narrative takes a humorous approach with quirky dialog between NPCs and goofy quests. Waking up locked inside a library by a magician named Odele, it is your job to escape by collecting pages and venturing through environmental set pieces. While the library is filled with green book worms and spiders that can cause damage, hawks and armadillos will need to be avoided in the desert area. In this early preview build, Rhapsody asks a janitor for a cough drop but he directs her to a vending machine. Of course she doesn’t have money. Finding a coin in the desert then back tracking to the vending machine unlocks the ability to sing now that her throat is cleared. Then singing can unlock new passageways only for this preview build to end (just as things start to open).
If you watch my stream embedded in this article, I encountered some to-be-expected bugs. During my playthrough off-stream, I reached the end of the demo by unlocking the singing ability. However, the switches that I activated in save slot 1 where already activated when I started a new quest in save slot 2, allowing me to essentially reach the end without needing to collect anything. I am not knocking the quality of the demo built at all, just simply explaining why the stream was abruptly cut short. Either way, watching my stream should provide a good idea of the humor, gameplay, and quality. Yes, it looks like and sounds like a quality NES title. Personally, I am looking forward to the end product. There is more here than a typical action game and the setting, plot, and characters (playing as a normal girl) is unique and interesting.
At the time of this article, details are scarce but there is supposed to be a Kickstarter for Echoes of the Unread in Q2 2025. I am assuming this release will see some combination of physical NES carts along with a release on modern consoles digitally (similar to the recent Rugrats game). The game already has a higher level of polish so if things get funded accordingly, I’m guessing it might be a late 2025 or 2026 release..?
Keep your eye out for the Kickstarter which should appear soon.
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
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