HomeNewsThe Eternal Life Of Goldman
The Eternal Life Of Goldman is a gorgeous, nightmare throwback to classic 16-bit platformersFrom the devs behind This Is The Police
From the devs behind This Is The Police
Image credit:THQ Nordic
Image credit:THQ Nordic
THQ Nordic have announcedThe Eternal Life Of Goldman, a hand-drawn platformer fromThis Is The PoliceandHollywood Animaldevs Weappy. I caught a brief presentation earlier in the week and yeah, this seems promising. On the one hand, it reminds me of cheery 16-bit hop ‘n’ boppers like, say, the Mega Drive adaptation ofDisney’s Aladdin. On the other, it makes me think of side-scrolling Soulslikes (Scroulslikes?) such asBlasphemousand the frantic worldbuilding of Rick & Morty.
The Eternal Life of Goldman | Announcement TrailerWatch on YouTube
The Eternal Life of Goldman | Announcement Trailer
You play the Goldman of the title, a tenacious old adventurer with a cane. The cane can be upgraded with Metroid-esque gadgets such as a laser pointer, and Goldman has some kind of AOE singing ability that reminds me of chanting in Abe’s Odyssey. It’s a precision platformer, though less fiddly than the likes of Super Meat Boy, and Weappy hope to reward exploration of the world without relying on backtracking.
There’s a sense of winning nastiness to the moving parts. For example, there are screeching apes in cages you can drag around to serve as platforms. There are possibly-organic, grinning balloons you can latch onto during platforming sequences, yanking their faces downward into a frown. The balloons remind me of Mega Drive Aladdin’s Cave Of Wonders, where you’d climb and scamper over bits of free-floating Genie anatomy. There are also accordion structures of wood and cloth that can be pulled out to create routes. This last flourish isn’t all that nasty, on paper - it ought to be charming, a piece of whimsical stagecraft. But it feels somewhat grisly in the context of so much brutality, like you’re tugging on a flap of skin.
From the looks of the trailer, the further you go, the more openly dreadful the landscape becomes. There are steampunk cities with clanking robot enforcers, and a boss that consists of a three-headed, screaming gargoyle woman with serrated fangs and a lungful of fireballs. Speaking as a critic who is obstinately prone to detecting horror themes in the cosiest of games, I am enthused. There’s no release date yet, but you can learn more about The Eternal Life Of Goldman onSteam.
