I really wanted to play 8 Eyes when I was young. All I had to go on were a few scant screenshots in my comic books. But that was more than enough; for some strange reason I thought it looked like the coolest game in the world. It was Castlevania with a falcon buddy, how could it go wrong? Oh you have no idea. Considering I was able to tolerate legitimately bad games like Athena and Fist of the North Star it says a lot that I hate this game. 8 Eyes is broken on nearly every level and should be avoided at all costs.
I’ll give it some credit; the game’s premise is interesting. In the future mankind has survived hundreds of years of strife and is in recovery under the leadership of the Great King. The King is in possession of the 8 Eyes, eight jewels with mysterious power that almost ruined the world. The Great King’s eight duke’s steal the jewels and banish the king. With the world on the brink again Orin the falconer is sent to stop them.
Unfortunately it lacks any of that game’s polish and comes across as a pale imitation. It also borrows a few elements from other popular titles like Mega Man. If the game were halfway competent it could have been decent. Instead it is a frustrating mess of ideas that never quite comes together.
8 Eyes is unique in that you can control two characters in solo play. Orin is the primary character, equipped with a sword and various subweapons. These weapons, which include a boomerang, gun, and ice balls, are powered by item energy dropped by enemies. Your falcon companion Cutrus can be released at any time, at which point he flies back and forth. Cutrus can be used to dive bomb enemies and hit switches but has a life bar of his own. If you have a buddy they can control him directly for two-player coop which helps immensely.
The Mega Man comparison comes in its map. You have a choice of any of seven initial levels set in different countries. The order you choose is important for a reason. Each defeated duke gives you a sword that inflicts extra damage against another duke. This makes the already ridiculous boss battles slightly manageable but not by much. Trying to go against the preferred order is a fool’s errand, making the illusion of choice meaningless.
On its face it is very similar to Castlevania and Mega Man but it breaks down in execution. Orin’s sword has pathetic range. Every enemy’s attack range dwarfs your own, which leads to hits in almost every exchange. Your subweapons are strong but use up far too much energy. You get a few uses at best which is useless considering how long it takes to build up. Even the stupid bird isn’t much help. Waiting for it to swing back around to attack is dumb and unfortunately there are some enemies only he can kill. Thank god you only need to use it in a few mandatory instances.
With these flaws 8 Eyes is brutally difficult. It is almost impossible to avoid taking damage on every screen because of your weapon. Health power-ups drop rarely from enemies or need to be found by destroying the environment. For the most part the level design is straight forward. But that goes out of the way in Africa and Germany. Here they are mazes full of endless loops and hidden passages with no indication of how to navigate. They were a little too clever for their own good with this. If you manage to reach each end level boss, good luck. Despite your weapons supposedly dealing extra damage if you follow the proper order you won’t notice. Every boss battle is a nightmare and of course the game ends in a boss rush. It’s bad enough the game is a mess mechanically but it is ridiculously difficult to boot. Stay away.
I’ll at least give it credit for featuring decent production values. It can’t be stated just how much 8 Eyes resembles Castlevania. From its general look to its tile sets, this could pass for a rom hack. While the level of intricate details in its backgrounds isn’t as high it is close. Some of the color choices are a bit gaudy but overall it is easy on the eyes. 8 Eyes is more varied due to its worldwide setting as well. Sadly the music isn’t memorable but for some reason that doesn’t surprise me.
In Closing
8 Eyes could have been interesting. You can see the kernels of a good game but it is buried under awful execution. Don’t bother with this one, even if you are curious. Put this in the same category as Deadly Towers and avoid it.
