Ebenezer and the Invisible World

Ebenezer and the Invisible World is refreshing on one hand in that it manages to break the curse of awful festive games by delivering a tightly focused Metroidvania offering that boasts an attractive visual veneer. On the other however, it's also clear that Ebenezer and the Invisible World certainly doesn't break any new ground in the genre and arguably fades somewhat when compared to its more illustrious peers. Nonetheless, though far from exceptional, Ebenezer and the Invisible World still presents a perfectly entertaining genre entry all the same and a great way to celebrate the holidays.

A fun and by-the-book metroidvania, Ebenezer and the Invisible World brings my favourite Christmas story to videogames, but perhaps sticks too closely to its genre and avoids innovating a tad much.

If you’re into metroidvanias and don’t mind a challenge, you’d be wise to give Ebenezer and the Invisible World a go. It likely won’t set your world on fire, but it at least might make you a little warm and fuzzy inside, what with all its Christmas cheer. Well, either that or make you swear like a sailor.

Ever wondered what a Christmas metroidvania where you play as Ebenezer Scrooge might look like? Me neither. But here it is, from Orbit Studio and Play on Worlds comes Ebenezer and the Invisible World. It’s an interesting pitch, if nothing else. Play as Ebenezer Scrooge as you try to save the commonfolk from a greedy industrialist with the help of local friendly ghosts. Work with variations of Ghosts that you can summon in combat. Collect Christmas turkeys to boost your health, and remember to save your progress in the nearest save room.

Ebenezer and the Invisible World is a run-of-the-mill Metroidvania with the wrong story and outdated design. Except for the beautiful background art and an interesting variety of enemies, the adventure is a short, stodgy, rudimentary affair with weakly executed ideas. On the Christmas table, it’s the dry and underbaked fruitcake that is still technically edible but is surrounded by far too many better options.

We wanted to enjoy Ebenezer and The Invisible World far more than we did. The combat is solid and the platforming is tight, with the right balance of accessibility and challenge. Combine that with a fun concept and art that does a great job of recreating Dickens’ iconic novel and it should be a recipe for greatness. Unfortunately, a host of bugs ranging from slightly annoying to game-breaking sucked the Christmas cheer right out of us. Future patches might fix these issues and give us the game we know is hiding just beneath the surface here, but that game isn’t here at launch.

A Christmas Carol in metroidvania form sounds like a promising idea, but due to dry writing and tedious traversal, Ebenezer and the Invisible World fails to live up to its inspiration.