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Aeon follows the rise and fall of a great space empire that profited vastly with its miving exploits. The game starts at its origins and follows the protagonist, Jesper Goldenstark, an interstellar surveyor, seeking to find lucrative minerals for The Foundation (aka Evilcorp).

The first chapter (of four) has our hero explore the newly discovered exoplanet. Themed around a basic platform game, he must leap over the canyons and avoid the indigenous creatures that scuttle about the landscape.

This endeavour leads to a discovery that ignites an empire. The story continues in part two, which is a top-down perspective avoidation where you are surveying the landscape for terraforming towers. The terrain is still treacherous, and any collisions with aliens must be avoided when seeking out the construction locations.

In part three, the story moves forward 25 years and is a tale of lineage and revenge. You must assist Jesper's daughter in toppling this all-too-powerful conglomerate in a rather fun tower ascension game.

If successful, this leads us on to the final chapter, which returns to the platform genre and is set around the ashes of an empire. Yeah, its ideas are as epic as Frank Herbert's Dune.

The original part 1 was created in 2019, and to be frank, was a bit crap. New author Kukulcan adapted and expanded the concept this year and greatly improved upon the original's engine. Yes, every one of the levels is very basic in concept, but they all have a bit of cheeky charm appeal; they play like games from a simple time, perhaps akin to the Atari 2600 era of videogames.

The graphics, although basic, are beautifully bright and have a vintage charm to them. The cut-scenes are phenomenal and have the flair of a comic book. The music is most notable and is different for each of the four parts.

Talking of which, I rather enjoy the idea of having a separate engine for each of the chapters - it gives a nice variety to the overall experience. It'll neverwin awards but it's cheerful and does what it says on the tin.

At first Aeon all feels rather too simple, but put in the time and you'll soon be taken by its charm. It can be frustrating in places - damn those random acid drops! - but overall it's a fine blend of classic platform and arcade action that's good fun to play.

I thoroughly recommend playing through the game in the right order as this is the best way to experience the comic book-style story.

Presentation 88%
Cannot deny the presentation in this game. The artwork of the intros on each chapter is outstanding.

Graphics 60%
The colourful in-game sprites are basic but functional.

Sound 80%
Excellent soundtrack plays throughout but sadly there are no sound effects.

Addictive Qualities 63%
Good for a while, but some of the collision detection quirks may annoy.

Lastability 60%
As you can choose the chapters without passwords, players can skip and kill the sense of progression.

Overall 64%