• Some games just wear their influences on their sleeves, I guess. There's been a flood of indie search action/metroidvania games over the past 15 years, but few try to look so similar to Metroid. The Axiom Verge series comes to mind, but even those games do a few things with backgrounds and sprites that would make a NES explode
  
• Just look at all those (mostly) featureless black backgrounds, bright foreground sprites, and the block-based construction motif for architecture and platforms. Other than the character sprite looking maybe a little smaller than Samus, the resemblance is undeniable
  
• Due to the old-school aesthetics, animations are fairly limited. Unlike some newer platformers that try to polish up pixel art and animations to look better than what the NES could muster, Enviornmental Station Alpha seems to play it straight. I'm sure there are some parts of this game's audiovisuals that wouldn't be era-appropriate, but I don't know enough about game development to hazard a guess beyond map size
  
• While the OST does borrow some notes from the game that inspired it, it does feel tonally distinct. The synth here, while still mysterious, sounds far less haunting. It still has that unmistakable austere air about it, but it sounds less like you're playing a horror game
  
• The sound design is excellent. The blaster, hookshot, explosion, jumping, swimming, and footstep sounds are all wonderful in their own way, helping distinguish the actions that the tiny, barely identifiable stack of pixels you control is taking

• Like the games of the era Environmental Station Alpha invokes, the story is very simple. The titular space station had been used as a home for protected and dangerous species for many years before a mysterious disaster occurred, resulting in the base's abandonment. You control the little automaton (Robot? Cyborg? Android? It's unclear) that's been sent to check it out and get to the bottom of things
  
• That's about all you're told at the outset. Figuring out the rest is up to the player. Along the way, you'll discover computer terminals containing notes from the station's former occupants that help to fill in some gaps, but there's some room for interpretation and gaps to fill in with your own theories
  
• Without getting too spoiler-y, you'll learn what caused the disaster, the fates of the some of the crew, and figure out how to destroy the evil lurking at the space station's heart. There's even an only somewhat telegraphed twist at the end after beating the final boss
  
• Vibewise, the game uses into high difficulty to make the whole affair feel as ominous and claustrophobic as Metroid did (though that title is much less difficult)

• I'm a stubborn man. It takes either a lot of boredom or a lot of frustration to make me adjust the difficulty in a game. Environmental Station is one of the rare times I've quit and restarted due to the default difficulty becoming too much of a chore
  
• The intro doesn't do a great job foreshadowing the trials to come. After you dock at the space station, you blast a few spiky blobs and obliterate the easiest possible boss on your way in. The difficulty curve then rockets upward. This game is a challenge even on the "easy" setting
  
• Regardless of how full your health is or which powerups you've found (at least if you don't sequence break), the trek between any two save/checkpoints is usually an arduous journey filled with creatures and hazards that can kill you pretty quickly
  
• It's not just the monsters and defense systems that are trying to end you. The platforming in this game requires a lot of precision and timing to get right, so things like spikes, lava, and poison gas can obliterate your poor little robot man without much trouble as well
  
• The map is one of the best I've encountered in the genre. Exploration is extremely fun, and some of the connections between areas (often faster than finding a teleporter) are surprising
  
• Most of the powerups can be divided into defense, mobility, and blaster upgrades. Defense upgrades can help to shield you from environmental hazards and enemies, mobility upgrades help you swing across the ceiling or dash in various directions, and the blaster upgrades modify the functionality of your gun
  
• Remember how I mentioned sequence breaking earlier? With how difficult as the game is, I recommend being thorough in your exploration and maybe take some time trying to make jumps that seem like you shouldn't be able to make them. Dash + Hookshot is a powerful combo, and you'll be retreading your steps quite a bit given what genre this game falls into
  
• For example, I was able to get the X Dash (permitting unlimited dashing with no cooldown) and triple shot (exactly what it sounds like) much earlier than I was supposed to, which helped keep the game manageable
  
• In fact, the X Dash is meant to be a reward for finding all of the game's collectible diskettes. However, when I stumbled upon the room the first time, I noticed that the exit behind the locked door containing the powerup looked accessible. Turns out that with some precise platforming and the correct combo of powerups in hand, you can sneak in there. It completely trivializes one of the late-game bosses, so it's worth looking into
  
• Boss fights are varied, distinct (except for the three different defense system drone fights), and incredibly challenging. Be prepared to use your most recently acquired powerup to its fullest potential if you want to see victory
  
• Even on the lowest difficulty, I wasn't willing to delve into the massive amount of postgame content. That first ending? Yeah, that's not the real one. If you find all the collectibles and delve into all of the optional areas, however, you just may see the real one, unlike me
  
• What convinced me to give up was indeed one of those optional areas. In the particular one I visited, you die if you use any of those powerups you spent so much time and effort tracking down. That section boils down to a sequence of precision platforming that would make Super Meat Boy blush. I got trapped at a checkpoint midway through and couldn't struggle my way out. Suffice it to say, I don't think a replay/revisit is in the cards unless I suddenly become much better at platformers

• This is only the second Hempuli game I've tried, but I think it's safe to say that they're devs who set out to challenge their players. Like their later title Baba is You, Environmental Station Alpha is not for the faint of heart. They make games for lovers of its specific genres who are looking to test their limits
  
• I died so many times that began to question my platforming chops
  
• Although the game is over a decade old, the devs decided to go back and add Steam Deck compatibility, full controller support, and achievements in late 2024. I'm grateful for the addition of all three, and I'm happy to report that this is an excellent game for the Steam Deck owing to its tiny file size and simple graphics

7.0/10. Environmental Station Alpha is a fascinating little game made for fans of the genre who are seeking a challenge. As such, it's a little hard to recommend to most people. However, if you're a Metroid superfan looking for a difficult game to try, the quality of the exploration makes this well worth looking into

I'm sure this game was absolutely stellar in 2015, when Metroidvania fans were absolutely starved for content and the bar wasn't set so high. Playing this for the first time in 2025 is an incredibly frustrating experience. It's a retro-visual banger and is clearly a love letter to the NES Metroid, but I enjoy looking and listening to it more than I did playing it. It's just a game where acquiring abilities isn't empowering, which is a catastrophic fail in this sub genre. The sense of progression is constantly being hindered by awful hook-shot swing mechanics, spongy enemies, and long run-back boss fights.

The nail in the coffin is that it's just boring. That's the worst offender in gaming. Honestly. Spamming my 2 foot laser on every pixel to find the next pathway is mind numbing. I was actually about to open a second window and do my graduate school nursing homework instead. You heard it here first folks: Homework is more fun than Environmental Station Alpha.

If you took the time to read this, I encourage you to follow your dreams. You're an amazing human being!

Can't recommend this game. The game seems to want to punish you for everything. Didn't notice the small object that needs to be shot to move forward, very bad. Now walk around for 15 minutes to figure out what you did wrong. I even liked that the simple opponents are strong and fast. You can't shoot yourself through every situation and you have to think. But at the same time, sometimes it seems that the opponents are placed only to bully you. At the same time, the movement was protracted and did not take into account time

This game gets my negative rating because of one Boss - Overgrowth - I don't understand why this opponent has to have three phases? the first one is already frustrating. because in the beginning there is so much to see and observe visually, but you learn it. But the second phase is even more annoying. There you are actively completely in the game's mind. are actively attacked from all sides and the boss changes his attack several times in this phase. The area of ​​the floor where to be is also small, because there is poisonous water around. In addition, you can basically only attack him with a charged shot, because otherwise you will be stuck to the opponent and get hurt. If there were only two phases, then everything would be fine. But the third phase is completely science fiction. The opponent is always in your face, the platform is small and there are big attacks coming from the sides.

Ten years ago it might have been a really good game, but now the level is so much higher. A month ago, Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus was played, and it's a much better metroidvenia.