Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Earnest Evans is actually a prequel to Wolfteam's El Viento, and features a cameo from El Viento's Annet. But despite the connection, the two games couldn't be more different. El Viento is a fast-paced platform-shooting game, but Earnest Evans is a lot slower and more methodical -- in fact, it shares its pace and its whip mechanic with Super Castlevania IV. It's also a lot more awkward than El Viento.

The reason for the awkwardness is Earnest's sprite. Rather than a single sprite, like most player avatars, Earnest is composed of a bunch of jointed, rotating sprites, like a shmup boss (or Gunstar Heroes' Seven Force). What should allow for more natural movement than hand-animated frames comes out well into freaky territory. Earnest's movements are too fluid, and a bit sluggish.

Earnest's design affords him a decent range of movement. He can whip in multiple corrections, crouch, and lie flat. He can also climb walls. And chances are you'll do all of them, all the time, without really trying. Playing Earnest Evans is like playing slow pinball with a ragdoll. It is extremely difficult to make Earnest go where you want -- his exaggerated movements put him all over the screen. You'll whip a hook in the ceiling, trying to fly across a small gap, and end up jumping halfway across the level before landing in a crouch and duck-walking into some spikes.