Echo Isle is a pint-sized adventure inspired by classic Zelda
The new game Echo Isle takes heavy inspiration from The Legend of Zelda, delivering a short but focused adventure that can be completed in just over an hour.
Echo Isle is a game that openly draws from The Legend of Zelda series, particularly Link's Awakening. It features retro graphics, a blue tunic-wearing hero with a sword, and dungeons filled with items and bosses. However, its main strength lies in distilling the best parts of a Zelda adventure into a compact experience. The game can be finished in a little more than an hour.
The story begins with the protagonist falling from the sky onto Echo Isle, an island protected by a magical lighthouse that has mysteriously gone dark. Starting with no equipment, the hero finds a sword within minutes and then enters the familiar Zelda loop: exploring the world, completing a dungeon, and using new items to reach the next area.
To replicate the retro feel, each screen is a square, which makes every scene focused and approachable. Text boxes are small, forcing snappy dialogue—something more games should emulate. The overworld map is only 25 tiles, featuring just one village and four dungeons (plus a final tower that acts as a boss rush). There is no fast travel, but it's unnecessary because you can walk from one side of the map to the other in a few minutes.
The game includes four additional pieces of equipment, clearly inspired by Link's Awakening: for example, the first dungeon contains an equivalent of Roc's Feather, allowing the player to jump. Bombs are present, but resource management is streamlined—no ammo or money, only health to worry about. Pots filled with hearts are scattered throughout the world.
By stripping everything down, Echo Isle pays homage to the best of Zelda rather than feeling like a poor imitation. In an era of sprawling, often filler-filled open worlds, this compact, polished adventure is refreshing. Echo Isle is now available on PC.
