The Eternal Life of Goldman Preview: A platformer you really shouldn't miss out on

I love cartoons. I remember when my uncle looked after me and I had free access to his VHS tapes, some of which were absolute gems. For example, he had recorded a lot of old cartoons, my favourite being the ever-selfish Tom's battle against Jerry. I loved the beautiful lines and personality of these old films. I still have that love, but mostly when I encounter games that possess the same qualities. I found that in The Eternal Life of Goldman, which is magical in its expression and also a quite capable platform game, developed by Weappy Studio and published by THQ Nordic. I got access to the demo, which can be played on Steam now, a little before the rest of you, and here are my experiences.

The Eternal Life of Goldman is about the elderly gentleman Goldman, whom I very quickly came to associate with Uncle Scrooge from Duck Tales, as he is an old man with a cane. This cane can be used for many things, the most important thing is probably that if you jump and press a button, you can use it as a weapon, Shovel Knight-style (and Duck Tales), as the way you damage enemies is by jumping on top of them with the cane. So, you just have to jump on many of the ordinary creatures and then do that kangaroo-like movement down on the heads of the creatures you meet along the way.

The cool thing is that the cane can be expanded with other functions. The cane is divided into three parts; The top part has a handle that can be used, among other things, to hang onto rings around the levels. For example, there are sections where you have to use it to get past sharp obstacles by hanging onto balloons that float back and forth. If you choose a different function, you can use the cane to cause damage, and the middle part can also be replaced, so you can choose between different variants that either don't jump as high but can be used for certain puzzles in the game, or a metal version that gets you higher up but can't be used for the same tasks. The last part of the stick can also be used in different ways but I think you're starting to understand what the gameplay loop is all about. It's quite reminiscent of the aforementioned Duck Tales experiences on the older Nintendo platforms back in the 80s and 90s, and also a bit like Shovel Knight, where it's a shovel and not a stick that you jump around with in this way. I'm sure there will be many more opportunities to expand the stick in the full version of The Eternal Life of Goldman, but I only had access to about an hour and a half of the game.

I died a lot in the beginning because I had to get used to it, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly. When you chain several jumps together and combine it with the enemies' movements, and jump around like a happy flea, it actually feels perfect.

And the surroundings you jump around in are super cool. The story in The Eternal Life of Goldman is told by a mother to her child. I'm not entirely sure of the gender, but it doesn't really matter. She tells about the elderly gentleman Goldman, who in her eyes is a great hero. In addition, Goldman himself can talk to a lot of characters in the game as he moves through the extremely beautiful surroundings. The hand-drawn graphics are fabulous to look at and are made as classic frame-by-frame animation. The first thing you notice when you start the game is that the camera runs through a lot of trees where you see chameleons and monitor lizards crawling around, beautifully hand-drawn, while the camera zooms in on the group of islands where Goldman is located. I know the reference to Cuphead is pretty obvious, but that's the level of artistry and visual quality we're talking about here. It's incredibly beautiful.

When you jump around the many levels, there are so many details that it almost becomes distracting. There is something happening in the foreground, something in the background, and something in the middle ground where you are moving around. You see birds flying by, volcanoes spewing magma and lava, and in the foreground you can see a spider spinning its web, for example. It almost feels like playing a live cartoon. I enjoyed every minute of the game, and combined with the fact that the platform game design itself is really well done, it makes me really look forward to this small but great game.

The controls themselves are spot on. They are super precise and responsive, which is also necessary because the game is quite difficult at times. On the other hand, it's also quite forgiving in terms of checkpoints, so you don't get thrown too far back when you die. If you're a mediocre platformer like me, you're going to die. I can almost guarantee it. The game is divided into small areas, each of which functions as a little puzzle that you have to solve, either by using the cane creatively or by getting past some really difficult and dangerous sections with precise platform game design. I really like how The Eternal Life of Goldman lets you repeat the same small sequences until you crack the code. For example, there are strange creatures that shoot you into the air if you jump on them and push you down into the ground if you press down instead. At the same time, poisonous balloons and other strange creatures try to kill you, so you have to constantly come up with new little strategies. When you finally reach one of the many phoenixes that serve as checkpoints, it's both nerve-wracking and hugely satisfying.

If there's one thing I'd like to see changed in the full version of The Eternal Life of Goldman, it's the long text-based conversations. They're quite difficult to read on a 4K screen, and they're so long that I lost concentration several times and just clicked on to get back to the platform part. I don't think that's the intention. I really hope that Weappy Studio either adds voice acting or at least the option for larger text, as that would make the experience significantly better for me. But other than that, I don't have much to complain about. I'm extremely excited about the game, and now that everyone can try the demo for free on Steam, I would definitely recommend giving The Eternal Life of Goldman a chance if you have even the slightest fondness for hand-drawn graphics and classic platform game design.