Around the time this game was released, I saw it at my favorite import store and the concept fascinated me.

E.V.O. Search for Eden tells the story of an organism, that is constantly evolving, searching for the garden Eden.



You start of as a small fish and have to eat other fish to gain EVO points, that you can use to evolve your creature into something more powerful. Every evolution you make gives you certain stat boosts. For example better jaws give you more biting power to take down enemies easier or a horn gives you the ability to ram it into enemies for major damage.

Later in the story you will evolve from fish to amphibian to reptile (dinosaur) to bird to mammal. You actually don't have to change to bird or mamal, but since those are superior classes, it is highly recommended, that you do. Once you have evolved to mammal, you will also be able to evolve yourself to become human. To actually become human you have to follow a certain path of evolution as mammal.

there are strange creatures no one has ever seen before. They evolved with the face of a cat and the body of a rabbit.



The game consists of 5 chapters, each with an overworld map similar to SuperMarioWorld, though they never become really complicated. In these chapters you travel through different eras of earth's history, reaching from 500.000.000 BC to 3.000.000 BC.

Throughout the game you are guided by Gaia, the mother earth. Actually all creatures on earth are competing to become the strongest, because the strongest is said to be able to enter Eden and become husband and partner of Gaia. Thinking about that isn't it a bit unfair of Gaia to help you. It looks like Gaia has already chosen her partner from the beginning.



As the story unfolds, you come to realize, that something or someone is interfering with the evolution on earth. There are strange crystals, that change certain species, and you will have to defeat them to correct the flow of evolution.
---SPOILER---
In the end you defeat Bolbox a giant one celled creature, that is competing with you to become Gaia's partner, that has somehow controlled other creatures into fighting with you. And it is also revealed, that martians tried to help earth's evolution by using the crystals.
---SPOILER END---

Controlling your creature feels kinda clumsy most of the times, but since this isn't a Jump'n Run but an RPG this is forgivable.

I played through this game dozens of times on my SNES and hopefully this game will get the VirtualConsole treatment sometime in the future. Until then it is like all of the SNES games really easily to NOT emulate.