Feed It Souls: Dome Edition is a remake of the 2023 Game Boy Competition 23 entry. The handheld metroidvania is available now as a digital download from developer Gumpy Function‘s Itch.io page. Gumpy Function has kindly sent a review copy for us to take a look at, and we spent a couple of hours running around the maze that is Feed It Souls: Dome Edition. We used a standard GB emulator to load the file and were pleasantly surprised by the included PDF that has been designed to look like a GB game manual from that time.
The premise of the game is to collect souls for a hungry mobile phone that is used as a metaphor for attention-hungry billionaires. As with all good Metroidvania games, your powers are weak from the start, and the more you progress, the more powerful you become. Every time you find a soul in Feed It Souls, you’re rewarded with a new power. You can’t even jump across platforms at the start, but by the end of the game, you’ll have everything you need to escape the enemies and bounce around the impressively large map.
The game has a great aesthetic to it, with very eerie imagery throughout that really shows what the developer feels about the emergence of huge tech companies and the power they wield. Your character is a body with a hand for a head, and most of the monsters you meet could’ve come straight out of a horror movie. Feed It Souls has a real personality that sometimes lacks from other homebrew games; this could easily have been a title released in the early days of the GBC.
Once you start to find your way around Feed It Souls‘ sprawling caverns, you’ll notice how important getting the next power ability is. There is always something just out of reach, or clearly will require a bigger jump or a way to climb. And that’s what makes this a good game in its genre, especially given the limitations of the hardware. There is also a cool option to change up the color scheme, Super Game Boy-style, by collecting lost eggs. The more you find, the more pallettes are available.
The controls are brilliant in Feed It Souls as well. At no point did any deaths feel like anything but our own. It’s also quite tough in places, but luckily, a handy checkpoint system means you don’t ever need to travel too far to get back to any points you’re stuck on. Occasionally, a great set piece will crop up, and this will require a few goes to get your head around. Firstly, how do you overcome the challenge? Secondly, practice enough with your current powers to get through unscathed. The sense of progression is well realized here.
Overall, Feed It Souls is a well-made Metroidvania that stands out from the crowd due to its tight gameplay, interesting aesthetic, and thoughtful progression system. Once you crack the main game, there are several difficulty options to try that give the game some longevity, plus there are a handful of achievements to conquer. GB fans will appreciate the polish on offer here, especially given the $5 price tag. A great example of what can be done with hold hardware in the right hands.
