When I heard an Earnest Evans Collection was coming, I crapped my pants in excitement because I knew that they were Sega CD-era action platformers. This was a golden age for the genre, and that we would be getting three obscure games utterly tickled me. Sadly, the truth is that I was blissfully ignorant, never having experienced these games, and now I must pay for my sins by finally playing them.
In this collection are Earnest Evans (1991), El Viento (1991), and Anett Retruns (1993), which is also known as Anett Futabi. Between the three titles, only El Viento is remotely enjoyable. The other two are some of the most frustrating and unpleasant experiences I’ve ever had. I understand that these were from Wolf Team and they’d go on to make Tales of Phantasia, but before that, they produced some heinous kusoge with this unholy trio.
I’m not sure if it’s due to poor emulation or if the games were always rough, but either way, you’re in for a bad time. Just what went wrong with Wolf Team? Find out in this Earnest Evans Collection review!
Earnest Evans Collection
Developer: Wolf Team, Mighty Rabbit Studio
Publisher: Limited Run Games, Edia Co.
Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch (reviewed)
Release Date: February 4, 2026
Price: $19.99
Earnest Evans centers on a Doc Savage type hero. A rugged world traveler who explores ancient ruins like Indiana Jones, slays dangerous animals with a whip, steals treasure, hooks up with babes, and looks like a swarthy, late-80s anime blonde hero. Now imagine all of that, but he has advanced-stage Parkinson’s disease when you play as him.
For some reason, Wolf Team went with a very strange limb-based system that relies heavily on physics to make Evans move around. The effect is never convincing and only makes him look like he’s barely in control. He looks like an animated rag doll most of the time, and it wouldn’t be so bad if the physics and collision weren’t completely unreliable. Moving around sucks because he keeps getting caught on random objects or falling through seemingly solid platforms.
The overall control is not only unwieldy but also floaty. Trying to do basic things makes Earnest Evans feel less like a Castlevania-esque action platformer, and more like a fumblecore game like Baby Steps, but if Nathan were flung into Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure. There is no getting used to Earnest Evans and Wolf Teams knew this because the next game they made was Anett Futabi, which abandons the ridiculous gameplay.
Unlike the other two games in this collection, Anett Returns isn’t an action platformer at all, but rather a Streets of Rage-style beat ’em up. Regretfully, Anett’s game is every bit as incompetent and unplayable as Earnest’s.
All of the worst aspects of retro brawlers are here, only worse. In Anett Returns, enemies sometimes get stuck when they hide off-screen. Bosses deal unfair amounts of damage, and you’re left with a limited combo and no co-op option.
In most instances, bosses will kill Anett in one hit before you get a chance to learn their brain-dead pattern. The option to rewind is always available, but it’s like reliving a traumatic event over and over, and you’re better off bailing on this repugnant beat-’em-up and heading straight to El Viento instead.
El Viento is shockingly the first game in this trilogy. Somehow, Wolf Team got worse with every entry and only got things right the first time. Thankfully, Anett has conventional sprites with no ridiculous limb system and has physics that feel like any other game. The sprites make an impression with their size and detail. Anett looks pretty sexy and moves like a ninja. Apart from Earnest Evans, the graphics in these look good for their era.
El Viento isn’t without its cheap design. Enemies can charge in so quickly that there’s no time to react, and Anett barely gains enough temporary invincibility after taking a hit, causing massive bosses to completely melt her. While she’ll take unfair hits, at least she can take them. As cheap as El Viento is, the difficulty is fairly forgiving for an action platformer of its day, making it the most playable option in this compilation.
Anett throws boomerangs almost as fast as you can mash the buttons, and her magic does good damage and has a gradual recharge. Impressively, there is no stage timer, so you can take it slow and let it charge between encounters. Her jumps are high, and the platforming is varied to keep the gameplay interesting. It’s a tough game, much like many others from that era; more frustrating than rewarding.
The graphics between all titles are a mixed bag. Anett Returns looks the best and looks almost like an arcade game with its big, sexy sprites, and Earnest Evans looks the worst with its insane design choices. The anime-style sprite-based cutscenes are all consistently pretty good and leave an impression. They’re nicely illustrated and use limited animation to convey the intent, maintaining a generally consistent feel.
The extras include a movie player for watching the anime cutscenes, but for some reason, only one of them played while the rest showed a black screen. It’s likely a bug that will get patched, but as of the writing of this review, this feature is broken. It’s a shame, especially since the Earnest Evans Collection is already a barebones compilation of games that range from unplayable to mediocre, making it feel like the porting developer just didn’t care.
All three of these needed some work put into them. I get the importance of preserving the originals, but there’s no reason we can’t do both. Stick with any of the Castlevania Collections and you’ll be much happier.
I have no idea why it’s called the “Earnest Evans Collection,” considering he’s only the protagonist in the middle entry, and that’s the one with no redeeming qualities.
The games more closely follow Anett, and Evans is more of a side character. Not that it matters much since hardly anyone will care or notice after the wave of shame and despair envelopes them while playing.
Earnest Evans Collection was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a code provided by Limited Run Games. Additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy is here. Earnest Evans Collection is now available for Windows PC (via Steam), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.
