We recently brought you the news that Tenebra 1 and 2, from retro publishers Mega Cat Studios and developer Haplo Games, was heading to the NES. The game is out now and we’re taking a closer look at the first game in this review. You can purchase the cart directly from Mega Cat Studios with the second title also available. You can download the ROM for both titles from Haplo Games’ itch.io page to use on emulators and ROM carts.

Tenebra is a puzzle game that requires you to guide our hero through a dark maze of rooms where he can only step into the light as he is scared of the dark. Each room is its own self-contained puzzle that needs solving by moving braziers of fire as well as light torches to create a safe path. On the way you are confronted with

the first few levels start off quite easy and introduce you to the mechanics of the game. Large braziers fill sections of the room while torches can moved by being picked up and stored in your inventory. Holding a torch means you can move anywhere and allows you to map out the puzzle. As you move away from an area the darkness will return. The other key feature is cracks in walls that you can use by dropping your torch and simply sliding through.

After the first few levels, the head-scratching begins as you’ll need to move torches into position by dropping them in the correct areas to enable our hero to keep moving. There is also the introduction of keys that need to be found to open locked spaces and switches that require a torch to be placed near them to activate. The controls are simple, the d-pad moves you one square at a time and the B button picks up the torches and keys.

Graphically, Tenebra harks back to the glory days of early 8-bit games. The simple pixel art and two-tone colour remind us of Rogue, a game the developer has cited as an inspiration for Tenebra. The little flickers of fire from the torches and braziers are a nice touch but we would’ve liked to have seen a little more animation on the protagonist. That said, the graphics do make everything on the screen clear and the focus set on the puzzles. There isn’t much in the way of sound, just a few nostalgic bleeps and boops but they help add to the 8-bit vibe.

Overall, Tenebra is a fun puzzle game. The 31 levels become challenging later on and the use of clever mechanics, such as finding oil to strengthen your torch range are well implemented. Haplo Games has clearly thought hard about what makes a compelling puzzler and crammed a lot into Tenebra. Longevity might be a concern for some, especially if they want to purchase the physical cart, as once you finish the game there isn’t much to go back to. Any NES fans who like a good challenge should seek this out in the din, while casual puzzle fans may want to play the demo before deciding on a purchase.