2006 · Action role-playing · Adventure

Back to Stone

Nintendo exclusive

Back to Stone follows the adventure of the unwitting subject of horrible magical experiments. Following the conquest of his world by a race of demons, the hero became a guinea pig for the demons. Now a hybrid, half demon, half human; in exchange he has gained the ability to transform flesh to stone with his hands, making him one of the few on the planet capable of defeating the demons on their own terms.

Released: 15 December 2006
Platforms: Game Boy Advance
Genres: Action role-playing Adventure Beat 'em up Post-apocalyptic Role-playing
Developers: —
Publishers: Neko Entertainment
Modes: Single-player
Themes: Action
Country: France
Age ratings: ESRB E
Composers: Frédéric Motte

About

Back to Stone is an action role-playing game using an isometric 3D perspective developed by French studio Hidden Floor. It was published by Neko Entertainment / Big Ben Interactive in Europe and by Graffiti Entertainment / O~3 Entertainment in North America. It was released for the Game Boy Advance in 2006.

Keywords

petrification

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The player controls a warrior who is mysteriously amnesiac and has been experimented on by demonic creatures. Players can move the character around the game's environments freely, jump around platforms, and fight enemies dynamically. Killed enemies turn to stone, which can then be moved around and used to solve puzzles. When the player's character is wounded, he transforms into a demonic monster, which improves his fighting capabilities.

The game does not feature any way to save the player's progress, which had been a standard feature of video games for many years by 2006. Instead, the game relies on passwords to allow the player to return to the game where they had left off when they last turned off the console.

Reception

The game received "mixed or average" reviews, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Most critics considered the gameplay to be "simple" and "familiar", but the stone-pushing puzzles to be "unimaginative", unoriginal, and repetitive.

Some reviewers considered the graphics and design to be "charming and varied", easy to discern (in contrast to Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge), but many judged the presentation to be "drab", "grainy" and "muddy". The game's smooth framerate and special effects have received praise, as have the intricate boss battles.