Silver Falls is a series of low-budget indie horror games by Sungrand Studios (a one-man operation) based out of Sydney, Australia. Taking many cues from the Silent Hill franchise, they're based in the titular town of Silver Falls, a sleepy place tucked away deep in the mountains where strange supernatural happenings are known to occur. Different installments take place at different points in history.
The series (mostly) releases exclusively on Nintendo platforms; in fact, despite their decision to shut down the eShops for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, the creator intentionally carried on with his intial decision to put the franchise's 2022 installments on those platforms, although he has said he is open to the prospect of Nintendo Switch ports depending on demand.
The franchise releases are as follows:
3DS:
- Silver Falls: 3 Down Stars — Players control three characters, Holt, Analise and Moss, as they work together to figure out why the town has become frozen in time, as well as why the local wildlife has turned hostile. The first game produced, made as a traditional Survival Horror game, offers a separate mode called Frontier Fighters.
- Silver Falls: Undertakers — Bull Brandish is a boy camping out in the woods when monsters begin attacking the area. Made in the style of an Atari 2600 game. Later released for Wii U with an extra competitive battle mode.
- Silver Falls: Ghoul Busters — Starlin Allerdyce and Atticus Longdraw are best friends who find themselves beset by monsters in the night. Made in the style of a Game Boy platformer. Later ported to Switch with extra content.
- Silver Falls: Guardians And Metal Exterminators — Oxa Boscova and Gold Prospector are supposed to go on a blind date, but end up in a terrifying fight for their lives. The main game is a survival shoot'em up Roguelike. However, there is a secondary game mode that is designed and plays like old '90s LCD games. Later ported to Switch with extra content.
- Silver Falls Gaiden: Deathly Delusion Destroyers and Ruby River — Players control Gus Ironcock, a blacksmith whose husband has gone missing. A multiplayer Resources Management Gameplay installment. Originally planned with just Gaiden as a Wii U installment, eventually shipped on 3DS with adjusted gameplay and a bonus scenario, Ruby River.
Wii U:
- Silver Falls: White Inside Its Umbra — Players control Bjorna Hancock, a waitress who sets out to find her missing cousin. A survival horror entry which is planned to use the GamePad in unique ways; also supports the Wii Fit Balance Board.
Switch:
- Silver Falls: Episode Prelude — Rominic Rodriguez is out making a pizza delivery when mysterious lights crop up in the sky. Made as a traditional survival horror game.
- Silver Falls: Vicarious Brothers — Two brothers investigate a derelict mansion. Made in the style of a first-person Virtual Boy game.
- Silver Falls: Road Past Guilt — A 3D JRPG. Currently in very early production. Release date TBA. Announced in a recent trailer.
Other:
- Silver Falls: Galaxy Bound Curse (Game Boy Color) — Players control Fred in a top-down adventure game as he sets out to investigate a kidnapping. Currently being expanded for Nintendo Switch.
- Silver Falls: Frontier Fighters Mini (Windows) — A 16-bit-themed port of a game mode included with 3 Down Stars.
- Silver Falls: 8 Breaks In Time (NES) — A side scrolling platformer built on a NES rom. No other official details released yet. Release date TBA. Announcement intentionally leaked by the developer himself in a recent stream.
- Super Silver Falls (Unknown) — A sequel to 8 Breaks In Time. Takes place in 1997, after Ghoul Busters, but shortly before Galaxy Bound Curse. No other official details released yet. Release date TBA. Intentionally leaked by the developer himself in a recent stream.
Also available is Silver Falls: Heavy Shadow, a novel written by the creator about the setting, starring a barfly named Dodger Rodgers. Left alone by his family, he sets about investigating strange lights seen in the sky.
The official website, containing ROMs of Galaxy Bound Curse and Frontier Fighters Mini as well as the novel, is available here.
This franchise provides examples of:
- Aliens in Cardiff: All this strange activity is happening in the backwater town of Silver Falls.
- Alliterative Name: Bull Brandish and Rominic Rodrigeuz.
- Anachronic Order: The fidelity of each game's graphics provide an indicator in how far in the past they take place, and it jumps back and forth with each release.
- Asymmetric Multiplayer: The Wii U port of Undertakers lets the GamePad user deploy monsters against up to four players using the TV and Wii Remotes to fight back.
- Gameplay Roulette: You never really know what kind of gameplay you're going to get with this series. The first game on a platform tends to be Survival Horror, but beyond that, anything goes.
- Old Save Bonus: One of the features tauted across the series is the Code Linker system, which lets you input a password from a previous entry to unlock content in a later one, or even vice versa as they receive updates. As an example, by Code Linking 3 Down Stars and Undertakers, Bull Brandish becomes playable in the former, and Maverick D. Moose in the latter.
- Retraux: Several of the games are done in a classic style. Undertakers intentionally invokes E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Ghoul Busters is done like a Game Boy title, and Vicarious Brothers emulates the Virtual Boy.
- Rhyming Names: Dodger Rodgers from the novel.
- Super Title 64 Advance: The franchise embraces this trope in order to both describe the platforms they're releasing on, and the platforms being homaged within a specific game.
- Updated Re-release: Undertakers for the Wii U adds some bonus content over the 3DS version, and Ghoul Busters and Galaxy Bound Curse do the same on the Switch.
