Would you be insane to drop 1200msp on this game, or would you be insane not to?

What Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet (ITSP) is, is a spaceship metroidvania title, which is reminiscent of the old NES title Solar Jetman, mixed with last year’s Hit arcade game Limbo art style, just with an added dash of colour.

It has been a while since a metroidvania game has come to XBLA since Chair’s awesome Shadow Complex; however the later had massive amounts of plot, and dialogue throughout its adventure. But ITSP is silent as a deadly mouse that trundles along barely uttering a pew, pew, pew sound effect.
The basic synopsis is that an alien space virus comes and absorbs your little alien characters nearest sun, terraforming it into a giant black thorny shadow planet, it’s debris from the explosion causes it to spread to your little corner of the world, and you begin a journey to eradicate it, before it engulfs your planet.

Soon enough you will be hovering around the engulfed sun, killing bosses, and finding power-ups, artifacts and concept art collectibles. The cooler features of the single player campaign is when you do start finding the collectibles, they will reveal the origins of the infection, piece by piece. Only rewarding you with the full cinematic once you have collected them all.

The puzzles, are a treat specifically the snow zone, using ice mirrors to reflect laser beams to open the way forward, or cut ropes you have no access too, is just clever design, another puzzle has you pushing and moving blocks to get a item you need to progress through a wall, in another area, you have to get to, but in a completely blocked off section, and you have to do it fast enough before the level forces your spaceship even further down the line, making it a chore to get back up, and try again. It is little moments of genius like this that make you forget about the clock, and keep you playing.

It is kind of an issue, because if you have a strict amount of hours, you will be wondering where the heck all that time went. From beginning to completion you could do the entire thing in a day 100 percenting the campaign, but you are looking at a three hour speed run, or a twelve hour marathon session, wondering why you are having so much fun, finding all the nooks and crannies you have yet to discover. The silent progression and minimal story help keep you playing, as you just look forward to seeing what is next.

Boss fights have always been a staple of what metroidvania style games have to offer players. Some are strategic; some are over complicated puzzles, while others are just a war of attrition combining gunplay and clever positioning. ITSP has them all on offer, as they are all uniquely designed and test your wits perfectly to the progression of the game.

As the campaign is not quite as good as say Shadow Complex, or a Castlevania or old school metroid, it makes up for it in plain fun, and visual eye candy. You cannot seriously go through all these unique zones, and not find something you like visually, from the clever usage of snowflake enemies or the pinball machine area, or the cool enemy designs which fit perfectly into the world and feel menacingly evil.
ITSP can see its faults it seems in this. So it offers players a second mode which can be played with up to four players co-operatively in ‘Lantern Run’. It is slightly expected of you as a player to have reached a certain amount of completion within the campaign to understand the concept of the lantern run, as it is a part of the campaign in one section. The idea is simple, take your lantern as far as you can, while killing as many enemies as you can, while finally staying ahead of the ever encroaching dark, blood red eyed squid/tentacle monster hell bent on eating you or your lanterns. It is game over if either all the lanterns are destroyed or all the players die.

I cannot stress how fun and enjoyable this mode is with a friend or random players, the feeling of doing better, or reaching a new personal best with each run is awesome, there can never be a winner, but you can always be the best survivor.

You play it twenty times and no one run will be the same as each run can produce new chambers to navigate, while item drops can be randomised between health or raygun upgrades, while each ‘arena’ you clear can produce one random cycling upgrade some are helpful in clearing enemies along your path, others can help unlock path options that are way safer than other routes.

Every average run will last between five or ten minutes, with good runs lasting nearer thirty minutes. So when you start your evening of gaming at say 6pm, and when you need a break only to see it is past midnight, you know a game is fun.

Going on the campaign alone, I would say ITSP is intended for those that enjoy metroidvania designed games, with room enough for new players to get into and enjoy its easy but challenging gameplay, however it isn’t the best example out there even on XBLA with Symphony of the Night and Shadow Complex for company. Yet Lantern Run is full of replayability and gameplay that if this mode alone was all you had, I would be willing to pop 800msp alone for it, so to say you get a fully realised campaign and this awesome four player co-op on top it is worth its price of entry, and if you are sitting on the fence for this title, you insane not to have jumped off it yet, especially if you have got all the other examples already. This is your arcade game of the year, let alone the summer.

+ Great gameplay
+ Fun
+ Loads of replayability
+ Art style is beautiful
- Campaign is a little on the short side
- Leaderboards only update the host’s scores


9/10