The idea behind Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet may be familiar, but it’s original enough to get our attention. Structurally, it has a lot in common with 2009’s Shadow Complex, with its large 2D map and oodles of unlockable weapons and abilities. We need to evict evil alien jerks from our overrun planet, and our rad little spaceship hero is the one to get it done.
Flight and physics afford ITSP a wonderful flexibility when it comes to tackling puzzles or battling bosses, which become increasingly complex as you unlock new tools. Your laser, tractor beam, buzzsaw, and grabbin’ claw handle puzzles and combat in equal parts, and we got the same satisfaction using them to solve problems in ITSP as we did from Portal or Limbo — the endpoints are always apparent, the processes thrilling, and the solutions clever. We dug working against the game’s environment, like using momentum to propel our ship through strong winds. That’s a rudimentary example. Things get enjoyably more complex when couriering keys in the co-op mode, Lantern Run; fleeing an unkillable Cthulhu wannabe with the lanterns as far as we could was — simply put — a blast.
Much like the world you’re tasked to liberate, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet feels a bit infected. Objectives are never explained beyond map markers, so we were forced to learn by trial-and-error — not a problem per se (we’re always down to mess around), but because you’re often solving complicated problems with newly unlocked, unfamiliar tools, experimentation can really slow down an otherwise excellently paced game. Other barriers-to-fun come in the form of game glitches that cause necessary items to disappear permanently, as well as difficulty spikes and rooms designed to kill you quickly.
Developer Fuelcell packs so much into a tiny bit of game that we rarely had time to dwell on our frustrations, though. We completed ITSP in four hours, explored the vast majority of its sprawling map, and found a respectable number of upgrades tucked into secret spots. It’s a dense, intelligent game, and we felt smart for having finishing it.
+ Friggin’ beautiful; cool weapons and co-op play.
+ Smart and varied puzzle design; outstanding pacing for most part.
- Sometimes tedious and directionless, which slows it down.
? Limbo, Portal, Shadow Complex, ITSP…can we all stop complaining about short games now, please?
