Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet takes you on the journey of one alien and his spacecraft as they witness an evil force collide with their nearby sun, sending all sorts of dark and deadly nasties crashing into their home world. Where once the sun burned brilliantly in the sky, the titular shadow planet now looms ominously in its place, and that just won’t do.

Now, I’m going to start off by telling you that Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is simply gorgeous. Everything from the largest boss to the eeriest of fauna is bursting with colour and life. I’ve never been so in love with a game’s visuals. They simply ooze personality and the end result is a game that is just mesmerising. Even the cutesy spacecraft you pilot is charming, in the way it rotates in the direction you’re heading on its horizontal axis as you move around.

You would be forgiven by venturing into Insanely Twisted expecting to be thrust into the waiting arms of a glorified Smash TV; that is to say, a mere twin-stick shooter, enjoyable yet more often than not a rather shallow affair. Instead, Insanely Twisted starts you off with a limited arsenal and gives you a new piece of equipment here or a new upgrade there. Essentially, you’re not so much piloting a UFO, as you are a space-age Swiss Army knife.

In a way, Insanely Twisted has more in common with the likes of Castlevania and Metroid in terms of equipment and exploration. I believe some eloquent mastermind or other coined the term “Metroidvania” for situations such as this. It is a rather appropriate term, though, as most of your arsenal can be used to gain access to certain areas of the game; so as you unlock new weapons, you also unlock new areas, furthering your progress and giving you plenty of new upgrades and other collectables to find.

Opening new areas isn’t just what your weapons and equipment are for, however. Throughout the entire game, you’re faced with plenty of enemies and clever puzzles that will see you bouncing laser beams round corners, rotating your ship to fit in different spaces (not to mention mess with your perception of the game world) and blocking or unblocking drainpipes to redirect flows of water, to name but a handful of the many obstacles you’ll face. To an extent, even the boss fights are just puzzles in disguise, but that’s a good thing that serves to make bosses an enemy you need to use your brain to fight, and not just your trigger finger.

I clocked the campaign mode in around seven hours, without rushing—because let’s face it, rushing through Insanely Twisted would be like rushing through the Musée du Louvre—and I feel that for a downloadable title, that’s a good length. It’s a tasty gaming fillet, and that’s all it needs to be.

If a good six+ hours isn’t enough for you though, there’s always the other game mode thatInsanely Twisted offers called “Lantern Run”. Lantern Run is a multiplayer mode and the premise is simple: escape with your lantern away from the gargantuan betentacled horror that wants to kill you. It’s a sort of endurance game, which sees you fleeing down tunnels and fending off enemies seeking to put an end to your flight, all the while keeping your ship and your lantern out of reach of the monstrosity that’s always chasing you. It’s a frantic game mode that doesn’t feel out of place and is loads of fun.

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is everything you want from an XBLA title, and everything you should want, too. It’s fun, challenging, absolutely stunning and has plenty of puzzles, enemies, collectables and secrets, as well as a multiplayer offering, all of which will easily keep you entertained for hours.