Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet Review

By Simon Parkin Published 2 August, 2011

Dark side of the Moon.

Version tested: Xbox 360

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is an unfamiliar pairing of familiar components.

The style is silhouette indie chic - a more colourful Limbo, a less intricate Pixel Junk Eden, a more serious World of Goo - each frame rendered in pin-sharp black vector ink that’s only just beginning to fade from fashion.

It’s a whisper world of foreground shadows and background soft focus shapes, of proto-life forms with feelers and pincers but no words. Craggy ceilings and underground lakes are the sights here. You may play as a flying saucer from the future, but everything around you has the feel of the primordial, an embryo domain of clicks and ominous keyboard swells.

Meanwhile, the structure is pure Super Metroid, depositing your diminutive spaceship into a 2D labyrinth. Your task is simple: chart the world by visiting every nook and cranny. Your progress in this aim is hampered by a series of convoluted locks, which require the correct key to be in your possession before they will let you though.

As such, in contrast to the try-hard zany name, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is essentially a game about tools and choosing the right one for the right job. There’s the circular saw, which you must use to cut your way through the brittle rock. And, once you’ve mastered this by applying it in a variety of situations, there’s the grappling claw that must be used to clear boulders and so on.

The drip feed of new tools continues across the game’s five hours. Puzzles scale with a mathematical elegance as the problems set before you require ever more elaborate combinations of tools before they’ll yield.

1

Fireflies that block your way can be lured to a different location by holding a rock to a translucent flame till it burns brightly.

These are, of course, the foundation principles of all good game design: press a single tool into the player’s hands, and provide an opportunity for them to master it before presenting another. These principles rendered in the Metroidvania style have a clarity that is timelessly compelling, and Shadow Planet benefits greatly from the tried and tested formula.

Control of the ship is tight and satisfying. The game controls like a twin stick shooter, the left analogue stick controlling your movements, the right angling whichever of the nine bolt-on tools you have active at any given point. These are selected via a radial menu, with shortcuts to your favourite four manually mapped to the d-pad. Your ship has an unseen health meter, sprouting red fungus on its hull to show you how close it is to death, a sign that is washed away every time you pass through one of the regular checkpoint spheres that punctuate the world.

While its name implies oodles of charisma, in reality Shadow Planet suffers from a unwavering lack of character. The alien ship is a cold, near-silent avatar, and the world it seeks to penetrate is unforgiving and without warmth or solace. The decision to eradicate all text from the game adds to the style, but the lack of narrative and premise makes this an icy, clinical game that relies entirely upon the strength of its mechanics to provide motivation to its player.

In this regard, while the game benefits from the Metroidvania template, it falls short of its inspirations in the details. There’s a lack of excitement every time you unlock a new weapon, derived from the fact it’s not always immediately clear what each one does.

Meanwhile, the puzzles, while often ingenious, are also fussy. For example, midway through the game you must painstakingly arrange a series of crystals to refract light towards a larger crystal in order to shatter it from your path. It’s a well-orchestrated conundrum that fails to give any jolt of relief or excitement when it’s solved, as you worked out how to complete the puzzle long before your thumbs managed to set the stage for the solution.

Another of the more frustrating vignettes has you firing a guided missile down a series of tight winding corridors to strike a lock at the far end. Bounce the rocket off the wall too many times and it’ll explode before it reaches its target, forcing a restart. There’s even that scourge of Zelda games, a water temple area, in which you must raise and lower the level of the liquid to fill lakes and trigger switches.

Outside of the main campaign, Lantern Run provides a multiplayer diversion. Up to four players see how far they can carry a series of lanterns before everyone is killed by enemies or all of the team’s lights are extinguished by the encroaching darkness. Your team’s score is measured in metres, and while each run starts out the same way, the map is dynamic, changing from attempt to attempt. It’s a strong addition to the package; well thought out and executed, it provides more thrills and excitement and most importantly, companionship than the single player campaign.

Back in the campaign, there’s nothing here to distract from the fact that this is a series of key and lock puzzles, with little else to upset that repetitive rhythm. It’s a game for players that appreciate a pure, mechanical approach to game making, for whom not only story but also character and theme are over-complications of the purity of video-gameness.

2

The game doesn't keep all of your actions in the world in memory, resetting incomplete puzzles if you move on to a different area.

That’s fine. There is a unique sort of beauty to be found peeling back a metaphor to see the interlocking cogs of game design. But when you are being asked to invest in a world to the extent that you want to unlock its deepest secrets, you need that world to be mesmerising, issuing a siren call to your spirit to inspire all that effort. Moreover, those mechanics must click into place in a satisfying way, something that Shadow Planet never quite manages.

The joy of Shadow Complex, Super Metroid and Castlevania Symphony of the Night was just as much to do with the character of the place we were asked to reveal as the role we assumed to do it. We wanted to find out the secrets of these castles because they promised, in their conquering, we might uncover greater secrets and truths.

Neither Shadow Planets world nor your avatar within it inspire that level of interest. There is no metagame driving you forward here, other than the drive to explore for exploration’s sake. So what's left is the nucleus of a Metroidvania game, mechanically functional and regularly interesting, but a shadow of its inspiration nonetheless.

6 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Simon.

About Simon Parkin

Simon Parkin is an author and journalist on video games. A core contributor to Eurogamer since 2005, he is also a critic and columnist on games for The Guardian.

Read more articles from Simon by visiting the Simon Parkin archive page.

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Comments (49) Latest comment 10 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • FortysixterUK #1 10 months ago

    This looks like another fine XBLA addition...shame the fourth game is a Kinnect fruit ninja chopping thing.
    ( That I won't be buying and therefore won't get the bonus game )

  • Alipan #2 10 months ago

    Lifes too short to play 6/10 games.

  • IronCladChicken #3 10 months ago

    Lifes too short.

  • technicianTed #4 10 months ago

    Bastion was excellent, from dust pretty good as well.

    I think i'll wait for this to drop to 800 points before i nab this one.
    It's getting fairly good reviews though but as it's meant to be a short game, i'm not sure 1200 points is worth it.

  • evild_edd #5 10 months ago

    That's a shame. The graphic style looked good from the vids, but considering there's Bastion and From Dust vying for my XBLA gaming time, I can't see me buying this yet. Perhaps an impulse purchase during a later sale.......

  • gospvg #6 10 months ago

    I'll get it when it drops in price during the winter sales

  • X #7 10 months ago

    Still interested despite the 6/10. Wondering though if Lantern Run is playable solo - any idea Simon?

  • geeza2020 #8 10 months ago

    Looks a lot like Outland, which I still havent finished.....

  • lucky_jim #9 10 months ago

    I'll give the trial a go as I've been looking forward to this for ages. I'm not sure I can agree with the reviewer's assertion that there's no fun in exploring for its own sake, so maybe I'll enjoy it more than he did.

  • Lemming81 #10 10 months ago

    6/10 is still above average though, guys.


    I'm waiting patiently for the PC/PSN release.

  • GAmbrose #11 10 months ago

    Sounds like you'd be better of getting Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (if you hadn't played it)

  • MaFlippinHeadHurts #12 10 months ago

    Oh well can’t complain after the amazing From Dust and Bastion

    May still pick it up at some point though but not an insta buy anymore

  • trip919 #13 10 months ago

    Oh dear, had high hopes for this one. I'll still be checking it out tho.

  • Pastici #14 10 months ago

    Been waiting for reviews before deciding, I've only got 1900 points left so its either From Dust or this. The game unfortunately sounds a bit short for a game about exploration. Shame.

  • Kazzahdrane #15 10 months ago

    Oh no, say it isn't so :( This has been my most anticipated XBLA game all year...

  • Minotauro #16 10 months ago

    Lifes too short for prog-rock.

  • GamesConnoisseur #17 10 months ago

    A pity, From Dust is much more enjoyable of SoA so far, as its essentially a sandbox game with you being able to move sands to create the dams or such.

    As when you were a kid playing at the building sites's sandpits and trying to create a landscape with flowing waters and likes then run off with your mates when a security guard with a mean dog comes round.

    Maybe that was just me?!

  • Rack #18 10 months ago

    The average for Eurogamer is between 6 and 7 Lemming so this is below average. Unfortunately that's just not good enough for me, I haven't even found time to play Outland yet.

  • RedSparrows #19 10 months ago

    The thing I love about Metroid is atmosphere. Sounds lacking...

  • Subdominator #20 10 months ago

    This was the only Summer of Arcade game I was even remotely interested in, guess it's none at all this year. By far the worst lineup for me compared to the past with games like Braid, Castle Crashers, Trials HD, Shadow Complex, Lara Croft: GoL ...

  • menage #21 10 months ago

    Ah come on. Bastion was better than most of those games. Except Braid maybe.

  • riz23 #22 10 months ago

    Sounds like it is a bit of try-hard. Sometimes it is all about timing, and this is late to the party

  • jetsetwillie #23 10 months ago

    i watched a quicklook on giantbomb.com last night and thought it looked really cool.

    for the sake of a tenner i think il check it out.

  • FireMonkey #24 10 months ago

    @Rack - "The average for Eurogamer is between 6 and 7 Lemming so this is below average"

    So a 6/10 is actually average not below average.

  • Garfy #25 10 months ago

    The Giantbomb quicklook showed lantern run being played solo

  • Uncompetative #26 10 months ago

    Reminds me of the sadly departed Jeremy Smith's games: Thrust and Exile.

    I'm downloading it as soon as it becomes available on the 3rd of August.

    I tried the demo for From Dust and was put off by the against-the-clock puzzles and imprecise controls. It would probably work better on a PC. Whilst Bastion looks dull and repetitive.

  • andytheadequate #27 10 months ago

    Just to let you know, the demo level is the only "against the clock" puzzle in From Dust...

  • randyronald #28 10 months ago

    "There’s a lack of excitement every time you unlock a new weapon, derived from the fact it’s not always immediately clear what each one does."

    And are the weapons underwhelming or once you've figured out how to use them are they fun? Because not having an example scenario for every weapon I pick up isn't a bad thing in my book. It's more rewarding to get something new and figure out for yourself what it does, rather than be given a - let's say - hookshot and immediately presented with a target to shoot it at.

  • Sgt_Petter #29 10 months ago

    Still interested, although I find it odd that he didn't even mention the soundtrack. I'm really looking forward to playing this to some Dimmu Borgir.

  • PoundHound #30 10 months ago

    @minitauro - life's not worth living without prog-rock :p

  • Gearskin #31 10 months ago

    SOLD!

  • Pastici #32 10 months ago

    @Sgt_Petter

    Who?

  • RedgeHammer #33 10 months ago

    Wow Eurogamer, I can't believe you scored a game the same as destructoid. So many other places scored the game much higher IE 4/5 5/5 10/10 8/10 etc, I will just find out for myself anyway, I rarely let reviews shape my purchase intent.

  • gm914 #34 10 months ago

    I'm glad it's getting mediocre reviews on XBLA.
    Maybe it'll make Gagne change his mind about refusing to release it on PSN....

  • Mindstorm #35 10 months ago

    the insanely twisted groupies are here
    http://www.gagneint.com/Final%20site/boo...

  • ShiroBen #36 10 months ago

    I had hoped that even without a true 'story' there might be subtle hints of character and themes. If there aren't then, I don't know, maybe I'll wait for it to drop in price.

  • SpeckledJim #37 10 months ago

    Tried the demo, but worthless for me because as is so often the case, it's a twin stick shooter with no option to swap the sticks. It's not rocket science.

  • Tallon4 #38 10 months ago

    Redgehammer quote: " I rarely let reviews shape my purchase intent".

    But you keep reading them...right?

  • pancho #39 10 months ago

    SpeckledJim: In this case it is technically spaceship science though...
    Edited by pancho at 03/08/11 @ 14:50

  • uzivatel #40 10 months ago

    Its kind of sad how many people can not be bothered to even try the demo based on one review.

  • Tallon4 #41 10 months ago

    @uzivatel: tried the demo and the art is amazing, but the game itself is quite disappointing imo. I think 6/10 is spot on.

  • cloudskipa #42 10 months ago

    This was the game I was most interested in when this years Summer of Arcade line-up was announced. I bought it this morning without even trying the demo as I just KNOW it's a game I will enjoy. I disagree with this review as Shadow Complex hardly had the most interesting plot and if this game doesn't have a game world full of character then what does? The only reason I played Shadow Complex was because of the superb gameplay (not to discover greater truths???) and it's the same deal with ITSP. In fact I'd say there's even more original ideas implemented here.

    The bottom line is if you like the look of this game then the chances are very high that you will enjoy playing it.
    Edited by cloudskipa at 03/08/11 @ 20:22

  • Spong #43 10 months ago

    What a bizarre review. It sold me on the idea to the point that I'm at least gonna get the demo, but all that talk of lacking personality detracting from the overall package? I don't get that at all. When I buy a game, I've already made a commitment within myself that I'm going to complete it. In nearly 30 years of gaming, I've never once betrayed that. I don't need a game to sell itself while I'm actually playing it, if a game does do that, it's just an added bonus, but it's not essential for me.

    Also, the comments about the lack of text, not knowing what a new tool does, not having some kind of fanfare upon completing puzzles - why are those bad points? I want to work out what the new stuff does for myself, I don't want to be mollycoddled. And the fanfare thing, I don't need prompting, I don't need to told when I should feel satisfied. Just the fact I know when I complete a puzzle gives me satisfaction, I don't need fireworks to promote it thanks.

    So yeah, odd review and, even though I have no knowledge of the game yet, I disagree with the score. The game sounds brilliant.
    Edited by Spong at 04/08/11 @ 07:40

  • badoli #44 10 months ago

    @FortysixterUK

    Whats wrong with a Kinect title? You haven't even played it! The fact that it's a kinect title is not automatically making it a worse game. Seriously, when will this kinect-trolling stop?

    I have had a go on it (thanx to a developer account), loved it and will gladly buy it!

  • tassletine #45 10 months ago

    I find this review odd as it says the game lacks character -- but that's the precise reason I was drawn to it. Gagne's animation look brilliant.

  • ChromeMud #46 10 months ago

    The art alone is worth a 9. Sound fx and music in 5.1 is good and the retro gameplay is fun enough. I give it an 8 for the single player campaign alone. Did I say that I just love the art, animation and the mini movies in this delightfuly dark game? An 8 I tell you...

  • bloke #47 10 months ago

    Anybody wavering about trying From Dust - please do. Even though I have nothing to do with it - it's really is (IMHO) something special - (even the demo).

  • mechamonkey #48 10 months ago

    Just finished this, enjoyed it far more than 6/10 would indicate, I'd urge people to give it the benefit of the doubt, it's a charming game.

  • Vurten #49 10 months ago

    Good review.
    6/10" is the new black. "If you like to swing that way" a 6/10 is almost always fun to you.
    A 5/10 or the dreaded 8/10 is harder to read or subjectively judge imho (where 8/10 equals aaa-title).