Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

[JonCole]

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Anyone excited for this one? I get a feeling that it's getting the least attention out of all the Summer of Arcade games but I've been having a fantastic time with it. The screenshots that I initially saw did very little to really explain what the game is all about, so I think that may be playing a part.

Basically, this game is like a mix between Pixeljunk Shooter and Metroid. The map system, progression via unlocked weapons from bosses, and backtracking for upgrades to existing powers all feel very familiar from Metroid. On the other hand, the actual traversal, physics-based puzzles, and operation of various weapons feel very silky-smooth and organic like Shooter.

Any interest out there? It's not coming out for another week, but I'm hoping it gets at least a few more eyes on it.

[Sno]

Always looking for more cool games in a Metroidvania vein, and have been really looking forward to this one, kind of loosely been following its development for the last few years.

Personally, of this year's Summer of Arcade line-up, this is the one i'm most excited about.

[miffy495]

I didn't realize this was a Summer of Arcade joint, as the other games that are releasing on it are ones I'm waiting for on PC. This looks pretty sweet though. I'm tentatively pumped.

[Raff]

I didn't know it was out so soon either. Last time I saw it it they pretty much just had the art style and it didn't look very interesting. Looked like yet another one of those IGF games that wins awards but never actually comes out.

Looks pretty cool now and I love the sound.

[Murdoc]

Hehehe, I was just thinking that Raff. I remember seeing something like this and possibly even hearing the thumbs talk about it, which seem like a life time ago.

My xbox doesn't even work now, it's been that long, so sad to know I might miss this.

[Sno]

http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-insanely-twisted-shadow-planet/17-4617/

This is looking pretty great.

[JonCole]

I just finished the third zone of this game... I like how the puzzles and enemies actually feel like they belong in the elemental zones they're attributed to (in other words, not any palette swaps). The bosses are also a lot more satisfying than in most pattern-recognition type games, mostly because they actually seem to bring together the themes of the zone they're bookending and quiz you on them.

[toblix]

Sweet, another awesome game that went completely under my radar and is now available for me to play without having to wait for it for months!

[toblix]

Bought this yesterday, and it's really fun. It's like a smaller, lighter version of Shadow Complex. It seems really short, though, based on how quickly I'm revealing the map, but that may of course prove a terrible metric.

[JonCole]

Bought this yesterday, and it's really fun. It's like a smaller, lighter version of Shadow Complex. It seems really short, though, based on how quickly I'm revealing the map, but that may of course prove a terrible metric.

A lot of campaign progress is front-loaded, I don't really know what they're measuring that by. I was sitting at 50% progress when in reality I was about 1/3 through the game, if that gives you any insight. That said, it does seem like a fairly short game, I'm not quite done with it but I've only spent about 3-4 hours in it.

[Sno]

I've been playing this some, and yeah, it does seem like a fairly small and focused game.

Not too sure what i think about it so far, but i'm having fun.

There isn't a really strong sense of progression, i haven't had a moment where any of the new abilities have made me go "wow, that's pretty frickin` rad."

I think the best thing i can say about it is that it does a great job of capturing that kind of lonely ambience you want from a game like this. There's a good opening-of-super-metroid type of mood throughout.

[Sno]

I just realized that like 90% of the original ITSP trailer is different from or missing entirely from the released game.

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^ Original trailer.

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^ Final trailer.

Anyways, i finished it, and i still feel conflicted about this game.

It is really small, but it's also just filled off with tons and tons of interesting one-off design, constantly throwing at you weird scenarios and cool visuals that are repeated nowhere else in the game. I can't decide whether it's a laudable example of tight and concise design, or if they needed to flesh out all those individual ideas more.

The Lantern Run co-op mode was actually a lot of fun, i played a few rounds of that online.

[Murdoc]

I still haven't played this, its going to take a lot for me to hook up the xbox again, I just can't do it, despite some of these great arcade games.

But just had a question, Ive seen the comparison more than once to Shadow Complex... I didn't play that either, but I thought Shadow Complex was basically metroid or did it do something so different the comparison to SC instead of metroid is more warranted?

[Sno]

I still haven't played this, its going to take a lot for me to hook up the xbox again, I just can't do it, despite some of these great arcade games.

But just had a question, Ive seen the comparison more than once to Shadow Complex... I didn't play that either, but I thought Shadow Complex was basically metroid or did it do something so different the comparison to SC instead of metroid is more warranted?

Egh, you're reading too much into it, the comparisons really are just coming out of those being popular examples of the genre. There's no so drastic differences between Metroid and Shadow Complex to warrant one comparison over the other.

Shadow Complex is really fantastic and had a few cool tricks like the foam gun, but it was very clearly a direct design homage to classic side-scrolling Metroids. (It's more similar to the GBA Metroids than Super, actually.)

In contrast, there aren't really any clear parallels between ITSP and those games outside of the general framework of the genre. In actuality, ITSP is actually doing a lot of things that are fairly unique, at least as far as the Metroidvania space is concerned.

[baconian]

The feel of this game is so so toight.

It's a bit like flOw crossed with metroid, if that floats your boat.

When I saw the trailer for limbo I thought the same thing - they'll never pull of that feel and make it interactive. It's where small 2d games can really shine nowadays I think, make you genuinely impressed with slick, tight basic gameplay.

[toblix]

More like insanely shitty shadow planet. Fuck this game right in its stupid face. Have any of you gotten to the terrible

dark electrical world of shit

? It's where the game suddenly gets impossible and frustrating and shows you nothing and has a thousand enemies that are almost invisible and require you to mess around with its ridiculously horrible, buggy physics that only lets you grab the god damn thing you have to pull with you everywhere half the time you try, all the while some fucking dark squid creeps in from the side and pulls it away, and the power you need to use attracts all the enemies and since you're trying to ah fuck it. What a disappointment – if you haven't bought this game yet, don't.

[Sno]

More like insanely shitty shadow planet. Fuck this game right in its stupid face. Have any of you gotten to the terrible

dark electrical world of shit

? It's where the game suddenly gets impossible and frustrating and shows you nothing and has a thousand enemies that are almost invisible and require you to mess around with its ridiculously horrible, buggy physics that only lets you grab the god damn thing you have to pull with you everywhere half the time you try, all the while some fucking dark squid creeps in from the side and pulls it away, and the power you need to use attracts all the enemies and since you're trying to ah fuck it. What a disappointment – if you haven't bought this game yet, don't.

Wait... What?

Are you serious? I thought that was the best part of the game.

[toblix]

Just finished this. Turns out I could go back and use the save point to heal, which made the whole thing easy. That whole dark electric section was terrible, though. Also terrible: hiding collectibles without so much as a hint as to their location, leading to the inevitable chasing around the map for the last one, and then finally turning to the web, discovering it's in a ridiculous, stupid place. Shadow Complex did this too: instead of making the collection stuff something fun they turn it into this terrible, terrible epilogue where you're really done with the game, but since you got almost all the things just by playing the game, you really want the remaining ones, but there's no hints or clues or indicators or anything. Just a huge, depressing map. Fuck that.

Anyway, I give this game 3,56/5. It would've been a 4,26 if they hadn't broken the collection thing.

[JonCole]

Just finished this. Turns out I could go back and use the save point to heal, which made the whole thing easy. That whole dark electric section was terrible, though. Also terrible: hiding collectibles without so much as a hint as to their location, leading to the inevitable chasing around the map for the last one, and then finally turning to the web, discovering it's in a ridiculous, stupid place. Shadow Complex did this too: instead of making the collection stuff something fun they turn it into this terrible, terrible epilogue where you're really done with the game, but since you got almost all the things just by playing the game, you really want the remaining ones, but there's no hints or clues or indicators or anything. Just a huge, depressing map. Fuck that.

Anyway, I give this game 3,56/5. It would've been a 4,26 if they hadn't broken the collection thing.

Wait, what were you trying to collect that it wasn't showing you? I thought that all of the shield/blaster upgrades were shown on the map with those blue diamond symbol things.

[toblix]

Yeah, but the artifacts and bonus stuff aren't indicated anywhere. After killing the boss, I was missing 1 artifact and two bonus things. Since there's an achievement for finding all the artifacts, I really had to get that last one. After searching around it's quite offpissing to find it's hidden in a one-off way you really have to be extremely lucky to discover without cheating.

[JonCole]

Yeah, but the artifacts and bonus stuff aren't indicated anywhere. After killing the boss, I was missing 1 artifact and two bonus things. Since there's an achievement for finding all the artifacts, I really had to get that last one. After searching around it's quite offpissing to find it's hidden in a one-off way you really have to be extremely lucky to discover without cheating.

Ah, I see. I think I know which artifact you're talking about and I was surprised that I found it to begin with. The game didn't really function in that way at all except in that specific instance, which was odd. Still not enough to really anger me in any measurable way, but I guess it'd be different if that was the last one I was looking for.

[toblix]

The game didn't really function in that way at all except in that specific instance, which was odd. Still not enough to really anger me in any measurable way, but I guess it'd be different if that was the last one I was looking for.

Actually, there were two weirdly hidden artifacts, but the cavern holding one of them was indicated on the map. The other one had no indication at all, and was discovered only by trying to enter all the you-know-whats. I guarantee you, if it had been the last one you were looking for, you would experience a burning rage.

[Sno]

I am so confused by Toblix's complaints.

[Noyb]

Shadow Complex did this too: instead of making the collection stuff something fun they turn it into this terrible, terrible epilogue where you're really done with the game, but since you got almost all the things just by playing the game, you really want the remaining ones, but there's no hints or clues or indicators or anything. Just a huge, depressing map. Fuck that.

Is the game world in Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet at least any better than Shadow Complex's awful layout? I seem to recall the latter game had minimal shortcuts between areas, most of which could only be accessed in the endgame, making it an absolute chore to backtrack and explore the map for the remaining items.

[Sno]

It's nowhere near the kind of back-tracking that goes on in Shadow Complex. ITSP has a very small game world and a very detailed map, it took me maybe thirty minutes to track down the last few items i didn't have when i was getting ready to go fight the final boss.

Seriously though, is this really a thing people hate? Hunting for that 100% item completion is a good half of why i like playing games like this. Even if you don't like doing that, i don't know why it would bother you here, the things you're searching for are not exactly meaningful in the context of the game. (Hey, want some low-resolution concept art?)