Do you like Metroid? If so, you’ll probably like Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet (ITSP.) Like 2009’s Shadow Complex, ITSP is a Summer of Arcade title that borrows liberally from the Metroid formula. Unlike Shadow Complex or even the Castlevania series, ITSP iterates on a gameplay concept found only once in the Metroid series.
At one point in Super Metroid, Samus comes across three cute animals wall jumping. The key to progressing is realizing that Samus already has the ability to wall jump — she just has to emulate the animals. Much of ITSP revolves around similar puzzles. While the game maintains a steady IV drip of new abilities, the way to move forward is rarely as simple as directly applying new powers to destroy roadblocks. Moving ahead becomes more a matter of creative application of abilities that I already have. While most Metroid style games have the players obtaining new equipment for very explicit purposes — red missiles opening red doors for example — ITSP’s puzzles are just a bit more organic, and require a fair amount of lateral thinking.
