Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet Looks Insanely Beautiful

by Ethan Moses on March 15, 2011 at 1:16pm

Insanely twisted shadow planets are the worst kind of shadow planets.

I’ve seen some amazing looking games as of late, but Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet has the kind of art style that stands out from even the most high tech current gen competitors. A new trailer for the PC and Xbox Live Arcade game was released yesterday and I can’t stop watching it.

ITSP is a side scrolling action game where the player is tasked with manuevering a tiny flying saucer through caverns and other enviroments, shooting monsters and avoiding traps along the way. In addition to weaponry, the tiny ship also sports a large claw reminiscent of those “grabber games” you find in arcades that have frustrated me since I was a child. From the video, its looks like the claw will be used to solve puzzles and collect items, though I’m sure it’d also be useful for pulling cheap watches and stuffed animals out of glass cases as well.

In multiple interviews, the team behind the game talks quite a bit about combining the cinemtatics of movies seemlessly with games and it looks like they aren’t far off course. It’s interesting to note that Michal Gagne, one of the creators of the game started out as an animator for Iron Giant, Ratatoui and released a series of shorts on Nickelodeon that would wind up inspiring ITSP.