I recall reading in the Game Reviewer's Handbook at some point that we're supposed to be models of objectivity and restraint, but I don't mind saying that Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet should be on every XBox 360 gamer's list of must-play games this summer. It's good in lots of ways, but the design is really a standout. Iconic animation style has a rich recent history in the gaming world, going back to Patapon and more recently Limbo. These titles prove that 2D is anything but dead, and Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet uses slick animation to revive the stalest chestnut of all, the side-scrolling arcade shooter. Don't get me wrong, games like Zaxxon were amazing and brought to life every loose-leaf sketch of space wars my friends and I ever imagined, but a decade of imitators soured things a bit.

Many elements of Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet feel familiar and real-worldly, such as waving cilia in a dark tunnel or floating jellyfish. Others are as strange as something from the mind of H.R. Giger, but all feel organic in some way. It's clear that you, in your spaceship, are very much the interloper in this exotic world. The sounds and music in the game reinforce this feeling, keeping you engaged from the opening to the final cinematic. There are special artifacts you can gather during the game that unlock concept art, as well as brief movie interludes showing the evolution of the enemy forces you're battling. Like all of Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, the only complaint is that there isn't enough of this goodness.

As the game begins, there's a comfortable balance between old-school arcade space-shooting familiarity and the novelty of battling your way through a world of shadowy organisms. This is a First Contact scenario from the other angle, where you play the aliens with advanced technology who are overwhelmed by a dark force that quickly colonizes your planet. The objective in Campaign Mode is to gather the technology that will help you defeat your foes. Enhancing your ship with add-ons creates opportunity to access more areas around you, and makes defeating certain enemies easier. There are exploration incentives as well, the pickups mentioned earlier that grant special rewards. At no point in the game is the action broken, even as boss battles commence. You'll enter a room or large space, a boss will rear its ugly head, and the battle is on.

Navigating a huge open world is made easier with some good mapping tools and markings on the map that tell you where your next objective is, and where you need to look for power-ups. It's possible to go through the game without every aspect of your ship maxed out, but you'll be stopped at certain points until you find the proper item to attach to your craft. The puzzle aspect of Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet can't be underestimated, in terms of its fun factor. You've got a balance of physics, twitch-reflexes, and basic smarts required to solve these puzzles. Beyond Campaign, you find a multiplayer option called Lantern Run that lets you play for points with a local buddy or on XBox LIVE. Come for the single-player stuff, and stay for the rest, but again it's all over too soon.

In one of the smarter game mechanics we've seen in a while, your saucer ship in Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet comes complete with a little scanner. This is the default add-on to the ship, whose only purpose is to scan objects and show you icons representing other potential attachments. What's the point? Scanning objects basically gives you the optimal load-out for your ship or explains how to defeat anything from the smallest to the largest enemies. It also helps you determine when you won't be able to get past a specific obstacle, so you can go looking for the next add-on rather than beating your head against the wall. Using the add-ons is where most of the twitch reflexes come in, and Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet does require some basic arcade gaming cred. Our measure: If you can't make it through at least the first few levels of the original Super Mario Bros. without frustration building, you may find parts of Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet challenging. Luckily, the penalties for failure are much gentler than old-school arcade games, since the world you're exploring is littered with save spots. We like that the save spots also recharge your shield, making recovery simple and quick.

To expand on how item selection works in Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, you can establish hot-keys for up to four weapons, and you can cycle through a wheel showing all available weapons, with a combination of the front buttons and the analog stick. The learned skill that isn't obvious and may hang some players up is remapping your hot-key combos regularly throughout the game. When faced with a boss or some of the more challenging areas of the game that have puzzle elements combined with encroaching enemies, you'll need to hot-swap items faster than the "wheel" mechanic allows. You can view this as a design flaw, or you can stop whining and be glad you weren't just limited to four items that mapped to the controller's face buttons...

We thought the controls were intuitive, and the variety of items elevates Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet beyond a simple arcade-shooter into something between a puzzle game and a retro action title. There's plenty of awesome destruction you dole out in the game, lots of crazy enemies to surprise and delight you around each corner, and sufficient intellectual challenge for all but the most uber mensch among us. Back to our original point, there are lots of arcade-like titles in competition for your dollar on XBLA, but if you want something that truly feels like the arcade titles of days past made current for the 21st century, drop your money on a copy of Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet.