It’s simple. Lost in Shadow is a victim of its length. It’s a 12-hour game. Ico reimagined as a 2D puzzle-platformer should not be a 12-hour game. It should be less than half of that.

The hook is simple: you are a shadow. The foreground is 3D, but you are confined to the background in 2D. You can manipulate light sources as well as rotate various parts of the 3D architecture to change the arrangements of shadows to help you progress. You solve puzzles and fight shadow monsters as you slowly ascend a tower for plot reasons that aren’t worth going into.

The puzzles are simple and get repetitive quickly. The combat is limited to a 3-hit combo with no evasive abilities other than jumping. Movement uses the control stick, which feels sluggish and makes it difficult to crawl without accidentally standing.

Each level requires you to collect three symbols (?) before you can progress, with optional “memories” to collect. These memories are accompanied by text and increase your health bar slightly. The text feels like a wasted opportunity to expound on lore or create atmosphere. They usually just provide an obvious tip or reiterate that you are a shadow. There are also portals that take you to discrete puzzle challenges, many of which utilise a simplified Fez-like rotation mechanic. You can also level up to increase your damage output, which is an unnecessary addition.

This game was released in Japan a day or two after Limbo was released worldwide and it suffers in comparison. Limbo is short and sweet, creating a dark compelling world that is worth revisiting again and again. LiS feels overlong, slow and repetitive. It’s a shame because a lot of the core puzzle mechanics are great, the visuals are derivative (it’s just Ico) but very pretty, and the way the shadows bend and shift to effect traversal is impressive. If this has been 4-6 hours it could have been a Wii classic.

Halfway through the game a new mechanic is introduced. You can enter doorways that give you a body of light, allowing you to explore the foreground in 3D. You can only occupy this body for a limited time, but you can activate switches, solve simple puzzles and enter other doorways to aid with traversal. They never explore this concept as well as one would hope, but it is a brilliant idea that makes you consider your surroundings in their entirety. Why did it take 6 hours to introduce this mechanic?

At this point there is a 2-3hr chunk that is mostly backtracking. Backtracking through puzzle-platformer levels where you have already solved the puzzles is disorienting and annoying. Once you suffer through this you are treated to a puzzle-platforming gauntlet that is a lot of fun, followed by a final section that incorporates all of the mechanics so beautifully that it should have been the whole game.

I don’t know. Lost in Shadows isn’t bad. It is just frustrating. Arty 2D puzzle platformers became the place for indie developers to flex their creative muscles, while this game feels like the before photo. It’s decent. It doesn’t deserve to be forgotten, stranded on a console that not many like to return to. But it also doesn’t really deserve a remaster. It is absurdly expensive for a PAL copy, so buy it digital on Wii U while you can.

Despite it’s flaws I kind of like this game. If it had been a 3DS title it could have been a bonafide classic (the 3DS was released roughly a year later). The repetition would lend itself to shorter play sessions, while the 3D slider would enhance the gameplay. There were times when I was completely engaged and other times when I was bubbling over with annoyance at another dull combat encounter. Proceed with caution. Or just play Ico and Limbo again. They are really good games. This probably doesn’t read like a 3 star review. Oh well…

I think this review is done. I’m going dancing. I gotta learn to two-step.