Metroid and Ikaruga bond to make a fun side-scrolling platformer.
The game stars a unnamed hero who visits a shaman to understand his dreams and learns that he has to battle the creators of the world to stop them from destroying it.
Mechanics:
As you progress through the game you gain certain abilities that let you go places in previous levels that you could not go before and attack in new ways. The color-switching mechanism that was borrowed from Ikaruga works well and is much easier. Patient planning rewards players going through seemingly impossible alternating patterns of red and blue with "I did it!" moments. However It is hardly necessary for most of the game as the abundant number of health power ups and a checkpoint system make mistakes very forgiving.
The difficulty curve is very gentle introducing more complex level design at a very good pace. Combat is very simple but fun and the enemies are varied enough in the way they attack. Boss battles, although few, are fun and unique.
Modes:
Story Mode is just going through the game's story from map to map until a boss battle and then, with your new abilities, the next "world" opens. You can go back to all the areas in the game except for one. There is nothing special in this one area though so you do not miss out on not being able to go back. Boss battles are unfortunately not repeatable either.
Co-op can be fun, but there is a major flaw. All the money picked up is not shared. Each player has to collect their own money which makes buying upgrades a pain if you happen to play with someone who is very quick at picking things up (or simply does not like sharing). The co-op challenges are very fun if you are the type of person to go after leader-board scores. If not, you will probably do them once and be done with the challenge.
Arcade Mode is a challenge mode. You have a certain amount of time, and given certain upgrades, to complete each "world" while defeating as many monsters and picking up as many coins as you can. Defeating monsters grants special coins which act like multipliers when enough are gathered. If you aren't a fan of co-op but like challenges, and speed-runs, this mode will please you. It is also available in Co-op mode.
Length:
Too short. It is possible to 100% the game, with achievements/trophies, in under 8 hours with enough time given to run around getting all the collectables. The maps of the levels show you where all the special money vases are and a mask counter lets you know which areas to look through in case you missed one. It only has 1 difficulty setting as well, so going through story mode more than once changes nothing. The Co-op and Arcade modes add length after the 8 hours but it is simply the same levels with the same difficulty, and, in the case of Arcade mode, with a time limit and score multipliers.
All in all a fun short game at a good price. Hopefully it will do well enough that they decide to expand the universe and bring us a longer and deeper sequel.