Looking at the title, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this was a spin off of some sort of poncy musical. It is however another dual stick shooter.
Ever since Geometry Wars met with popularity, there have been waves of dual stick shooters, each trying to emulate the success that Bizarre had with their Xbox classic.
So how does The Ballet of Light and Shadow differentiate itself from the crowd? The core idea is that you’re a white arrow, and anything black is an enemy which must be either shot or avoided. It’s a pretty generic idea, but how it’s implemented makes it a little more interesting.
There are four different modes/levels, of which two are available in the trial. The first of these ‘The Ballet’ only allows you to score whilst in the central area, but it’s necessary to stray out of this area to stay alive. This is because some invulnerable triangles spiral into the circle, and you must navigate around them in order to survive. Unfortunately, because of the style, the triangles fade away at one end. Whilst this looks nice, it’s impossible to determine which parts will kill you. This can be very frustrating at times.
The second mode available in the trial involves some dark clouds which float across the level. When you shoot at these clouds, they become smaller, gaining you points. However, if you kill the clouds, you lose points. Although quite simple, this game mode was more enjoyable than the previous one.
Throughout the game, you must also collect spiral powerups which add to your ‘light’. Your light is constantly decreasing, and if it goes below a certain level, the screen starts to darken and you need to collect more spirals to stay alive.
Although very nicely presented,The Ballet of Light and Shadow comes off as a rather shallow experience. The gameplay is quite simple, and the graphics makes it hard to see what’s going on at times, which certainly hurts the gameplay.
The Ballet of Light and Shadow was created by Vandash and is available for 400 Points.
This title was 400 Points at the time of writing this review but has since been reduced to 80 Points.
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Also, 1 minute time limits on the trial? Wassat all aboot?
I never spend 1 minute on half the crap on the community games section, so I wernt bothered.