Last Inua

Last Inua is a game that has its own deliberately different pace. Sometimes the slow plod through the snow can be frustrating - especially when the heavy controls get you stomped by a yeti.

At other times they give the game a unique weight. This isn't a bouncy arcade platformer - it's an adventure that asks for a little more thought and a little less precision.

It looks utterly stunning, filling its frozen wastelands with bizarre spirits, bleak trees, and life-giving fires, and everything sways and crackles to the buffeting breath of ice cold winds.

When it hits its measured stride there's a lot to like about this character-swapping tale of a father and son who are out to save the world from an evil demon.

But too often it slips up, and you lose confidence in the slower steps the journey is making you take.

This is a game that's almost too full of new ideas, and in its race to stand out, it becomes a little too unfamiliar to wholeheartedly recommend.

The game features two characters – a father and son. The father is bigger and stronger, capable of barging through rocks and smashing down obstacles with a few swings of his heavy fists.

His son is lighter, unable to jump or swing a punch, but he can call on the spirits to help in times of need.

_{Clean up in the frozen aisle}

That might be drawing a bridge for the two of them to cross, or using special teleportation points to reach parts of the level that would be otherwise off limits.

You swap between the two with a tap of a button. A stationary joystick in the bottom-left controls your movements, and a button on the right of the screen changes depending on what action you're able to perform.

It's not the smoothest of control set-ups, and there were times during my playthrough that the joystick stopped working entirely, leaving me leaping through the snow hoping it'd kick in again soon.

If you're not in the right place you might jump into a wall instead of punching it, and some of the boy's powers aren't that well explained and require you to drag a finger across the screen in what feels a slightly unnecessary diversion.

The levels themselves are small and reasonably neat. There's usually a couple of puzzling sections to work your way through before the end, but they're never that taxing.

You'll punch a few walls, send the boy ahead with his teleporting ability, dodge an abominable snowman or a wolf ghost, then join back together to pass a few spike pits and nip into a cave.

The rich, detailed environments keep things fresh for a while, but the gameplay can get a little repetitive.

It's never quite a trudge, thanks in part to the small size of most of the levels, but there are times you'll feel like you've been somewhere before.

And that's a real shame, because Last Inua feels like it should be something special. The environments draw you in, and the story of old gods, terrible demons, and the strong bond between father and son, is one that deserves to be told.

The game never quite manages to strike the balance between its bold, bright ideas, and its slightly dull platforming.

And the touchscreen controls just compound that lack of connection by adding an extra layer of frustration on top.

Last Inua is a breathtakingly good-looking game, and at every turn I wanted to be sucked into its immense, incredible landscapes and narrative of desperate good against all-powerful evil.

But too often the path the game chooses isn't the right one, and you're left with a pretty bog standard platformer, rather than one that lives up to the promise of the wonderful world you're trekking through.