“Lost In Shadow” has fairly tricky puzzles and combat that may frustrate the younger gamer.

Thanks to Nintendo’s stable of time-tested mascots, there is no shortage of excellent platformers on the Wii. With “Lost In Shadow,” Hudson Entertainment aims to deliver a more mature adventure to gamers, trading in kid-friendly humor for an introspective story line and action-heavy platforming for challenging puzzles. “Lost In Shadow” delivers on the latter, but even with some clever, continually evolving game mechanics, the entertainment is dragged down by painfully unresponsive controls.

Like the main protagonist, “Lost In Shadow’s” story line doesn’t have a lot of weight. You play as the shadow of a boy that has been separated from his body and cast off of a giant tower. In order to reunite with your body, you must make your way back up the structure one level at a time, solving puzzles and collecting gems to unlock each new floor. The only other story elements are delivered in the form of signposts that contain short musings on your predicament, but they don’t really go anywhere. Instead, the game focuses on your long climb back to the top.

“Lost In Shadow” starts out slow, and the lethargic gameplay will likely scare off many players before the game gets good. Your character controls similarly to the prince from the old 2D “Prince of Persia” titles, with a hefty delay every time you change directions, jump or climb ladders. The combat is more affected by these poor controls than the platforming is, as you move too slowly to effectively dodge the attacks of your enemies. This becomes less of a problem as your health bar increases (via reading the aforementioned messages), but only in the sense that it allows you to absorb more cheap shots. The biggest issue, however, is the lack of save points. Dying on a floor requires you to completely restart it, which can easily negate 15-30 minutes of gameplay. You can force a save by returning down a level, but the amount of backtracking required makes it more trouble than it’s worth.

Luckily, “Lost In Shadow’s” puzzles largely overcome these considerable flaws. The game throws a number of mechanics at you, such as shifting light sources, rotating viewpoints, and moving foreground objects, all of which transform the shadow landscape you traverse. A new mechanic is introduced halfway through the game that introduces some light three-dimensional gameplay and creates more compelling puzzles. As I closed in on the final floors of the tower, I had a hard time putting down the controller. A late twist introduces a bit of unnecessary backtracking, and some floors feel excessively labyrinthine, but neither of these issues drag the overall gameplay too far down.

Ultimately I can’t recommend “Lost In Shadow” to everyone. The puzzles and combat are too difficult for children (even on easy mode), and platforming fans will be put off by the unresponsive controls. “Lost In Shadow” can’t compete with Nintendo’s first-party offerings, but if you can accept its flaws, the mind-bending puzzles will keep you entertained to the end.

‘Lost in Shadow’

7.5 (out of 10)

Wii

Hudson Entertainment

ESRB rating: E10+

New game releases

The following titles were scheduled for release the week of Jan. 16:

• “Midnight Pool 3-D” (Mobile)

• “The Mysterious Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” (DS)

• “Touch ’N’ Play Collection” (DS)

• “LittleBigPlanet 2” (PS3)

• “Plants vs. Zombies” (DS)

• “Mass Effect 2” (PS3)

• “Mindjack” (PS3, X360)

• “Venetica” (PC)

• “Doc Clock: The Toasted Sandwich of Time” (Wii)

• “Glory Days — Tactical Defense” (DS)

• “Monday Night Combat” (PC)

— Gamespot.com

Top 10

XBOX 360

The editors of Game Informer Magazine rank the top 10 Xbox 360 games for January:

1. “Dead Space 2,” Electronic Arts

2. “Pac-Man Championship Edition DX,” Namco Bandai

3. “ilomilo,” Microsoft Game Studios

4. “Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam,” Electronic Arts

5. “Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines,” Ubisoft

6. “Call of Duty: Black Ops,” Activision

7. “Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit,” Electronic Arts

8. “Super Meat Boy,” Team Meat

9. “Dance Central,” MTV Games

10. “Fable III,” Microsoft Game Studios

— McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Weekly download

‘ILOMILO’

For: Xbox 360 (via Xbox Live Arcade)

From: SouthEnd Interactive/Microsoft

ESRB Rating: E for Everyone

Price: $10

“Ilomilo” didn’t need to be charming to an almost illegal degree in order to be a good game, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. The object of each of “ilomilo’s” 49 levels is to reunite best friends ilo and milo, who have been separated by a labyrinth constructed entirely of plush cubes. Reuniting them involves teamwork, with players controlling both characters either alternately by themselves or simultaneously with a friend via local co-op. But things really get interesting when the game introduces advanced tactics — from creating bridges and elevators out of portable cubes to rotating the entire level and defying gravity — and produces level designs that ask players to use the tricks in tandem in order to reunite the friends and find the other secrets hidden within. On the difficulty scale, “ilomilo” hits the sweet spot: The harder levels are cerebrally exhausting, but the game lets you take as much time as you want to figure them out, penalizing slow players only on the completely ignorable Xbox Live leaderboards. The relaxed pace provides a perfect complement to all that aforementioned charm.

— Billy O’Keefe, McClatchy-Tribune News Service