Too imprecise to adequately do some of the cool things the game asks of you, I found myself being frustrated even when I did manage to succeed in the extra (and harder) objectives, for example in the third level, which kicked my ass the first few tries, I don’t think I performed that good nor did I do something that different from those first attempts. Or like when you maneuver around the many fire hazards in the next level and you NEED to hit those fireballs to recover some health, but you need to hit them quick and the controls just kinda don’t let you, because the aim is always relative to where you are or where you are moving so there is this extra step that just doesn’t feel right to me. The free mode in particular never felt fun or rewarding, I just think the game believes it is much more controlable than it actually is. And I know there are folks that will beat this in like 15 minutes with no damage or whatever, and there probably are at least a couple that could do it blindfolded and with one hand, etc. but that doesn’t make the controls good, at least to me, it’s just passionate players doing crazy shit around some pretty flawed mechanics that were designed for a time when two sticks sounded insane.

And that’s the point, really, it just feel like you’re playing against the outdated control scheme as much as you’re playing against the cool enemies and levels of the game itself.