Nukezilla Review: Nomis: Legacy Islands (Xbox Indie Games)

If there’s one thing I enjoy, it’s the opportunity to indulge in a little nostalgia. Luckily, Nomis: Legacy Islands brings fond memories to the forefront of my mind in two distinct ways. The mix of run ‘n’ gun and platforming mechanics prods at the portion of my brain that views the Amiga 500+ with rose-tinted spectacles. There’s a slightly off-kilter quality to the artwork that brings to mind the MTV cartoons of the mid 90′s. Throw in the option to upgrade your character’s abilities and play the game co-operatively and you have a decent picture of what Nomis: Legacy Islands is all about.

When I first started playing Nomis: Legacy Islands, I mistook it for an off-brand Mega Man and tackled it in a similar way. This approach became obviously unsuitable once the game had sat me down, looked me in the eye and carefully explained that ammunition was not going to be abundant. Instead, the game revolves around switching to a stealth mode, becoming invisible and rushing towards the enemies to deliver a quick and deadly melee attack. Projectile attacks are still possible but nowhere near as effective, only to be used when getting up close is difficult or impossible. Once the underlying systems became apparent, I started to really enjoy the frantic mix of platforming, negotiating the maze of ladders and desperately rushing towards the enemy before my stealth ability had to recharge.

The only real roadblock to enjoyment comes in the form of a series of frustrating, joyless boss battles. Melee combat is thrown to the wind and the battles revolve around shooting at weak points for, well, a bit of damage. Having a limited amount of ammo stops being a challenge and becomes an arbitrary limitation, not only did I have to avoid the bosses attacks but I also had to go through some tricky platforming to pick up extra bullets. For the first two boss battles, I ended up brute-forcing my way to success by simply shooting all my ammunition, dying and then respawning with full ammo. As long as I managed to dodge a couple of attacks, I had enough extra lives and by extension enough extra bullets to kill each boss. It isn’t a universal problem, I did eventually encounter a boss that I found much less frustrating to defeat but if I wasn’t trying to review the game I may have stopped at the second boss battle.

Though I got a few hours of fun platforming out of Nomis: Legacy Islands, I didn’t feel motivated to finish the game. It didn’t introduce any new mechanics or interesting twists along the way and eventually, the maze of ladders and platforms that makes up each level felt a bit repetitive. I’m not going to hold the developer’s feet to the fire for that minor transgression, it’s still a good looking and responsive platformer that I’d happily recommend to a friend. If you remember games like James Pond 2: Robocod or even older titles such as Jet Set Willy or Manic Miner with fondness, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Disclaimer: We received a free code to download the game from its developers Robot Foot Games.