Sine Mora is a side scrolling adventure game with some substance. As well as one I was surprised to enjoy as much as I did.
With a story and game play feature that involves time the story follows a group of rebels trying to stop their civilization from being wiped out by a very large and evil imperial force. Most of the story is played through the eyes of random characters but the main story is about a father trying to avenge the killing of his son. The beautiful and very kid friendly graphic and character designs hide a very dark, adult oriented story about vengeance at all costs. Parts of the story are very hard to follow and with it being in another language and the fact that the subtitles in some cases are on screen for half a second. It grabs you in the first moments of the game when the father starts talking about the event that claimed his sons life. After that all you really want to do is see how it got to that point and the aftermath. With time travel as a factor the overlapping of stories sometimes get confusing but not enough to rage quit like in other games.
As I stated earlier Sine Mora is a game based on time. As you move up and down the screen in your plane of war shooting the waves of enemies both on the ground and in the air you try and dodge enemy fire that in some cases will fill the screen entirely. You have a timer that keeps adding seconds to the clock every time you kill an enemy but if it runs out you die. The timer up at the top is  your health that can be replenished by killing but you lose time when you are hit or hit an enemy or the ground. The level design is very colorful and in some cases can be very closed in and easy to get yourself killed. Each level is broken into sections that have a checkpoint and a small “cut scene†that involves your ship moving around corners into position. When some enemies die they drop power ups or some sort of upgrade. Some upgrades involve extra points and others are multipliers to give you even more points. Every ship also has a secondary attack that in some cases will drop your jaw. You also have the ability to slow down time and get in between laser fire because trust me when I say that it WILL take up the whole screen.
Now you don’t have to be a veteran of other games like Sine Mora to enjoy it. Granted if you have beaten a game like Ikaruga then this game will be a good 20 minuet side bar but if you are like me, the game will test your skills. The boss battles are not only huge but in multiple parts. From fighting something that looks like a sentinel from the Matrix movies to fighting a battleship the boss battles are both hard and fun at the same time. Enough to keep someone like me coming back to make sure I don’t get bested.
In the end this game is really something more than what I expected. Beautiful backdrops and an achievement called “Sh*t Happens†this game has a great sense of humor mixed with a gritty story and time travel. This game offers something for both newbies and the hardcore of the genre. With global leader boards people will be trying to best both their friends and the world in a game that will keep you playing long into the night. For only 1200 Microsoft points no less. Give it a try and see if you don’t get addicted my friends. I know I did.
