My biggest demands of a metroidvania (or really any platformer) are satisfying controls and a game world worth using them in. Timespinner delivers this in spades without overstaying its welcome and providing an alternative to the myriad of genre titles striving to recreate Darksouls in 2D. The sample playtime isn't undershooting; this is not a long game by practically any metric. For players not gifted with an overabundance of free time, entries like Timespinner are a godsend. Finding punishgly difficult and sprawling titles in the genre wasn't a challenge when this game was initially released, and it certainly isn't now. What the player is given to engage with in the condensed package provided feels particularly refreshing and ultimately satisfying in its difference.
