While I never played Twinsen’s Quest when it was released, it was certainly a title I remember hearing quite a bit about. Graphics that, at the time, were quite eye-popping were undoubtedly at the top of the list since in the early 90s those alone could easily drive sales, but my understanding was that it had some unique mechanics as well, though its tank-style controls were undoubtedly not a great choice.

The good news is that it doesn’t take long to see where the game’s visuals were a big deal, at least at the time. Now, while I credit them for being quite stylized, I’ll admit that most of the characters simply look odd, but since that appears to have been the goal, I won’t begrudge that choice. The resultant look is weirdly both dated and somewhat modern in the end, so I’d imagine people will either find it to be refreshing and cool or terrible, with little room in the middle.

The bad news, and unless there’s quite a bit of patching yet to come this may be completely crippling, is that the overall package is a buggy mess. Whether the issue is clipping, things getting stuck and requiring you to reload, or odd periodic visual anomalies, this simply doesn’t feel like a carefully reviewed and polished product. Worse, no matter how much of an improvement the modernized controls may be over the former tank controls, their poor level of responsiveness is completely frustrating. Whether you’re trying to pull off some sort of platforming, attempting to be stealthy, or working to defeat someone in combat that will pop up periodically, the controls leave you feeling like you’re instantly at a disadvantage.

While you could choose to overlook the game’s struggles and persevere in trying to appreciate this throwback to an earlier time, for myself I’d argue that the level of quality in the launch version of the game hasn’t earned it. As it is, even when games like this don’t have implementation issues, it can be difficult to spend a lot of time with them, with most people getting just enough of a taste to trigger happy memories before moving on to something else. Asking people to pony up the dough to play a dated game that hasn’t necessarily aged well, but that also controls poorly on top of that? I can’t see how that’s a fair request in this case.