Review: Sine Mora (XBLA)
Marc Kusnierz | Saturday, March 24, 2012 at 11:13AM 
I am a fan of shoot 'em ups, a casual fan, a fan who won't stand at the top of any leaderboards in the near, far, or any-point-in-time future. That said, I do love 'em and love seeing the genre continue to thrive and shoot up the present with a hefty amount of support via all platforms, from handhelds to PCs to consoles, and now with the recently released Sine Mora, a new shoot 'em up co-developed by Digital Reality and Grasshopper Manufacture exclusively for Xbox Live Arcade.
The game is beautiful and colorful, full of variety, and does a great job of keeping the visuals fresh with constant jumping between different areas. As hectic as things may get on screen, the game area is always clear and I never once got confused as to what was going on. Accompanying the visuals is a subtle atmospheric score and the sound design in general is rather lovely and only adds to the somewhat haunting atmosphere brought about by the more serious story. Speaking of the story, the previously mentioned jumping between areas is great for keeping the visuals fresh, but it does muddle up the story which, a far as shoot 'em ups go, isn't that bad.
