Head Lander is a side-scroller puzzler developed by Double Fine Productions and published by Adult Swim Games with a Metroid/Castlevania vibe and 70s sci-fi setting it seemed like a perfect mix to be a sleeper hit with all the Nostalgia it is channeling but it doesn’t quite deliver.
In Head Lander you take a role of the last surviving human being in the universe, just the head to be exact, with the ability to take over robot bodies. The story tries to explore the over dependency on technology which for me was an interesting topic but it felt lost in the constant barrage of innuendo jokes which are presented constantly. At first I thought it was cute and funny but after a while it became a drag. They do seem to become less noticeable later on in the story (I stopped noticing them), either way I was too far along to follow what was going on in the story, but I was still able to enjoy the game-play a bit more than before.
Source: playstation.com
If you played any the of Metroid games you will straight away see where the game-play mechanics take their inspiration but with slightly better use of the head. Being able to disengage from your body and fly around as well as the taking over of any body you find creates some interesting level designs. It is not an overly difficult game and it saves quite often so you never truly lose and puzzles are simple enough that you don’t need to spend too much time on them. The only thing that is stopping you on your tracks is combat, not because it is difficult but because it’s clanky and it doesn’t always do what you want it to do, like shooting from cover seemed to be very unpredictable it just didn’t shoot when you press shoot. Other than that game-play was fun and enjoyable but it got too repetitive and too boring fairly quick for me and I play a lot of repetitive games. However I must say the level design is excellent and the graphics are good. 
I did enjoy most of the games by Double Fine Productions (Psychonauts, Brutal Legends, Grim Fandango etc) but this one was a strange one for me, I did not know much about this game going in and was taken aback by the amount of innuendos, game-play was fun but not enough to keep me hooked for a longer than an hour or so. This game feels like an equivalent of an Adam Sandler movie, which is a good laugh and entertaining to watch but after you watch it is forgotten almost instantly. Not to say it is a bad game but it is not a great game either, it is just OK. If you like Metroid/Castlevania types of games, feeling nostalgic and this game is on sale than it is worth getting.
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