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Final hurdles

That said it isn’t until you reach an end-of-level boss – something of a shoot-'em-up obligation, alas – that dying becomes something you need particularly worry about. While lesser hostiles can damage you, they tend to cough up enough health power-ups to see you through to the level’s climax.

Child of Eden

The game's climax

The fact that boss encounters tend to be almost as long as the rest of the level’s entirety - and much tougher - can skew the balance, and indeed your zen-like state, but each is so impressive that only the most last ditch defeat ever truly frustrates.

Of course, I’ve gotten this far in my review without mentioning the game’s control scheme and your choice here too will determine the game’s challenge. Opt for the standard controller and mowing down the enemies is relatively straightforward - and high scores plentiful.

Opt instead for the Kinect controls and, though trickier, success is all the more rewarding – even if the forearm muscles do tend to protest after a while.

Child of Eden

Ready to leaf

In fact, so disparate are the two experiences that the developers have seen fit to split scoreboards so totals with either control schemes aren’t going head-to-head.

Next page: Kinect me up

It's been a good few years for Indie work

World of Goo, Plants vs Zombies, Braid, Limbo, The Void - it's really good to see some originality creeping back into games, rather than more generic Halo knock-offs.

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Tears to the eyes

"Lumi – the fist human born in space"

I'm not sure I want to know how they were conceived...

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would love to see a kinect upgrade to REZ HD

on XBOX live - I reckon most of the CoE purchasers would snap REZ HD up if an update would integrate kinect as the contrlooer for it.

And while you're at it, bring out a boxing game with realistic historical fighters in for Kinect - the boxing on sports is fun, but would love to be smacking Marciano upside the head rather than cutesy avatars.

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Childbirth without gravity?

So you mean like underwater births? Feasible, but messy indeed.

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The fist human born in space.

"Precluding" as in "made impossible". The first plot line says we have to save "Lumi" - who it goes on to say is "long dead".

I'm more worried about these Fist Human's..

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