Fractured Soul

Fractured Soul is a cleverly constructed game that really makes the most of it's humble format. The challenges can be excruciatingly difficult, but overcoming them leaves you with a genuine sense of accomplishment.

If you can look past the generic space-robot visuals and lackluster combat, Fractured Soul is a fantastic idea for the multi-screened device. The dimensional swapping is a cool way to bring life to some old platforming concepts, and the controls and gameplay are so polished you can feel the dedication the team had to making the game challenging, yet still playable.

All in all, Fractured Soul is a really well-crafted and polished game that manages to do justice to both side-scrolling action platforming and shooting. Anyone who loves the Mega Man series will love it, and I'm sure shooter fans will as well.

Fractured Soul is perhaps on par with several other plataformers on eShop, but stands out from the crowd by including online leaderboards.

Fractured Soul is a superb and fairly extensive collection of clever, interesting, and devious platforming ideas; most of it is good, much of it is fantastic.

A clever, fun, and challenging Nintendo 3DS game well worth your time.

Fractured Soul constantly makes you switch between both screens of the 3DS to finish levels. Difficulty gets high quite fast, but having a lot of checkpoints and an infinite amount of lives limits frustration. It might not look great and enemies might just as well have been left out of the game entirely, but in its core Fractured Soul really works.

The concept may no longer be original, but Fractured Soul still boasts some great gameplay.

Fractured Soul might have taken a while to see a release, but it lives up to the hype by taking a smooth platforming experience and weaving a dual screen play mechanic into the mix that greatly increases the playability and charm of the game. The price is a bit high by eShop standards, but for a gaming experience as rich and polished as this, it's not the deal breaker you might imagine. Those who aren't sold on the genre may wish to look elsewhere, but fans of intelligent action platformers will consider this money well spent.

Among the toughest games on the console and none the worse for it. Want to hear what your own screams sound like? You won't find better on the 3DS.

A nice surprise that Mega Man fans will like. A great arcade presentation that will keep us entertained for a long while.

A new incarnation for an old - but smart - idea built around the two screens setup of Nintendo 3DS. It asks a bit too much in terms of unforgiving mechanics, especially considering that the two screens gameplay is pretty demanding by itself, but if you like a challenge.

Fractured Soul is a quite clever 2D platformer, but there are too many instant death moments with no nearby checkpoints. [May 2013]

Fractured Soul offers a lot of replay value, and with over 30 levels to navigate, online leaderboards, and unlockable challenges, there are many hours of entertaining, challenging, and addictive gameplay that the hardcore platforming fan should not miss out on.

The relentless difficulty level hides some potential for frustration. But nonetheless the handling is surprisingly simple, the level design is interesting.

A solid entry to the 3DS' eShop, Fractured Soul offers plenty of challenging action platforming gameplay for a fair price.

Quotation forthcoming.

If only Endgame Studios opted for a level of difficulty a bit less prohibitive, Fractured Soul could find a much wider audience.

If you can grit your teeth and take its serious difficulty on the chin, Fractured Soul is a marvellous puzzle-platformer well worth the download.

Its turnaround of ideas eventually won us round. [Apr 2013, p.83]

It's a frustrating game, with a structure that definitely lacks balance: however, Fractured Soul is indeed going to appeal to those hardcore gamers looking for a true challenge.

Fractured Soul is fresh and clever, but it will probably appeal most to masochists.

An original and promising experience, spoiled by a frustrating dual-screen gameplay mechanic and an irritating difficulty level.

So while Fractured Soul has some good ideas and at times is a pleasant return to the tough standards of old-school gaming, it takes it to an excess that eventually breaks the game and undoes the good will of its nostalgic positives.

This one may only appeal to the more hardcore players.

There are some great ideas here, with clever use of the dual screens, but the game in which they find themselves is far less entertaining than it should be.

Fractured Soul is not a bad game by any means, but its keen concept is played out again and again with a taskmaster's sternness, and little else.

With generic platforming and a generally unpolished feel, the novelty wears off quickly, and Fractured Soul is best left out in space.