The Cashie Brothers‘ Iota is a fantastic-looking indie game, one of the more visually-imaginative XBLIGs around. That it used Ikaruga‘s color-switching mechanic to spice up its platforming was a bonus that gave it some depth. So it was a bit of a letdown when the review found its reliance on nearly flawless runs in later levels to be a deal-breaker.

Not one to brush off criticism, the Developers have since released an update to the game. In addition to tightening up the controls and their input response time, your multi-hued robot now starts each stage with one extra tick on his life bar, with the possibility to scoop up a second ‘life’ in the course of the level. In practice, this cuts out almost all the frustration I experienced in the original playthrough, and the controls did feel more responsive during the trickier sequences.

As such, Iota now plays much less like a punishformer, leaving you no excuse to avoid its otherwise delightful charm.