Little Orpheus review: an adventure that dazzles the eyes

That up there is Ivan Ivanovitch. He's somewhere between Walter Mitty and Scheherazade. A man who invents successive tales of fantasy in an effort to stay his likely execution by an impatient general interrogating him in a dark room. Ivan is the little guy in every sense, small in stature, a hunching underdog to forces beyond his control. As the likeable hero of Little Orpheus, a vibrant modernising of the cinematic platformer, he builds a rapport with the general that carries the game as best it can through eight beautiful but ultimately formulaic levels. This is a light game, unchallenging by design, and for me, sleepily so.