The unnamed boy who walks the world of “Limbo” just can’t survive bear traps. Or electrocution. Or roving buzzsaws. Or being impaled on long thorns.
“Limbo” introduces our child hero to his demise in so many ways, it’s like the video game version of Edward Gorey’s “Gashlycrumb Tinies.” But the many fatalities in this platform-puzzler are not intended for comedy. Consider how the camera holds on the scene for a few seconds after you’ve made a fatal mistake. Imagine how different “Super Mario Bros.” would have felt if Mario had lain down and died instead of jumping into an implosion. “Limbo’s” approach drives home the consequences of death much better than spiritual predecessors “Flashback” and “Oddworld: Abe’s Odyssey” did by taking away a life, as if keeping track of lives was the point of those games anyway.
