Sometimes I wonders if the reviewers play the whole game. Even if they do they have to finish it in a few sittings, so the lack of checkpoints doesn't come up as an issue for those guys perhaps.
The thing is sparse saving can help the designers in increasing the difficulty of the game (a la Metroid Prime) ... but in this case it was just pure annoyance.
The only reason I was able to play first 3 levels was the game was fresh with very cool music.







