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Shadow always moved exactly as I wanted him to, whether I was carefully zipping over instakill spikes or landing as close to an enemy as possible in order to make a jump without taking damage. The controls are exact to the point that I simply don’t think they could be better than they are. Of course, that wouldn’t mean much if the controls weren’t good, but they’re not good. The game simply does a fantastic job of steadily making you more powerful and it feels perfectly honed. Going back to earlier levels with your newfound abilities makes it clear how much more powerful Shadow gets as the game progresses. By the later parts of Cyber Shadow, you’ll be zipping around the levels with ridiculous levels of precision. Later though, you gain the ability to wall-jump and dash, which leads to you being able to perform a teleport slash that grants you iframes. You get the ability to throw energy shurikens, shoot upwards with fireballs, and do downward strikes. The special abilities are mostly standard fare. But as you locate your clan members, you’ll obtain new abilities that vary between special attacks and things that fundamentally alter the gameplay as if this were a Metroid-like. He can jump, slash his sword, and die horribly. At the start of Cyber Shadow, Shadow is about as standard of a game ninja as you’ve seen in most side-scrollers. Plus, you can use teleporters to go back to hunt for power-ups with newly acquired abilities. But then you realize that there’s a certain amount of interconnectivity. The game has 11 chapters which are basically levels and it appears to be completely linear at first blush. But the fact that there’s enough story for me to even make fun of demonstrates one of the game’s major features: it may seem like nothing more than a throwback, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.Įnough about that though. Truthfully, the game is well-written for what it is, as long as you don’t roll your eyes too hard at the premise.
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The cutscenes are all NES-style and look really good, plus there’s a fair amount of dialogue and notes to read. It’s presented well, silliness notwithstanding. There’s a surprising amount of plot in Cyber Shadow. At various intervals, Shadow will convene with the digital essences of his not-quite-deceased clan members, as their souls still exist. This master is the daughter of a mad scientist named Progen who builds robots and does all sorts of sketchy experiments, while his daughter somehow became the matriarch of a techno-spiritual ninja clan. Shadow is a member of a ninja clan and his master has vanished after some kind of war broke out. If you played Ghostrunner recently, it’s a very similar premise.
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These elements not only make it a great game in general, but a testament to how far sheer talent can take a game.Ĭyber Shadow casts you in the role of an android ninja.
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The game may be derivative, but the level design, gameplay, and difficulty are nearly perfect. But as it goes on, it becomes clear that there’s much more to it than that. Cyber Shadow wears its influences on its sleeve and initially seems well-made, if unambitious. Similarly, an 8-bit styled ninja game is insanely familiar territory. All of that carries a ton of nostalgia for people who grew up playing them. That muted 8-bit color palette, the chiptunes, the tough-as-nails gameplay.
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It’s not uncommon to see games do their best to hearken back to the NES era.
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