It's not often that I get to play a game Day 1 of release. BACKGROUND:
I don't remember exactly when I first saw the trailer for this, but I was quite interested in the game because a) it looks like an homage to the original Ninja Gaiden, and b) it's published (but not developed) by Yacht Club Games. Thanks to Game Pass PC being a brilliant service that somehow had this game right on release, I was able to play this almost immediately after it came out. PLOT: The game is set in the futuristic Mekacity, which has been taken over by Dr. Progen and his army of synthetic warriors. It falls to Shadow, the last ninja of his clan to stop the doctor before it's too late. The plot itself is standard stuff, but I did find the mixture of the mysticism of the ninja clan and the sci-fi machinery to be a fun hybrid. The world-building establishes some interesting ideas (like the use of "Essence" and fusing it to machines), but you have to go out of your way to read text to get a sense of what's going on. PRESENTATION: This game is very much a love letter to the NES era, with faithful 8-bit pixel art and chiptune music (which, by the way, is pretty great). For the most part, the game looks and sounds like a lot of the games from the '80s, but there are some subtle flourishes that remind you that this is a game that came out in 2021. One thing I loved about this game are the occasional cutscenes that feel like they were taken straight out of Ninja Gaiden. These aren't fully animated, but they boast some impressive-looking pixel art. GAMEPLAY: Cyber Shadow is an NES era throwback in terms of gameplay, too. It's a 2D action platformer that's in the vein of Ninja Gaiden: run, jump, and slash your way through the game's levels. Even the controls are ripped straight out of the '80s: you only use two buttons and the D-Pad. That means some of the inputs are button combinations (like the classic up-attack input you may have encountered in Castlevania), and while I appreciate the throwback, it's a control scheme that shows its age and lends itself to some unfortunate wrong inputs. Other than that, the game's controls feel great. Movement feels precise overall, the hitboxes mostly make sense (sometimes), and the behavior of enemies and objects are more or less consistent. I will say that the knockback is also from the NES era and is pretty unforgiving. Expect deaths caused by an enemy knocking you back into a pit. The game's structure is linear, but the levels are laid out such that a few of them connect into each other. There are more than a few optional areas that have rewards in them, as well as some old-school-style secrets (like Castlevania "wall chicken" and secret areas accessed in the same way you would Mario's warp zones). It's certainly no Metroidvania, but I did get plenty of enjoyment scouring the areas. The levels themselves are pretty tough, with a lot of the difficulty coming from the devious enemy placement around tricky platforming sections. There are a wide variety of enemies that do a ton of damage and will piss you off one way or another, but if you can manage to find your way around them (easier said than done), most of them are pretty easy to dispatch. In terms of platforming itself, there's not much in the way of unique movement mechanics, and the level mechanics you have to navigate around aren't anything new (moving platforms, insta-death spikes, crushers... that kind of thing). There are a good amount of bosses in this game, and they're all pretty formidable (especially since most of them have two health bars). They're far from unbeatable, however, as a lot of their attack patterns are predictable and they have mostly consistent behavior. A few fights blindside you with multiple phases (which can be rough, since dying makes you start from the first phase), but for the most part, I enjoyed most of the boss fights in this game. Although this game very much takes most of its design cues from Ninja Gaiden, Cyber Shadow is a tiny bit more forgiving than the game it's inspired by. There's no real penalty for death (no game overs or anything like that), there are a good amount of checkpoints (although some of them are spaced out way too far, especially in later levels), and the enemies only respawn if you reenter a room (games like Ninja Gaiden and Ghosts 'n Goblins are notorious for respawning enemies on a timer). That said, the game itself is still challenging on its own. Throughout your journey, you'll collect a bunch of crystals that serve as the game's currency. These are used at the many checkpoints, and you spend them to unlock special features, like HP and SP refreshes when you step on that checkpoint, and even generating power-ups for you to use. It's a neat use for money that helps mitigate the difficulty should you need it, but other than that, it serves no purpose. Speaking of power-ups, you can collect a small variety of them in your journey. These range from offensive power-ups (like the game's take on the iconic windmill shuriken from Ninja Gaiden), defensive power-ups (like a Leaf Shield-style barrier), or something else entirely (a drone that replenishes your SP). A lot of these power-ups are incredibly fun to use and do a lot to make things easier, and it's balanced in an interesting way. Technically, these power-ups have unlimited uses, but if you get hit, they lose a charge. If you get hit three times, the power-up breaks and you lose it. Since a lot of these are super helpful, having them gives you extra incentive to be cautious when playing. Along with these power-ups, you'll also acquire an assortment of permanent upgrades. These range from attacks like the shuriken (these attacks are the ones that expend SP), mobility upgrades like the wall jump and dash (which also gives you a cool dash-slash), passive buffs like a charge slash, and even a projectile parry (which I really liked, but was kind of a pain to execute because of its control bindings). Some of the upgrades are more useful than others, and a few kind of have untapped potential (the downward strike could've been implemented in more platforming sections, for instance), but I thought they were all interesting overall. These permanent upgrades kind of gave me some Mega Man/Metroid vibes in the sense that you slowly expanded your arsenal as you progressed, which isn't really something that exists in the original Ninja Gaiden (thereby giving this game a notable difference). In addition to all that, you can also pick up HP and SP upgrades that add more to your bar. Many of these are found in the optional areas I mentioned, and as long as you pay attention to any branching paths, you're bound to run into a lot of them with little trouble. These upgrades do make things a bit easier in that you can take more hits and throw out more special attacks, so I think they're worth going out of your way for. VERDICT: Although Cyber Shadow feels like Ninja Gaiden in a lot of ways, it does plenty of things that make it stand out as a good game in its own right. It's still quite the challenge with its level designs, but there are changes that reduce the difficulty a little bit, and while I wish they could have done more with the platforming, going through the levels felt good. The combat is solid, too, with a good variety of fun abilities and power-ups to play around with and some thrilling boss fights. I can't say that I was too invested in the story, and I thought certain choices in the gameplay were best left in the retro era the game is an homage to, I still like this game a lot. If you're looking for a tough action platformer, Cyber Shadow is one to check out. I will say that it's a rather short game, so if you feel like its current asking price is a bit much, you may be better served waiting for a sale. Given that this game literally just came out at the time of writing, you may have to wait a bit for that to happen. Here's Cyber Shadow's Steam page: Cyber Shadow on Steam (steampowered.com) - end -
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June 2024
Derryck
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