Shovel Knight is a masterpiece; An homage to Megaman and 2-D platformers of the past that made Yacht Club Games a recognizable name in the industry. Because of this success and my love of Shovel Knight, I knew it would be right up my alley when Cyber Shadow was announced. Yacht Club may not have developed it, but they saw enough promise in what developer Arane Hunziker was doing over at Mechanical Head Games to slap their publishing label on it, and I can confidently say they picked a winner.
Cyber Shadow ( PC, Switch, PS4, PS5, [Reviewed] Xbox One
Developer: Arane “Mekaskull” Hunziker- Mechanical Head Games
Publisher: Yacht Club Games
Release Date: January 26, 2021
MSRP: $19.99
Cyber Shadow takes some clear inspiration from a few platformers of the SNES era. Ninja Gaiden is the most obvious one, but it clearly draws a lot of art direction from Super Metroid, Super Contra, and even Megaman X. The world and tone feel its own, all while feeling like it belongs narratively in that era of precision platforming.
You play as Shadow, the last survivor of a clan of Ninja led by his helpful drone L-Gion. The Evil Doctor Progen has taken over Meka City with his army of Synthetics, and you’ll need to uncover what happened and gain the strength to defeat the crazy scientist. We’ve heard this story before, but Cyber Shadow tells it in fun ways. The writing here won’t blow you away, but the gameplay is strong enough to carry you through a narrative you may not be fully invested in.
Gameplay takes a few levels to click, but that’s largely because Cyber Shadow is the sum of all Shadow’s abilities. When you start, things are simple: Run, jump, and slice your way through enemies. New abilities layered in as you progress through the first half of the game work in tandem with the mechanics you’ve become familiar with in a way that feels rewarding. Once you can dash, double jump, and parry enemy attacks, things tend to flow a lot faster as you bounce between enemies in the blink of an eye.
A few abilities like the down slash can be difficult to use correctly in a pinch. The ability to remap some attacks to the triggers would go a long way in making things feel more intuitive. Switching back and forth between the D-pad and analog sticks to move and use abilities in tandem made up the only real moments of frustration for me while fighting through Meka City.
You’re going to die a lot in Cyber Shadow. That’s just the sort of game this is, but there’s a good balance of permanence for the world between checkpoints that makes even the smallest bit of progress forward feel worth it. You pick up orange tokens of essence as you break objects or kill enemies. You keep these even when you die and can use them to upgrade checkpoints to do things like refill your SP meter or give you a weapon mod. These upgrades are permanent for that checkpoint and can really turn the tide in some more difficult encounters.
I spent up to thirty minutes trying to get through a few different sections in later levels, but death never felt unfair, and I just couldn’t put that controller down. This is one of those games that just makes you tell yourself, “one more go,” and before you know it, the sun is coming up.
Boss fights are all a spectacle but a bit all over the place in terms of difficulty. I beat the first few bosses in one or two attempts, but the fourth, a large dragon that hides under the surfaces of the water, took me a solid hour to finally slay. It was intense but wholly satisfying, and I can’t quite pin down what was different about that encounter.
Most boss fights come down to learning AI behavior and responding accordingly, and it seems some things just click more easily than others. That being said, I still see that dragon in my nightmares.
It may not be completely obvious due to the lack of a proper map, but Cyber Shadow is also sort of a Metroidvania. All ten levels are seamlessly connected, and you can use fast travel terminals at the start of each level to teleport to areas you’ve already been. The only incentive for doing so is to get any health or SP upgrades you may have missed or been unable to grab because you lacked a late-game ability. While you can’t see a proper map like in Metroid, the fast travel terminals will show you a completion percentage over each area, so you can at least know you’re missing something.
The 8-bit art is gorgeous; Shadow’s sprite, along with the dozens of enemies, all have striking and memorable looks. Each level also has some unique flair, particularly the use of color to make each area stand out from the last. In one section striking purple, goo makes an over-run part of the robot factory stand out from the early game’s deep browns and rust reds.
Enrique Martin handled the soundtrack and did a stellar job. The 8-bit tunes remind me of both Shovel Knight and Sabotage Studio’s The Messenger. This will be one to keep an eye out for a vinyl release if you have a video game music obsession like my self.
Verdict: Cyber Shadow is fun, beautiful to look at and listen to, and ultimately challenging in a way that rarely feels frustrating or unfair. My biggest gripe is the inability to remap buttons for moves that can sometimes feel unnatural while utilizing Shadow’s sprint. Still, with enough practice, even those tougher moves start to feel second nature.
Author: Rich Meister
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[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher]