I’m always up for a new ninja game. As far back as I have played video games, with Shinobi on the Sega Master System, Shinobi III on Genesis, Legions on the Saturn, Ninja Gaiden Black on Xbox, Tenchu DS, as well as several others across the years, ninja games are just appealing to me. That’s not to say I have played them all, or maybe not even most, I’ve never counted. In my backlog awaits The Messenger to this day. But all that past stuff aside, last week saw the release of a new ninja game by Mechanical Head Studios and published by Yacht Club Games, the team that published Shovel Knight several years ago. I was pleased to receive a review code on Xbox and promptly downloaded and began to play this new, retro-styled, but surprisingly deep and ever-evolving 2D side-scrolling action platformer.
For the past several years, these niche retro-themed side-scrolling action platformers have really be come popular. Few genres put my gaming skills and patience to the test like these do. I rarely play them in part because of that, but I make exceptions. Last year, I played through Valfaris on Switch and literally died hundreds of times on my way to finally finishing it. It was a slog at times to get from checkpoint to checkpoint, in part because the game was intended to be difficult and in part due to my lack of skill and patience. Ultimately, I was glad I stuck with it but I was not shedding any tears when it was over — and that’s very similar to how I felt with Cyber Shadow. Mostly fun — at times, extremely hard — but a standout gem of a game in a fairly crowed genre that rises up to really be everything you could want for something so clearly inspired by the likes of Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi.
The setting for Cyber Shadow is a near future world that has been successfully taken over by a mad scientist named Dr. Progen. Utilizing his cybernetic army, all hope appears to be lost, but your little robot friend, L-Gion, stirs you (Shadow) awake from slumber. With your entire clan and the world in the grip of Dr. Progen, it’s up to you to put your ninja skills to the utmost test and work your way through Progen’s army throughout the industrialized Mekacity. The story might not be very different than most storylines that games from the late 80s and 90s used, but hey, if it works, don’t fix it. As far as I’m concerned, the story is perfectly serviceable and I appreciated the work that went into the cutscenes and in-game story progression.
Controlling Shadow is smooth and familiar on XSX. With modest beginnings seeing Shadow only able to jump and do a basic sword slash, players steadily unlock new abilities and weapons as the game plays out, and this is really one of the most remarkable features of the game. These new gameplay elements often go hand-in-hand with, you guessed, it, new challenges that you’re about to face. Skills like the horizontal dash and slash, shurikens, double jumping, fire, and even parrying can shift the balance of power and can also recharge weary players who are struggling to get from checkpoint to checkpoint.
Challenges come from all sides and all types, with ample creativity shown in enemy design, placement, number, bosses, as well as level design. Indeed, hazards within the levels are often an even bigger threat than the enemies themselves, and the combination of the two makes for an obviously tough game, that’s just the nature of this sub-genre (I had the same edge-of-your-seat challenges with Valfaris). Thankfully, players can checkpoint, and health actually recharges at checkpoints as well as other unlockable boosts are available in exchange for some in-game currency. But like most any game that has ever used checkpoints, there are times where you will feel like a few of them are spaced just a little bit too far apart and that’s typically when I found myself taking a break.
Cyber Shadow deserves recognition for its presentation, too. The 8-bit graphics are unapologetically old school and beautiful. It was pretty cool to change from playing The Medium to Cyber Shadow this past week — completely different kinds of visual presentation, but both excellent and successful in their own right. Cyber Shadow honors the 8-bit error but isn’t tied down to it, utilizing present-day techniques to spruce up its appearance. Effects and music, the latter being so vital in these games and was another reason I really enjoyed Valfaris, are also superbly done and add a lot to the experience.
In sum, Cyber Shadow does a great job of doing what it set out to do. It’s a modern take on genre elders Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi, and it provides all the ninja lore, atmosphere, challenge, and aura that those games do. Furthermore, it gives players plenty of reason to keep playing thanks to evolving gameplay elements that keeps things fresh, interesting, and challenging. For anyone who enjoys the genre or ninja games in general, Cyber Shadow is a must-have.
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