Speaking of bosses, these guys pack one heck of a punch. Luckily, the HP restoration doesn’t make Cyber Shadow’s treacherous levels and unforgiving bosses too easy. The HP restoration stays unlocked at most checkpoints after you do it for the first time, but SP does not. You can also unlock full SP and HP restoration at checkpoints for the same cost as items. Each checkpoint has a single item it gives out, but it’s usually only a small cost of 20 to 50 to permanently unlock it at that specific location. In order to get items from checkpoints, you need to drop some of the game’s currency into them. But all of these items are balanced out by their ability to be destroyed if you get hit too many times.Īnd the checkpoints you can get these items from are a little game on their own. Clearing screens of enemies with this item feels so good. This large shuriken orbits Shadow and can even be launched into enemies by hitting it. These power-ups can extend your range, give you a shield that doubles as a projectile, turn enemy projectiles into SP for your Spirit meter, and more.Īnd I would be remiss to not mention the aptly named Swag Blade. There are also multiple extremely enjoyable items you can pick up throughout levels or at checkpoints. Shurikens, a midair downward strike, a dash strike, and a rising slash that launches fireballs upwards are just the beginning of the fun. You start out with a simple slash attack and build on top of that foundation with eight different moves that use up your Spirit meter - Cyber Shadow’s equivalent to a magic meter. Progren, this former man is still exceptionally human in his devotion to his master.Īlthough the story is mostly forgetful, the gameplay - mainly the boss fights - will stick with me for a while. As Shadow’s foil, this naturally makes Apparitor an interesting character.īecause of that, it becomes much easier to relate to Apparitor. He gives up everything that makes him human and aligns himself with the villainous Dr. Still, nothing exceptionally interesting happened that kept me wanting to know what was going to happen next.īut the one bright spot of the story has to do with a former member of Shadow’s ninja clan known as Apparitor. I will concede that the story is coherent and the writing isn’t bad by any means. The good guy runs through a bunch of trials to regain lost power and destroy the big baddie at the top of a tower. On top of the odd pacing is a mostly bland story. But none of it goes deep enough to make you care about anyone involved. There are also a few flashbacks following the big story dump to give Shadow and his master a more solid backstory. Otherwise, this one scene is where most of the story gets explained to you. There are some terminals to read and L-Gion drops in every once in a while in between. It’s not until a few stages and boss fights in that there’s suddenly a massive exposition dump that explains the events leading up to the explosion at the start and why you need to stop the antagonist, Dr. Your little robot buddy, L-Gion, wakes you up from stasis and you’re off on your vague quest to do something. Cyber Shadow begins with a massive explosion presumably destroying the protagonist, Shadow. Right from the start, you start to see signs that something is off in terms of the pacing. ![]() Considering the fact that developer Mechanical Head Studios is essentially just one person (Aarne Hunziker), it’s an impressive game that could have used a little more oversight. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the trail it blazes is one without bumps, pits, or swerves. Rest assured, Cyber Shadow charts a path all its own and never looks back. And there’s always a little bit of trepidation when a new game dev comes right out and mentions major classic games as an inspiration. It’s extremely clear when a game developer is just trying to cash in on nostalgia. ![]() We’re sorry to Martin and all involved and we regret that this error was published. Enrique Martin is the composer and Jake Kaufman is the producer. ![]() Author’s Note: We have edited an error in the review below that only mentioned Jake Kaufman as the composer of the game’s soundtrack.
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