Beastly Review of Cyber Shadow
It is funny that in this day and age we still see retro-style titles being released. The big difference between retro games being revived and some developers coming out with new games in the old school style. They play better and run smoother which works and I started with Nintendo and Sega Genesis. It is a nice nostalgia and here we are with Cyber Shadow which is free for Game Pass users which I am playing on.
The Story:
“In Cyber-Shadow, the world has been taken over by synthetic lifeforms. A desperate plea for help sets Shadow on a journey to uncover what started the path to perpetual ruin. Slash through the techno hordes, leap past traps, and nimbly navigate the ruins of Mekacity.”
This starts off with you waking up from a tube hurt and confused. Until this small robot buddy comes to your aid and helps you make sense of things. After you get a glimpse of when you were human a blast in the city happens which makes you into this cyborg ninja. The goal is to rescue his fallen clan as you are overrun with synthetic lifeform enemies. You at times will find more details and sadly some of your dead clan members but by absorbing their essence he sees their final moments. That’s deep.
Gameplay:
It’s all about having patients and timing. If you ever played Shinobi or Ninja Gaiden, you know the pain of dealing with enemies that are run on a pattern, but you still end up messing up. It is the most frustrating thing and makes me think this was before the Demon Souls brought that feeling to the 3D realm. You get better after each death because you realize or at least that is the hope. You will learn from each encounter and realize the pattern of the level so that you can either farm power-ups or just bypass all the enemies to get to where you need to be.
I can see a lot of speedrunners going for that best time with this game or those that want a no-touch challenge. You have your health meter that can level up as well as different power-ups you unlock as you defeat bosses. You will use the attack button and a direction on the D-pad or analog to perform each move. They all come in handy to deal damage in a 360-degree attack.
Do not forget the ninja abilities that will help you through obstacles, with wall climbing and a sprint move to get you through gaps. Usually, 2D platformers are not known to have such a degree of an RPG element. Either you gain power-ups like for your sword at random drop points or buying an ability on a save port. Yes, there are save ports as you venture out, and in each saves port, you will gain new health, ammo for your blue bar, and a power-up. These power-ups can vary from a shield that shoots. A side drone that powers up for a mega blast or my personal favorite the Sonic boom slash, well that’s what it looks like.
The Boss battles give me that Megaman feels, you know when you enter an area and you are locked in. The music gets intense and now it is up to you to figure it out. Each enemy will have two levels of health with a different form as they take more damage. I swear I spent over 10 minutes figuring out each boss fight especially the Robo water dragon. Be patient and study the patterns and you will be good to go.
Visuals:
As stated with the new developer mechanics for game design and using the retro style of 2D platformers. You can make an interesting title with new features, especially saving in areas. Before back in the day you had to write down a code to start at that level you left off with all your stuff you had last. What they did to match that is when you load in from a save you can buy whatever you need. You will be greeted with cut-scenes sometimes to give you a visual novel instead of reading text all the time.
Then you have the music which has that 16-bit style that I enjoy. When developers get their own custom soundtracks is always a pleasure and it works.
The Bad:
There are some control issues but they are rare. Sometimes my button input would not register a jump or an attack at times. It is a nitpicking situation, not really game-breaking.
Conclusion:
It is a good Six hours of action and platforming goodness unless you are like me and it took longer. But yea, I have two different save files tackling it on different difficulties and the trophies are not that bad to obtain. There is a lot of fun to be had with Cyber Shadow and gives a nice game to old-school players and new-school gamers. With that being said, Cyber Shadow gets 4 out of 5 beast paws. Check it out right now on PlayStation 4, Steam, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One through Game Pass.
Cyber Shadow is available for $19.99, I hope you enjoyed this review, and please check back and subscribe to our website. – Beast Out –
Verdict:
Developer: Mechanical Head Studios
Publisher: Yacht Club Games
# Players: Single-player
