Cyber Shadow Reviews
As Yacht Club Games’s first non-Shovel Knight IP, and as a work of individual love and passion developed over many, many years, there has been a ton of hype around Cyber Shadow among lovers of indie platformers. Cyber Shadow does not disappoint. While its simplicity compared to another recent Ninja Gaiden-inspired game may leave you wanting a tad more, the game as it is is challenging, creative, and absolutely a blast to play.
The game’s boss battles are incredibly fun and intense; when first trying to take them down, you’ll fumble a bit and get your ass kicked; especially when you have a sliver of the boss’ health. But once you get into a groove and learn the enemy patterns, they are definitely some of the most fun boss battles envisioned. They feature a perfect blend of fun and challenge.
This is a finely made game, to be sure, and is fun to play and control. It’s just that until the end it’s a lot of what I’ve played before. It may not be reinventing the wheel, but Cyber Shadow still makes a damn fine one. If you want a definitive example of 8-bit action, look no further.
Cyber Shadow is not the best retro-infused indie platformer starring a ninja I’ve played in recent memory, but it’s still well worth your time. It’s occasionally unfair and frustrating, but once you reach a boss battle or a better designed level, you’ll be greeted with a surprisingly rewarding action experience with great visuals and soundtrack.
Yacht Club and Mechanical Head have clearly made a title for acquired tastes, specifically the masochistic kind, but they at least had the decency to be generous with its continue system and new-age game design nuances like refillable energy for your skills.
Cyber Shadow is just a tremendous joy to experience as a Shadow of the Ninja addict, but has a lot of merit that makes the game far exceed the inspirations that birthed it. The beautiful lack of lives, training the player to better themselves and master the game’s mechanics without causing pointless frustrations, the godlike music, containing a soundtrack you absolutely must buy the moment it becomes available, and the fun powerups, offering enough to make Shadow feel like a true evolving warrior.
Cyber Shadow thrills with its fast-paced and accurate action in a modern adventure inspired by classics. It's quite fun to control a cyber ninja through stages full of diverse situations that require mastery of his various abilities, on a journey full of surprises. The challenge is frequent and there is not much room for error, but the generous presence of checkpoints mitigates the frustration of being defeated. Even so, it is important to be prepared to face irritating peaks of difficulty. The retro atmosphere captivates with the elaborate 8-bit pixel art visual style, the music that mixes chiptune and real instruments and the well-built world. In the end, Cyber Shadow is an exceptional action game.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Cyber Shadow is a beautifully crafted retro action experience complete with formidable enemies and crushing precision platforming. Abilities like the bullet deflect and dash strike provides the classic ninja experience without overloading on reused mechanics. On top of that, the length and replayability options give players a healthy serving of content tosing more time into refining their skills.
Most fall short of this lofty goal, but every so often a game like Cyber Shadow manages to capture that special feeling of 8-bit gaming so perfectly. Made by a single developer, Aarne Hunziker, and with the help of a publisher who also managed to capture the NES magic in a bottle in Yacht Club Games, Cyber Shadow is just as enjoyable as any of the legendary titles in two-button gaming.
It’s absolutely nails to begin with, but stick with Cyber Shadow and it will be your new favourite platformer. There will be tantrums and swearwords, but when a game looks this cool you can’t stay mad at it.
While I’ve spent a lot of time covering what Cyber Shadow does right, there’s a lot more I could talk about. But since that would cross into spoiler territory, I’ll let you discover for yourselves why this is one of the best games of the new year. There’s a lot of replay value here, too, thanks to Yacht Club implementing a whole host of achievements, regardless of whether you play the game on Steam or consoles. Though it can get more than a bit challenging at times, I’d heartily recommend this to any fan of the classics. Even if you don’t appreciate NES games of yore, this is still a tremendous adventure full of mystery and danger. Kudos to Mechanical Head Games on developing Cyber Shadow, and many thanks to Yacht Club for helping it reach its full potential.