Cyber Citizen Shockman
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Critic Reviews for Cyber Citizen Shockman
An Exercise in apathy, neither solid nor liquid. Not exactly bad, but not very good either. Just a bit 'meh,' really.
On the whole though, while some fun can be had if you really dig in and attempt to learn Shockman with total conviction, it remains the lesser of its series, has aged fairly poorly, and will really only appeal to diehard retro enthusiasts who want to own a piece of gaming history on a modern format.
As a whole, Cyber Citizen Shockman is an excellent side-scrolling platformer that has a few signs of its age, but the core gameplay is timeless.
The appeal of Cyber Citizen Shockman is its nostalgia factor. The sights and sounds will take you back to the days of New Coke, Ronald Regan, and gaming on a hardwood floor with your friends that you long since lost touch with. When it comes to an end, older gamers might find themselves feeling wistful for the days they were young and full of potential.
Cyber Citizen Shockman is certainly a relic from the past as it's undeniably dated yet at the same time, I can't stop playing it.
While people familiar with this old-school PC Engine title may like the nostalgic angle, the “classic” style of play is tough to enjoy
Put simply, Cyber Citizen Shockman is a peculiarity of a retro game. Though I appreciate it being brought to new audiences some 30 years later, I can’t say it holds up very well. My hope is that the series grew over time and got much improved, since I know Ratalaika is bringing other games from the franchise to the West. But if you’re looking for an amazing retro experience, you’ll probably be disappointed with it.
Bugged credits aside, I am pretty impressed with how this game was brought over after all this time, and the treatment here really does give me hope that the other 3 games will follow suit. The original Shockman is rather janky, but it still has a lot of charm to it and is pretty decent fun in co-op, and for the price point + extras, this is definitely a PCE classic worth playing through at least once, especially if you are fond of the sequel that did make it over back in the day.
