There’s a bit of recalibration that I had to go through while playing this. The feel is the most important aspect, and while it takes some getting used to, that’s the element that shined throughout my playtime.

I did not know of Enrique Martin before this game, but I will now pay attention to any game soundtrack he works on after Cyber Shadow.īut stellar visuals and music is overall a small part of the experience. The soundtrack is by Enrique Martin (with some production help from Shovel Knight composer Jake Kaufman) and is dripping with memorable melodies and blood-pumping beats. The animation of Shadow, the various enemies, and multitudes of bosses is gorgeous, especially when combined with the ambitious layered parallax backgrounds. But in all honesty, the text could have been in a different language because I was so smitten by the visuals and the soundtrack. Thankfully it’s never too overwhelming and a lot of the finer details are told through optional computer terminals and character memories. While there are some novel twists, the story is one of the weaker parts. The narrative is almost shockingly ever-present, with gorgeous cut scenes that evoke the style of NES Ninja Gaiden cinema sequences. You control Shadow, a mysterious cybernetic ninja who awakens in the wreckage of Meka City. It does that by nailing the overall feel and staying fresh at every turn. While it doesn’t ascend to the highs of Shovel Knight, Cyber Shadow is a well-paced, challenging platformer that manages to not lose the thread of what makes those old games memorable. Whereas Shovel Knight was clawing at the memories of the likes of Mega Man and Zelda II, Cyber Shadow seems more interested with Shadow of the Ninja or that awesome NES Batman game. That’s why my hopes were high for Cyber Shadow, a game developed by Mechanical Head Studios that Yacht Club took under their wing in 2019. That game succeeded largely because it felt like vintage NES-era classics, but was thoroughly modern overall. This is something that Yacht Club Games absolutely nailed with their debut Shovel Knight. The best course of action is to try to make a game that feels like a memory of an old game and not just the old game. When making a retro-inspired action platformer, it’s very easy to lose the thread of what makes those old games memorable.

Cyber shadow soundtrack