Cyber Shadow answers a very specific question, namely: What would a modern AAA video game look like if it existed in the eighties? Now, if you're feeling pedantic you could argue that Sabotage Studio'
There’s a difference between a love letter to a genre and a complete re-creation.
To avoid tackling ground already covered when making video games that reference the 8- and 16-bit eras of the 1980s and ‘90s, Yacht Club Games co-founder David D’Angelo says one of his go-to references is “You’ve Got Mail.” Yes, the 1998 Nora Ephron-directed rom-com starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Or, specifically, its relationship to the 1940 Ernst Lubitsch-directed film that inspired it, “The Shop Around the Corner.”
“It’s the same thing,” D’Angelo says in discussing how the West Los Angeles team behind the retro hit game “Shovel Knight” developed the mission statement for Yacht Club. Viewing “You’ve Got Mail” alongside the original “The Shop Around the Corner,” he says, can at times be a challenge for audiences weaned on more recent acting and filmmaking techniques.
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âCyber Shadowâ review: classic 8-bit ninja action platforming for the hardcore
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Yacht Club Gamesâ follow-up to Shovel Knight is a lean, mean action platformer that puts your ninja reflexes to the test
Even as weâve entered a new generation of console hardware, the 8-bit aesthetics of yesteryear continue to remain in vogue. Largely, we have 2014âs
Shovel Knight to thank for that, a crowdfunded indie platformer that managed to combine all the best bits of NES-era platformers, resulting in something that felt fresh and unique.
Itâs also been something of a cash cow for developer Yacht Club Games, who followed it up with a number of expansions while its eponymous knight crossed over into every other indie game. In danger of getting stale then, theyâve wisely embarked on publishing to give other 8-bit-inspired developers their chance to shine.
is inspired by a long line of games that didn’t seem to care whether you enjoyed them.
Ninja Gaiden, and other ultra-difficult platformers of its era, found charm in making you stick around through each punishing death. Developer Mechanical Head Games has modernized that approach to challenge with
Cyber Shadow by making something that lives up to the legacy of those retro games, while also feeling approachable and fair.
Cyber Shadow is a 2D action-platformer that follows a cyber ninja named Shadow who has to save a dystopian city that’s been overrun by evil machines. As in most platformers, this means that I spend most of my time jumping over spikes, traps, and dozens of other obstacles, all while using Shadow’s katana to take out the robots that are in my way.