Today we are going to take a look at Cyber Shadow. This metroidvania promises to make you into an 8-bit ninja exploring the depths of Mekacity fighting down hundreds of enemies in a wonderful pixelart world while listening to pulse-pounding soundtracks. Cyber Shadow is available on Steam for 19 Euro and 99 cents or your regional equivalent.

With this review you have a choice of either reading it here in text form or listening to the video review. They both contain the same content.

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Have you ever heard of games such as Metroid? Mega Man? No? How about something a tiny bit newer? Castelavania? Those of you who lived through a lot in their gaming past have their eyes currently glistening with nostalgia while the younger among you might just be thinking hard whether they should know these games or not. Nonetheless, I am sure you have heard of the metroidvania genre itself. And there is a reason why I am talking about all these games from the past. Cyber Shadow is their spiritual successor and there is no denying they have take a lot of inspiration from them. But you know what? I don’t matter.

The main protagonist of Cyber Shadow is – unsurprisingly – Shadow. A former ninja turned cyborg and he has the goal of restoring his clan in the city of Mekacity which is filled with synthetic lifeforms. Not exactly the story that would make you wonder in awe just from reading it. And since I wasn’t expecting anything extra from the game I got quite astonished when the game started introducing me to the story before I found my first power-up. Thanks to way of the ninja that connects you to spiritual world you get to read to thoughts of the poor souls that got killed by robots.

This is great world-building. But it does depend on one thing. Are you willing to stop the action and read the bits of information that slowly build the story. But I do love the way it is done. There is no big exposition-monologue and the feeling of slowly understanding just cannot be replaced. It’s something I loved about Hollow Knight and it’s something I really like here as well. And on top of that, whenever you finish a level you get rewarded with a short movie with lore and if you read the thoughts of the dead it will be even that much better.

The game itself presents itself with raw 8-bit-like graphics with a truly awesome chiptune soundtrack that just energizes you for all the action that’s to come. If like me, you love pixelart than get ready to fall in love with dark locations sending a simple message – the future is dark and grim. On the other hand, I will admit… while the pixelart in Cyber Shadow is done well with lots of retro I do prefer the modern pixel that has a lot more detail to it.

If you’re a side-scrolling veteran you’ll be very happy to find plenty of hidden places where things like power-ups are well… hidden. And while back-tracking in this game is fairly common you can technically finish it with zero back-tracking. Though I would advise against it as you will lose a lot of power doing so. Just consider it an update to the Metroid formula as this allowed the developers to circle around the problem of searching around for that one thing you need and just can’t find.

The one thing the developers didn’t screw around with is the gameplay itself as it is well.. quite unforgiving. Cyber Shadow isn’t a casual game to play just after you had a nice lunch and you want to push random buttons on your controller. This game is more like pulling your sleeves up, tying up a bandanna around your head and getting ready to tear up after your fifteenth try. As you keep dying you will soon pray for checkpoints. And since I just mentioned them, it is more than worth it to upgrade your checkpoints – it will make your life that much more pleasant.

Cyber Shadow actually reminded me a lot of Castlevania especially when it came to the combat. You start with a simple attack but over time more and more specials such as throwing shurikens or killing robots Mario-style. But even that needs it’s proper comboing. Forget trying doing random stuff you really need to time your dodges as everything needs to be truly earned. And you’ll even get to use a few special weapons. These can either be found in the levels themselves or buy them in terminals. These weapons will provide you with a huge advantage but they can last three hits and then they go away.

When it comes to the enemies, there is a good number of them and anytime you’ll meet a new one you should be more than careful. You never know what it has in store for you. Then there are the bosses. These are nicely varied and quite fun. They come with that great feeling of slowly learning a fight, finding the weaknesses and then using them. And as you learn more and more tricks, at the end you’re feel like a true ninja.

Conclusion

So… in conclusion: Cyber Shadow left me with that nice warm feeling inside. And angry at times when I failed because of its pretty damn high difficulty. The story itself is pretty average but if you take the time to explore you’ll be rewarded purely by the way it is told. But in the end, Cyber Shadow doesn’t do anything new or revolutionary but what it does it does well. And sometimes that’s more than enough. If you feel the need to wreck some controllers while playing a good metroidvania Cyber Shadow could be your choice.

So, that’s it for today guys. I hope you liked the review and if you did, please up-vote the review, follow my blog, and be sure to share it with your friends. And comment, if you have anything you would like to add. See you guys later with more gaming content.

Disclaimer: All the images have been taken directly from the Steam game page