Cyber ​​Shadow is a frustration-free NES-style platform game

Cyber ​​shadow is inspired by a long line of games that didn’t seem to care if you enjoyed them.

Ninja gaiden, and other ultra-difficult platforms of its time, found charm in making you stay through every punishing death. Developer Mechanical Head Games modernized this approach to the challenge with Cyber ​​shadow by creating something that lives up to the legacy of these retro games, while still feeling accessible and fair.

Cyber ​​shadow is a 2D action platform game that follows a cyber ninja named Shadow who must save a dystopian city overrun by evil machines. As with most platforms, 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 on it. my way.

Image: Mechanical head games / Yacht club games

Take inspiration from NES games like Ninja gaiden, Mega man, and Shatterhand, Cyber ​​shadow uses pixel art to bring out the magnificent contrast of colors in each environment and highlight the unique enemy designs of the game. The game comes with an outstanding chiptune soundtrack.

Despite its retro style, Cyber ​​shadow never feels old. Unlike similar games such as Shovel knight (developed by Yacht Club Games, the publisher behind Cyber ​​shadow), which featured slow and deliberately delayed jumps, and mechanisms that looked like they had been torn from an NES cartridge, Cyber ​​shadow feels relatively modern. Each movement is responsive and lively, making the game feel faster than its inspirations.

Cyber ​​shadow even includes in-flight control of your jumps. If I’m in the middle of a jump to the right, I can always immediately flip left, cut an enemy, and turn right. This kind of speed allows the game to offer complex platforms and faster enemies, while still giving me time to react.

Another asset that helps Cyber ​​shadow is its visual clarity. The game’s levels feature rooms with interesting enemies, jumping puzzles, hard-to-dodge traps, and often a combination of all three. These rooms are almost all unique and attractive to overcome, but they are also very easy to understand.

Even in the busiest rooms, where there may be six or seven enemies, moving platforms, collectibles, and meticulously timed traps, all of the items have their own unique look and animations that make them easy to spot. . I was always able to separate the dozens of on-screen interactions, and when I lost track of something I felt like I wasn’t up to the challenge of the game, rather than a particle that got lost in the mix. Almost every death I suffered in the game felt like it was my fault, which always gave me a reason to reappear and try again.

Image: Mechanical head games / Yacht club games

And sometimes trying again meant more than five or six trips back to the same checkpoint. While the dead almost always felt just, that doesn’t mean I’ve never been frustrated. Fortunately, the game even has a built-in system to mitigate this frustration, if you find yourself stuck on a particularly difficult checkpoint.

Cyber ​​shadow has an in-game currency which you can collect by destroying glowing orange orbs that litter the levels in the game. This currency can be used to upgrade specific checkpoints that divide areas on each level. While the more basic checkpoints will only restore Shadow to full health, some – especially those that come before the longer, more difficult areas – can be upgraded to do things like recharge Shadow’s magical power ( which allows her to throw shurikens or fireballs that you unlock throughout the game) or spawn a rare magic item. These elements are where difficulty assistance comes in.

These items are basically power-ups that help make the game a bit easier. One is a spinning energy ball that damages surrounding enemies, another is a massive shield, and another is a longer range attack. While I can find them in normal play at very specific times, I feel like I activate a cheat code when I pick them up at a regular checkpoint.

In other recent retro-style platforms, if a player dies too many times in a section, developers may decide to display a prompt that asks if they want to lower the difficulty level. But Mechanical Head Games’ system is much better. It still allows the player to complete the content as intended; they just get a little extra nudge, and off we go (most of the time) at the next checkpoint. I never had enough change to activate all the checkpoints, so upgrading one was always a big choice. Or I could ignore the elements completely if I didn’t struggle.

Image: Mechanical head games / Yacht club games

I was especially grateful for these items when I faced off against the bosses in the game, which I just wanted to get through as quickly as possible. I’m halfway through the game right now, and few battles have been memorable; most of the bosses’ abilities were boring. They are nowhere near the high quality mark set by the levels that lead them, so in the rare event that I die during one of them, I simply bought an item, quickly killed the boss and reverted to the good ones. parts of the game.

There’s a fine line between tough games and frustrating games, especially when you’re trying to pay homage to games that came out three decades ago. But with Cyber ​​shadow, Mechanical Head Games proves that with a few smart, modern twists, it is possible to create a retro-style platform game with all the difficulty of the past and few frustration.