Cyber Shadow

 Switch
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 44 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 44
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 44
  3. Negative: 5 out of 44

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  1. ZiaCombs
    Jan 29, 2021
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Outside of one game breaking decision, this game is for the most part absolutely very well done. I would have given the game an 8-9 out of 10 easily. Unfortunately, though, the decision is game breaking.

    The game breaking decision was to omit 80% of the buttons on your controller. The L, R, ZR, ZL, X, Y, Right Analog, and Left Analog are all unused. Now, I fully understand why. The games developer was hell bound on not just making Cyber Shadow an homage to the NES era of games, but rather a replica of an NES game. He wanted not only the gameplay, visuals, and music to feel like an NES title, but he also wanted the control scheme to feel like an NES title, using only the A, B, and D-Pad buttons for gameplay purposes.

    So in forcing the limitation upon himself, he created a control scheme that feels clunky and unresponsive. The most glaring issues were the parry system and the running system. In the heat of the moment when you need precision movement, you will find yourself running even though you didn't want to, or parrying something accidently and putting yourself in a bad situation. Both of those things throwing your timing off in the most crucial of moments and dying because of it. Because of the controls, mind you, not the fact that the enemies defeated you fair and square. The old adage of "Tough but Fair", does not apply to this game at all. The last thing a person wants in a game built to be brutally difficult, is his or her controls to be imprecise. Also the wall climb and jumping felt pretty bad, a little less of an issue that the other examples I gave, but still, locking onto walls when you don't want to is a nuisance. The rest of the specials also felt awkward at best.

    I beat the game in 9.5 hours and hated most of it. But I am very stubborn and competitive, so I felt the need to beat it, the hate growing more and more after each unfair death. I literally have no idea what the story is because I skipped all the cut scenes and dialogue out of anger and simply wanted to beat this game and put it behind me. The idea to make this game as close to an NES game is very novel, and a very cute idea, but it also held back the game immensely.    … Expand
  2. Stylelementz
    Feb 2, 2021
    9
    Great game, really enjoying it, style and story is awesome. Best part of the game is the swag blade.
  3. Jcdbengals
    Jan 11, 2022
    7
    Fun game, but not worth even close to 19.99. Wait til price drop to 9.99 or under, then enjoy for a couple days. If physical release comes, then 19.99 makes more sense
  4. SL36
    Nov 29, 2021
    10
    What an absolute masterpiece. Incredible action, replayability, and just a gorgeous mix of old school platforming with new school polish. I had no clue what a gem this game was going to be when I picked it up. Can't recommend it enough.
  5. phoenixfire683
    Jan 30, 2021
    6
    I was really enjoying this game. At first it really lived up to the hype of the critic reviews until I noticed a few oddities. Many reviews called it retro styled with modern design sensibilities. But if that were the case, why is there knockback? I thought most most people agreed by now that that is an unfair design choice. And also, why is the enemy placement completely unfair half ofI was really enjoying this game. At first it really lived up to the hype of the critic reviews until I noticed a few oddities. Many reviews called it retro styled with modern design sensibilities. But if that were the case, why is there knockback? I thought most most people agreed by now that that is an unfair design choice. And also, why is the enemy placement completely unfair half of the time? This feels very similar to playing an nes game on an emulator to be frank. And it's a shame because there are some amazing aspects of the game. For example, the graphics and music are both astounding. However I can not agree that this game earns the monicer "tough but fair" for it is certainly lacking in the latter. This is not the Shovel Knight of retro ninja games, and I would be wary of picking this one up on a whim hoping for a fair but challenging time.… Expand
  6. sethdean0
    Sep 9, 2021
    2
    It is a very mediocre game. Not worth the money
    To me. I'd rather buy the messenger or something else
  7. Breikzer
    Jan 31, 2021
    7
    El juego es bastante bueno y entretenido aunque en ocasiones se siente un poco injusto. Cyber Shadow es un juego difícil, vas a tener que estar intentando una y varias veces llegar a los checkpoint hasta que lo logres, los checkpoints están algo alejados uno del otro, así que vas a tener que dominar bien los tramos de cada nivel para poder avanzar en la historia. Es un juego divertido yEl juego es bastante bueno y entretenido aunque en ocasiones se siente un poco injusto. Cyber Shadow es un juego difícil, vas a tener que estar intentando una y varias veces llegar a los checkpoint hasta que lo logres, los checkpoints están algo alejados uno del otro, así que vas a tener que dominar bien los tramos de cada nivel para poder avanzar en la historia. Es un juego divertido y que aporta mucha acción, el tiempo se te pasará volando. Dentro de sus puntos malos tenemos que el personaje tiene muy pocos movimientos, y que además los controles son un poco torpes y no tan responsivos como se necesitan para este tipo de juegos, además de que en ocasiones vas a tener que morir si o si, ya que el juego te lanza una cantidad de enemigos ridícula, que hace imposible que sobrevivas ya que además muchas veces morirás de un solo golpe. Otro punto flaco es la historia, la verdad bastante aburrida y genérica. Recomiendo el juego solo para los que extrañen la vieja escuela de juegos estilos NES y para los que tengan bastante tolerancia, ya que repito es un juego donde morirás muchas veces.… Expand
  8. DerekAlan
    Jan 30, 2021
    8
    I've played my fair share of NES platformers and indie games that take heavy inspiration from them, and I'm here to say while Cyber Shadow is a really good game, there's a couple limitations that's holding it back from it achieving the status of an absolute great game.

    My first complaint is Shadow's (the character you play as) controls and abilities. The developers really wanted to make    I've played my fair share of NES platformers and indie games that take heavy inspiration from them, and I'm here to say while Cyber Shadow is a really good game, there's a couple limitations that's holding it back from it achieving the status of an absolute great game.

    My first complaint is Shadow's (the character you play as) controls and abilities. The developers really wanted to make this game feel like an NES game. To the point where all actions are done by using the B and Y button, B to jump and Y to attack. Not utilizing A, X, L and R buttons is a huge missed opportunity for some of Shadow's abilities. You can however use R to dash if you change the button layout in the settings but it defaults to hitting left/right on the D pad twice. Abilities like the shuriken and the fire attack would work great using the X button, rather than using a D pad/Y at the same time type of combo. The wall jumping is decent, not as good as I'd like it to be. The dashing mechanic you retrieve about half way through the game which I found disappointing, would have been nice to have it earlier on. The worst ability is the parrying ability. To parry projectiles from other enemies you have to press left/right on the D pad into the projectile at the point the projectile would come into contact with you. I'm sure you can understand why this can be frustrating because you use the D pad to control your character. Half of the time I'd walk into the projectile rather than parrying it. Sure, you could say I had the timing off from parrying, but it's objectively not an intuitive way of parrying attacks, especially considering there's unused buttons on the controller and there's parts of the game where you have to parry projectiles while on small moveable platforms over spikes that kill you instantly, If you miss the parry by tapping forward on the D-pad, you get knocked back and fall into the spikes. Why the parry isn't on another button like L or something baffles me.

    Another small criticism I have is the lack of a crouch animation when pressing down on the D-pad. Not only to hit enemies that are lower to the ground, but to also move the camera down to see what's below you. With some of the more vertical levels, there have been multiple times where there have been blind falls where you couldn't slide down the walls on the side. All you could do is jump down. Not being able to crouch and see what's down below you is a missed opportunity. Some blind falls had enemies that I just ended up hitting because I didn't see them, other times there were no hazards. Still, I think it's something that should be in the game, lots of other games of this genre have it, for example Hollow Knight.

    On to some more positive notes, the game has great enemy and boss design, music is really good, and I like a lot of the level design, not all of it but most. This took heavy inspiration from the Ninja Gaiden trilogy on NES which I'm a big fan of, and Mechanical Head Studio really captured that feel with Cyber Shadow. This game is fairly punishing at times, as a lot of old school NES games were back in the day. They even have the flying crow type of enemies that spawn off screen (can be unfair at times, but when you learn the enemy placement in the levels it's not as bad) A lot of going through the levels is learning where enemy locations are so you can get through it without dying, Later on in the game you can die within about 4 hits depending on what enemy is hitting you, it's a nice challenge if you like that type of gameplay or if you grew up playing NES games like Ninja Gaiden, Mega Man, Castlevania, etc. Overall it's a really good game and clocks in around 10 hours. I recommend getting it if you're a fan of NES type of platformers. Not sure if it's worth replaying and doing multiple playthroughs yet, but maybe I'll revisit it a couple years later down the line.    … Expand
  9. JPhardboiled
    Jul 7, 2022
    9
    EXTREMELY TOUGH game, but beatable for real fans of the genre. It is one of the HARDEST FINAL BOSSES EVER! It will put your fingers through thumbnastics and get NASTY! If you beat this game your 1 of the few like the few who can beat Mike Tyson in "Mike Tyson's Punch Out!!"

    PLUS it's very forgiving since you basically get unlimited lives. Only negative is the music is pretty lame and    EXTREMELY TOUGH game, but beatable for real fans of the genre. It is one of the HARDEST FINAL BOSSES EVER! It will put your fingers through thumbnastics and get NASTY! If you beat this game your 1 of the few like the few who can beat Mike Tyson in "Mike Tyson's Punch Out!!"

    PLUS it's very forgiving since you basically get unlimited lives.

    Only negative is the music is pretty lame and the characters and story could've been better but overall gameplay is sold old school 8 bit with lots of fun new stuff.    … Expand
  10. nusco
    Mar 3, 2021
    5
    Cyber Shadow is painful to review. Most of it is good. It's built with love and care, and it really nails its aesthetics. It doesn't just look and sound like an 8-bit action game: it *feels* like one, plus the modern amenities. Overall it gets close to being a great game… except that right before hitting its target, it takes a left turn and misses the mark by a mile because of its designCyber Shadow is painful to review. Most of it is good. It's built with love and care, and it really nails its aesthetics. It doesn't just look and sound like an 8-bit action game: it *feels* like one, plus the modern amenities. Overall it gets close to being a great game… except that right before hitting its target, it takes a left turn and misses the mark by a mile because of its design flaws.

    Cyber Shadow tries to be a modern take on the classic ultra-hard ninja games, but it doesn't understand what makes hard games fun. Weirdly, the best level and bosses are also the hardest: the final ones. For most of the game, however, Cyber Shadow confuses difficulty for cheap instadeaths and soul-breaking frustration.

    Here is an example: Cyber Shadow asks you to slowly build up your health. You even go through multiple challenges for those additional health slots. After a while, however, you realize that the additional health has almost no effect on the game. With the exception of boss fights, you rarely ever die by running out of health: you mostly die by some variation of cheap instadeaths. The reason why the last level feels fair, even though it's the hardest, is that it doesn't rely on those cheap shots.

    The cheap deaths are only made worse by the game's controls. While the controls mostly work fine, some sections demand absolute precision–and that's where the controls fail. During the "monkey" challenge, I noticed that the jump command has a slight input lag on the Switch, and that's enough to make that section quite unreliable. In some later levels, tight platforming can become a hit-and-miss affair.

    Making a very hard game isn't easy. Not every "tough as nails" game can come close to Hollow Knight, Celeste, or Dark Souls. Joining that circle requires absolute fairness and very precise controls–and Cyber Shadow has neither. If only the whole game were as good as that last level!    … Expand
  11. giannis2001
    Jan 28, 2021
    6
    I personally think that the game's difficulty and the moveset of the main character don't fit together. The moveset is lacking in every way even if you acquire a lot of abilities later on,because the difficulty is one step forward than your moveset and abilities. Overall the game is good, 8 bit styled with good animations and dialogue, soundtrack etc. But the only problem, is the moveset.I personally think that the game's difficulty and the moveset of the main character don't fit together. The moveset is lacking in every way even if you acquire a lot of abilities later on,because the difficulty is one step forward than your moveset and abilities. Overall the game is good, 8 bit styled with good animations and dialogue, soundtrack etc. But the only problem, is the moveset. I still recommend it, because the game is polished and maybe I just didn't like it but I think the moveset is lacking.… Expand
  12. Qba19833
    Mar 19, 2021
    10
    This game is all I wanted it to be. I've been waiting for it since it was announced, and did not disappoint me in the slightest. Kudos to the creators for keeping this awesome old-school genre alive!!!
  13. rfloresx
    Mar 6, 2021
    4
    Pros: Great pixel art, and great chiptune soundtrack.

    Cons: The controls are not as tight as other games in the genre, enemy behavior is sometimes inconsistent, and the checkpoints are way too spaced out later in the game... The game just doesn't do anything special enough to warrant slogging through it..

    If you haven't played The Messenger yet, I highly recommend playing that instead!!!
  14. Gontrand00
    Apr 3, 2021
    5
    I pretty much agree with other's people mixed reviews.

    It has a lot of qualities (graphics, music, gameplay), but also has a lot of bad points that are a deal breaker in that genre. What's the point of making a platform game if your move set is so limited and feels clunky ? The ennemies are actually always having the advantage and the checkpoints are way to spaced in the levels.    I pretty much agree with other's people mixed reviews.

    It has a lot of qualities (graphics, music, gameplay), but also has a lot of bad points that are a deal breaker in that genre.

    What's the point of making a platform game if your move set is so limited and feels clunky ? The ennemies are actually always having the advantage and the checkpoints are way to spaced in the levels. Those are the things you need to be able to balance if you want people to have fun with your game.

    And I sincerely don't care about the ''but they wanted to do a full retro game''. If 90% of those retro games were bad, it's for a reason. They were cheaply designed with bad controls. They felt hard because the game devs at that time just sucked at making good games. I don't see the point of making a NES retro game if you keep all the worst flaws that could have been thrown out. I just feel this is a bunch of lazy decisions. And I'm kinda pissed about Yacht Games for supporting this, like did you even play the game before publishing it ? It really has potential, why wouldn't you work more on it until it's really polished ? This doesn't deserve more than a 5, because you just don't have fun playing this game after 1-2 hours.    … Expand
  15. Ahaha_mams
    Feb 4, 2021
    7
    Cyber Shadow has great gameplay and controls, a great soundtrack, and excellent level design. However, the story does not feel like it was a priority to the developers, and can be hard to follow and forgettable. Looking at something like Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment, that game has great controls, music, and level design, and a fantastic story on top of that, along with a hub world toCyber Shadow has great gameplay and controls, a great soundtrack, and excellent level design. However, the story does not feel like it was a priority to the developers, and can be hard to follow and forgettable. Looking at something like Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment, that game has great controls, music, and level design, and a fantastic story on top of that, along with a hub world to tie it all together. Cyber Shadow feels incomplete, with nothing holding all of these fantastic levels together.… Expand
  16. reginalpouliot
    Feb 22, 2021
    8
    Shovel Knight, Celeste and The Messenger have all been masterpieces to me. Cyber Shadow is nearly as good as them when it comes to the story, music and game play.

    I found the upgrades and power-ups system to be very well done and the boss fights to be just challenging enough. The story is also captivating without taking too much space, most of the dialogs are short and optional, while    Shovel Knight, Celeste and The Messenger have all been masterpieces to me. Cyber Shadow is nearly as good as them when it comes to the story, music and game play.

    I found the upgrades and power-ups system to be very well done and the boss fights to be just challenging enough. The story is also captivating without taking too much space, most of the dialogs are short and optional, while still providing depth.

    Where I think the game is odd is that getting hit by enemies lower the character's health, but the environment can kill you in one shot and can be very cruel in some areas. So the difficulty is comparable to Celeste from time to time, but the checkpoints placement not always balancing this out and it can feel quite frustrating.

    It's a nice touch that to get 100% items you need to go back to earlier levels after getting late upgrades, but there could have been a lot more content there. After about 10 hours I had nothing left to do in the game, so this isn't comparable to the games mentioned above that I purchased for a similar price.    … Expand
  17. Bo-Bo-Biwa
    Feb 23, 2021
    9
    Cyber Shadow is an incredible journey that will suck the blood, sweat, and tears out of you. Mekaskull and Yacht Club Games bring an intense and challenging game that will make you rage, but love every second of it. The entire experience as a whole is a love letter to fans of old school styled platformers. Fans of the original Ninja Gaiden series should feel right at home with theCyber Shadow is an incredible journey that will suck the blood, sweat, and tears out of you. Mekaskull and Yacht Club Games bring an intense and challenging game that will make you rage, but love every second of it. The entire experience as a whole is a love letter to fans of old school styled platformers. Fans of the original Ninja Gaiden series should feel right at home with the difficulty and plentiful amounts of robots. The game manages to keep on giving after you beat the final boss. The feats system returning from the Shovel Knight series is definitely not for everyone as it tests your reflexes and skills to the max. Some feats feel like they are fighting against what you have learned across the battle at times. The soundtrack is definitely worthy of being played on repeat. Enrique Martin (composer of Cyber Shadow) understands what a cyber-ninja based game should feel like as the up tune robotic songs manage to encapsulate Cyber Shadow as a whole. Cyber does have some issues in the control department. You are able to map certain actions to buttons you would like, but there is no option to map the special attacks which are mapped to ↑ attack, ↓ attack, and ↓ attack while in the air. This can mess with the flow of the game at the time. But the flow of the game is incredible. You can tell every enemy placement is placed with care for the player. Certain enemies placements may be frustrating to some, but they encourage you to think outside the box of the game creating somewhat of a constant strategy dynamic. I have just over 30 hours with this game and need one more feat in order to 100% this game at the time of this review. I cannot wait to get right back in and beat the game once more.… Expand
  18. lSAGGERl
    Mar 3, 2021
    10
    Las novedades con aspecto retro siempre son bienvenidas, no como esa basura de refritear hasta la saciedad lo que Nintendo no vendió con WiU a precio de novedad (lo mismo por las demás compañias).
  19. danflurry
    Mar 15, 2021
    8
    First, just to get this out of the way: Cyber Shadow is *excellent*.

    Second, I am a casual gamer, mostly because I don't have a lot of free time to do things like play video games. So, maybe I wasn't as bothered by some of the technical stuff that others have mentioned. For example, one negative user review harped on the limited button implementation. To be honest, I do not think this    First, just to get this out of the way: Cyber Shadow is *excellent*.

    Second, I am a casual gamer, mostly because I don't have a lot of free time to do things like play video games. So, maybe I wasn't as bothered by some of the technical stuff that others have mentioned. For example, one negative user review harped on the limited button implementation. To be honest, I do not think this was an issue for me. I am probably 90% of the way through the game and, while the controls are somewhat unusual at first (yes, parrying took some work to nail down), it eventually evened out. The game does a good job giving you opportunities to try your new abilities shortly after acquiring them. It's up to you to implement them correctly. I don't think the game or the controls hinder you in this. You have to put in the time, just like anything.

    Also, I've seen people say the soundtrack is bad. The opposite is true. There are some legit bangers in this game. Some of the tracks even rival the best Mega Man tunes. You will hear some recurring themes, but there is a ton of variety in the music, and each track really suits the level or cut-scene really well.

    The game itself is VERY difficult. Again, I say this as a casual gamer. You WILL NOT SUCCEED by mashing buttons. You must proceed through each level with a plan, and you must execute that plan close to perfectly. Memorizing enemy spawns is often necessary. There are some SEGMENTS of levels that I probably had to attempt 50-75 times before reaching the next save point. Never once, however, did I feel like blaming the game itself for my failures. Rarely did a death seem cheap -- I could tell what I did wrong, and I just had to correct for it. This game would be virtually impossible without save points -- and it has a generous number of save points.

    The artwork and level detail are phenomenal.

    There are only two things I wish this game was better at:

    1) The level map system is confusing. It didn't even occur to me until most of the way through the game that I might want to go back to a level I had already beaten.

    2) The story is very cool -- at least what I could understand of it. This might partially have been intentional -- the protagonist himself is somewhat in the shadows (ha) about what has been happening in his world. On the other hand, I had a hard time following the pronouns in the dialogue. Also, I found the computer logs to be a clunky way of revealing details of the story. The game is so fun that I will almost certainly play through it again, and I suspect I will understand everything better when I do.    … Expand
  20. Lewyz
    May 8, 2021
    6
    A frustratingly hard game with very good sounds, graphics and controls. Should have had difficulty settings for casual players.
  21. kostasmaiden
    Mar 20, 2022
    10
    From an 40year old old timer retro 8bit-16bit era fanboy, this game is gold. Its a mix of Ninja Gaiden, Shinobi, Mega Man, Castlevania (NES) and Turtles (The NES one, mostly the graphics). The soundtrack ..that soundtrack brings you back nostalgia level 100%. Fantastic OST. The game itself is addicting, adding all the time new elements, enemies and stuff, has a versatile design from stageFrom an 40year old old timer retro 8bit-16bit era fanboy, this game is gold. Its a mix of Ninja Gaiden, Shinobi, Mega Man, Castlevania (NES) and Turtles (The NES one, mostly the graphics). The soundtrack ..that soundtrack brings you back nostalgia level 100%. Fantastic OST. The game itself is addicting, adding all the time new elements, enemies and stuff, has a versatile design from stage to stage. I was between the messenger and this one. Started playing the messenger, but after 2-3 hours I stopped, such a repetitive game, and even boring, though it started promising, This gem on the other hand.. not comparable. Just play it.… Expand
  22. theUglyCasan0va
    Dec 25, 2022
    4
    Really nothing of value here. If you've played one game of this genre, you've played this. Decent music, bland gameplay.
  23. Oddlennon
    Nov 30, 2022
    8
    Excellent game! Just kept getting better as play went on.
    I’d rank this right up there with THE MESSENGER

Awards & Rankings

45
#45 Best Switch Game of 2021
44
#44 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2021

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
82

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. Nintendo Force Magazine
    May 17, 2021
    85
    Mechanical Head has a winner on their hands. [Issue #51 – March/April 2021, p. 18]
  2. Nintendojo
    Mar 23, 2021
    91
    For those who still keep to the old ways, though, this is the real deal. There are plenty of retro games, including some widely lauded ones, that I feel missed the mark with ill-considered gimmickry, boring level design, and smug pandering. Cyber Shadow’s not that. It’s not a winking nod or cynical nostalgia bait. It’s a worthy successor.
    Read full review
  3. Switch Player
    Feb 16, 2021
    80
    Cyber Shadow is a devilishly difficult action platformer that stays perhaps a little too true to its 8-bit inspirations. It’s excellent, in almost every way, but it’s as challenging as they come and that won’t be for everyone.
    Read full review
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