The first thing that immediately strikes you when playing Cyber Shadow is, unsurprisingly, the presentation. All Shadow has with them - besides their sword and skills - is a locket containing the image of a young woman, an apparent loved one whose history and involvement becomes more clear as things progress… Their only companion is L-Gion, a little robot guide that assists them as they fight their way through the city ruins, as Shadow is now the last chance to taken down Progen. Progen has taken over the world with a synthetic army, and to make matters worse, his army is powered by the souls of the other ninja from Shadow’s clan, now wiped out. Set in the futuristic Mekacity, Cyber Shadow stars the titular Shadow, a ninja awakened from a slumber in stasis, now in a robotic body. So is Cyber Shadow also worthy of being called another lost NES classic? While borrowing more from the likes of the Ninja Gaiden games and old Natsume action games, the partnership with Yacht Club does make it feel like the pressure to live up to Shovel Knight’s legacy is arguably greater here that ever.
I bring this up because Yacht Club is now publishing another action-platformer going for the exact same feel: Cyber Shadow, from developer MekaSkull. From its graphics to its gameplay, every part of Shovel Knight made truly feel like it was some lost late-era NES game. Sure, it was an amazing game on its own, but more than that, it nailed all of the old-school vibes it was going for. I feel confident in saying that when Yacht Club Games released Shovel Knight back in 2014, it set an impossibly high bar to clear for all retro games that would come afterwards.