Cyber Shadow Download

[Mariam Obregon]

CyberShadow is a side-scrolling action-platform game[3] developed by Finnish indie studio Mechanical Head Studios and published by Yacht Club Games. Using an 8-bit aesthetic, the game follows a cybernetic ninja named Shadow who sets out to rescue his clan in a world overrun by machines.

The game is mostly developed by Aarne Hunziker, who is the sole member of Mechanical Head Studios. It was first shown at PAX East 2019, having been in development from years before and silently announced before that event. It contains stated inspirations from other platform video games such as Ninja Gaiden. The game was released on January 26, 2021 to mostly positive reviews, citing the graphics and gameplay as highlights.

Cyber Shadow is a side-scrolling action-platformer in which players control a ninja character who battles enemies with a sword and various special abilities acquired as subweapons. It features an 8-bit aesthetic which shares similarities to Shatterhand[4] and contains several gameplay elements of Shadow of the Ninja, Ninja Gaiden, Mega Man, Castlevania and similar games, which include snaking paths and occasional backtracking.[5][6] Several bosses are present.[6][7][8]

The game's plot follows Shadow, a cyborg[10] ninja who sets out to free his fallen clan from synthetic lifeforms harvesting them for their powers.[5][7] It is set in the ruins of the fictional Mekacity.[8][11][12] Shadow travels across Mekacity, fighting the cybernetic beings as well as a traitor from his ninja clan called Apparitor, and ends his captured clanmates lives to free their spirits. His ultimate goal is to find the Master of the clan, with whom the original human Shadow had a seemingly romantic relationship. Shadow discovers that the Master was dying of a mysterious spiritual disease, and her father, in a mad scheme to save her life, attacked the city with his synthetic army and betrayed the Clan so as to drain their mystical powers, and use the drained energy to keep his daughter alive. Cyber-Shadow sets out to defeat him so that he can free her spirit from her dying body and reunite with her in the Ethos, the spiritual realm.

Cyber Shadow was developed by Mechanical Head Studios, a team consisting purely of the creator Aarne Hunziker, and published by Yacht Club Games.[12] Aarne Hunziker, having already been developing the game for years on his own, initially had no intention of teaming up with a publisher; he was first discovered by Yacht Club while posting about the ongoing development on Twitter,[13] and later was convinced by them to "join [their] little family".[14] Although most of the development is handled by Hunziker, the music will be composed by Enrique Martin and produced by Jake Kaufman;[8][12][15] in addition to their usual role as a publisher, Yacht Club is giving design feedback from their previous experience developing Shovel Knight.[8][13]

Hunziker's first experience in game development was hacking the ROMs of classic games to manipulate their visuals, effectively customizing them.[5][10] He later decided to create his own game, but scrapped it. Four years later he began coding from scratch what would become Cyber Shadow. He has had continued difficulties with the development of the game due to its scope and having to do it almost entirely alone.[5]

Hunziker has described the game as one that combines "the level design principles of Mario, the skills and action of Ninja Gaiden, the enemy designs of Contra and the dark visual aesthetic of Batman",[8][15] but has also said that it is more deliberately intended as a callback to Shadow of the Ninja.[6] In an interview with Siliconera, he said that "[t]he story is about exploiting carefully nurtured ancient knowledge with logic" as a reason why it involves both ancient ninjas and futuristic robots.[10]

In the "Yacht Club Games Presents" on February 26, 2020, it was revealed that the game would release in 2021, and that the Shovel Knight Amiibo would be compatible with the Nintendo Switch version of the game.[16] It was released on January 26, 2021 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5,[17] Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows.[11][15][2]

All versions of Cyber Shadow have received "generally favorable reviews", according to review aggregator Metacritic.[18][19][20][22][21] IGN summed up their 8/10 review by saying "Cyber Shadow's excellent gameplay, level design, variety, and music make it a great modernization of the classic Ninja Gaiden formula."[27]

Chapter 4 begins with Shadow at the bottom of a shaft with two directions to choose from. Both are dead ends with a switch that needs to be triggered in order to open in the door in the shaft. Just some light platforming required, nothing too fancy.

Moving forward is fairly simple, the first tricky part is the indestructible orbs that travel in a circle. Time your attack to avoid them and hit the center to stop the orbs and make them vulnerable to attack. Downward thrust multiple times to defeat the metal worms that are blocking the path. Coming up is a neat little section where Shadow enters a cyber verse in order to unlock a pathway. The octopus looking creatures attack Shadow only when in view so you can lure them in for defeat.

The next few sections are pretty much exclusively testing out your platforming skills. Timed jumps and quick reflexes are needed to avoid the enemies as you continue through the pathway. After the next save point comes these walls that block your path, shoot the orange tile and the blow up allowing passage. Shoot a few more enemies and platform down to the first boss of the chapter.

Cyber is emerging as Iran's weapon of choice for dealing with domestic opponents and foreign adversaries. Accordingly, Washington needs to better understand the dynamics governing cyber deterrence and escalation vis--vis the Islamic Republic.

In this Research Note, military expert Michael Eisenstadt explains why Tehran has come to rely increasingly on cyber in its interactions with foreign adversaries: It offers options not provided by the other legs of its deterrent/warfighting triad, and with far fewer risks. Cyber can be used in peacetime, since norms have not been established that would define cyberspying or cyberattacks as activities that may justify a military response. And because it may be difficult to attribute responsibility for an attack on a timely basis, and in a manner that would be convincing to American and foreign publics (since cyber forensics do not rely on physical evidence in the traditional sense), cyber holds special appeal for Tehran.

Michael Eisenstadt directs the Military and Security Studies Program at The Washington Institute. A specialist in Persian Gulf and Arab-Israeli security affairs, he has published widely on irregular and conventional warfare and nuclear weapons proliferation in the Middle East. Previously, he worked as a military analyst with the U.S. government and served for twenty-six years as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve.

Q1: So, Cyber Shadow has been made as a tribute to a lot of the 8-Bit fast action games of the time. Stuff like Shatterhand, Shadow of the Ninja and Ninja Gaiden have been cited a bunch already, but have there been any other, more obscure titles that inspired the creation of this game? It seems to have a lot more influence from Natsume-Atari titles than Tecmo ones.

Q3: Overall, I felt the flow from Cyber Shadow to just mesh together so perfectly, and one factor in that came from the removal of lives, meaning that you can keep trying and trying again to improve and eventually reach the next checkpoint. Even with the gaps between them, it still feels very fair and the perfect way for new and old gamers to train and experience everything this game has to offer. How did you manage to strike such a perfect balance?

Q7: Cyber Shadow also has a ton of cool upgrades, from an upward attack, a helpful dash, and a downward thrust: which of these are your favorites, either on the dev team, or the publishing?

A7: While each skill has their use, the parry and shadow slash are definite favorites as they allow for very fast gameplay with a high skill ceiling. Mastering these can easily get your completion time to under two hours.

(NOTE: Question 9 was aimed for YCG themselves, since this last question linked into one I was specifically asked to inquire about due to a community of PS4 collectors that are seeking info on the following)

Q10: Last but not least, do you have any special words for those who waited so long for this game to come out? Or for readers who may be on the fence due to the difficulty of the games that inspired Cyber Shadow?

Mitch has been a fan of Nintendo ever since he got his start on the GBA in 2005. When he's not busy playing games or writing, you can find him down at his local MMA training facility learning how to punish the unrighteous.

I'm kind of disappointed to see so few outlets mentioning Blue Shadow / Shadow of the Ninja when it comes to games that resemble Cyber Shadow, since even the developer himself mentioned that game as a major inspiration. It's way closer to that game than any of the Ninja Gaiden games.

Had this on my wishlist since it was shown on the Indie Showcase Direct. Also on Game Pass now, so will definitely play it at some point. Maybe more suited to playing on the Switch so might even double-dip.

I'm annoyed at myself for not pre-ordering when I was going to and benefiting from the discount. I'm pretty sure it was a decent discount too, 25% or 30%. Now I probably won't buy it till it goes on sale again, just because I know it's already been on sale.

Yeah, have to agree on those above questioning 10 hours as "short". I have limited gaming time and that's a significant commitment. Sometimes I prefer a shorter game that isn't full of padding. I don't need to spend dozens of hours in a game to enjoy it.

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