Cyber Shadow looks to take players back to the era of classic NES platformers, capturing the feel of games like Ninja Gaiden in its pixelated aesthetic. The game is being developed by the one-person studio Mechanical Head Games, and the one person who works there is Aarne Hunziker. His work caught the attention of Yacht Club Games, the makers of the hugely successful Shovel Knight, and the company stepped in to help Hunziker with publishing duties.
Cyber Shadow takes the Ninja Gaiden formula and tweaks it with a number of modern sensibilities to make it feel fresh. Permanent Ninjutsu skills and abilities give the player the power to double jump, cross slash, and wall slide their way through levels. While the game recaptures the look of the 8-bit era, it includes things like multilayered parallax backgrounds and fluid animations to bring the game fully into the modern era.
Hunziker only imagined a small release for his game, but with Yacht Club's help, it is now getting a wide release. He says about the Switch version of the game and Yacht Club's help "On top of taking care of all the heavy lifting outside coding the game, I got lots of guidance on level design specifically and I did my best to live up to their high standards." That seems to have paid off, as early impressions indicate the game is more than just a riff on Ninja Gaiden.
 The Switch version will be compatible with the Shovel Knight Amiibo, and Hunziker calls the work that Yacht Club and MP2 Games did to get the game running on the console "dark magic." Fans will get a chance to experience this "dark magic" first hand as Cyber Shadow launches this week.
Cyber Shadow will be available on January 26 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, and Xbox One.
Source: Nintendo Life
