The Shadow |
Super NES |
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Review by Matt Paprocki |
Ocean |
Beat-em-up |
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Graphics: 5 |
Sound: 8 |
Gameplay: 4 |
Overall: 5 |
Somewhat funny and very true story: Back when the movie this game is based on was released, I won a local radio contest. My prize included a Shadow T-shirt, hat, movie tickets, and a copy of this game. Of course all I cared about was the game, having a deep love for the genre and the SNES console. After a few months passed, the tickets going unused and the other items ending up at Goodwill, my game was nowhere to be found. It never got released. What does the station do? They give me a copy of "MLBPA Baseball" on the Genesis. I didn't own a Genesis at the time and it surely wasn't a beat-em-up.
There's not a lot to like here, though it is overly solid (certainly not worth a 10-year wait). Cinemas conveniently interrupt the action after each stage while they follow the basic plot outline of the feature film. The beat-em-up basics are here, including a very limited move set. There are three special powers the Shadow can use, each useful in certain situations, but invisibility will likely see the most use. Enemies are rather stupid and forget immediately where you were standing when you turn on the cloaking. Later stages allow for some nice background interaction. If you see something above in the ceiling, grab an enemy and slam 'em into it. The resulting smash is satisfying enough to break up the usual monotony of 6-hit combos. Of course, that's not all. During a few sections, the Shadow can whip out two small handguns and go to work.
Adding to the false difficulty is the woefully inaccurate hit detection. It's frustrating to watch the characters hands go right through an enemy multiple times. Usually if you start a combo, you won't have any issues. It's getting it going that brings with it all the aggravation. Might want to add that for a super hero, our friend has an awfully short reach too. Animation, along with the rest of the graphical package, is far too under whelming. There are some nice foreground objects, even if they do obscure the action too much occasionally. Detail is high on most of the sprites, which helps in preventing any sort of slowdown, but it comes at the cost of animation. Rarely do the enemies contain more than a few frames, especially when walking/running. Ocean pretty much mastered the art of the SNES sound chip about this time, putting out stuff like "Jurassic Park II" which should be considered a benchmark. "The Shadow" provides another great mix, likely from the movie (remember; those tickets went unused). They even included Dolby Pro Logic support. The sound effects don't do very much, but the music definitely uses the majority of the available channels. It's worth it in the end.
Oh, and just for the record, "MLBPA Baseball" found a home a local game shop where it was traded in for some used SNES games. |