The ranks of aesthetically beautiful, mechanically gorgeous retro platforming games got a little thicker this week, as Yacht Club Games—best known for one of the flagship titles of this little sub-genre, Shovel Knight—published Aarne Hunziker’s lovely new Ninja Gaiden riff Cyber Shadow. Possessed of a fascinating blend of NES design principles, cut with modern day quality-of-life features, it’s an adrenaline-pounding blast from the past, sending the titular
Shadow slashing his way across the ruins of robot-controlled Mekacity.
To celebrate the game’s release, The A.V. Club Twitch channel will be running through the game’s opening levels today at 2 p.m. Central, showing off Cyber Shadow’s cooler power-ups—all hail the Swag Blade!—its sometimes punishing difficulty, and its amazing soundtrack, courtesy of Enrique Martin and Shovel Knight alum Jake Kaufman. Feel free to check out the game, (or just check out our older broadcasts, including last week’s blind run through the opening level of Hitman 3) over at Twitch.tv/AVClubTwitch.