Shadow Complex, or WTF this is just Metroid?

[modeps]

I'm torn with Shadow Complex folks... I'll be reviewing it for the site soon and still have conflicting emotions with it. At first glance, its a fairly well polished title (even with its engine glitches) and easily one of the best looking 360 arcade titles we have. It plays well, is entertaining but...

When the game was first announced, the developers had no problem claiming that it was a Metroidvania game (in the company of Metroid and Castlevania)... I appreciate the full disclosure, but in effect, the game is not just in the same genre, but its almost a carbon copy of the 2D Metroid games... Everything from guns, upgrades, and more, is taken right out of Nintendo's long running franchise and gussied up for this generation on a non-Nintendo system.

Ugh.

[djwunder]

I keep hearing this myself. I played through the demo and it didn't really give the feeling of Metroidvania, but of course they wouldn't give that impression off the demo would they? In any event, it's caused me to not purchase this game. That and the fact that it's a fairly short game from what I understand.

[TDiddy]

I went in expecting Metroid, and it basically was Metroid. What's wrong with that? My only complaint was that the secrets were too easy to figure out.

[modeps]

I'll have my review posted tomorrow. Lets see who agrees!

[the Jack]

Kohler seems to be with you on this one (http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/08/shadow-complex-boycott/).

[JazGalaxy]

My brother is sitting here playing it as I write this and he's loving it. But having played roughly 8x as many of these types of games as he has... I'm not loving it to look at it.

The main problem I'm seeing with it is that exporation and navigating the areas is a LARGE chunk of why I love these kinds of games. It's why "metroidvania" games ARE what they are. It's side scrolling with a sense of place and continuity.

But Shadow Complex has a map and a line that shows you exactly where to go thereby eliminating hwat makes Castlevania and Metroid, Castlevania and Metroid. It's much more like Contra than either of the games it keeps getting associated with.

[Tintivilo]

I'm torn with Shadow Complex folks... I'll be reviewing it for the site soon and still have conflicting emotions with it. At first glance, its a fairly well polished title (even with its engine glitches) and easily one of the best looking 360 arcade titles we have. It plays well, is entertaining but...

When the game was first announced, the developers had no problem claiming that it was a Metroidvania game (in the company of Metroid and Castlevania)... I appreciate the full disclosure, but in effect, the game is not just in the same genre, but its almost a carbon copy of the 2D Metroid games... Everything from guns, upgrades, and more, is taken right out of Nintendo's long running franchise and gussied up for this generation on a non-Nintendo system.

Ugh.


Good, fuck those 3d Metroids.

[Syl]

Good, fuck those 3d Metroids.
Metroid Prime was one of the finest games ever created.

I'll be picking up shadow complex sooner rather than later. I don't really mind if the game unsympathetically borrows pretty much everything from metroid. Metroid games are some of my favorite games ever played, post sotn castlevania games are up there as well. Hell, i even enjoyed the DS spider-man metroidvania ripoff as well as the continuous world based kirby games. (Also to mention stuff like Cave Story, Knytt's tale, etc.).

I'm kind of sad that they didn't try to add something new, but i haven't really played Shadow Complex yet so i'm not entirely sure how much i'll care or realize the difference once i actually get it into it. The only thing that worried me was the lack of variety - but i only played the demo.

It's peculiar, but the reviews tend to range from "orgasm" to "Hey look, a subpar metroid ripoff" it's rather interesting to see the disparity.

http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3175605&p=4

[shadow763]

I really enjoyed it at first, but now i cant bring myself to finish it. I am at the end, but just cant get myself to turn it on again. I am not sure why, maybe the overall atmosphere is just not as intriguing to me as a Metroid game.

[lost]

Retro Studios need to hurry up and announce their new game.