He is coming, stalking criminals in the spirit world and the real world. A possessed man is coming, a voodoo mask in his chest and lines of power in his back. Shadow Man is coming, trailing evil from Liveside to Deadside. To stop an apocalypse. To save your soul.
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Games as an art form is a modern concept, it wasn't until the seventh console generation that the technology that was being offered met the needs of developers that had high artistic ambitions; as well, many of the design trends that are associated with high budget, AAA games began in this generation. So, because of this, the general mass's perception of what is considered retro video games, is that of primitive, outdated experiences; games that were good for their time, but are archaic in comparison to the standards of today. Shadow Man, and games of its ilk, stand in direct opposition to this narrative; proving that games not only always had the capacity to be art, but also that these older games are often more ambitious than the games that are coming out today.
Shadow Man's presentation is its main weapon of allure, so is the nature of the cinematic platformer. The game finds itself in the lineage of juggernauts like Tomb Raider and The Legacy of Kain, but were as Tomb Raider drew the player in with it's Indiana Jones parody, and Legacy of Kain with its enriching dialogue and characters, Shadow Man opts to do it with it's world. Being directly based off of a 1990's comic book series, the game's world is appropriately dark and edgy, but in a more sophisticated way that stops it from being too pulpy. The hellish landscapes of Deadside are full of jagged cliffs, winding and warping tunnels, bridges that seem to lead into expansive nothingness, and rivers of blood that flow through the land; but combined with a more mute color pallet, it all feels grounded and real, while still giving off the vibe of something otherworldly. The asylum that stands erect in the center of the map; it is imposing. It offers a kind of grand scale and volume that wouldn't be popular in the medium until Half-Life 2's citadel would make it a trope. The inner contents of the asylum too strengthen this notion, with the inside being a sprawling labyrinth of gothic architecture and brutal torture chambers, all connected, all intertwined. This all serves the purpose of creating a type of world that was rarely seen in video games at the time, if at all; it even rivals some of the greats from today like Breath of the Wild and Dark Souls (appropriately enough). This isn’t all just for show, I would like to add; the world Shadow Man creates plays directly into its core design as a game.
Despite what I said earlier about Shadow Man being a cinematic platformer, the gameplay more resembles that of a Metroid-vania, with the gigantic, sprawling, interconnected areas that feed into one another. The game is designed for the player to constantly loop back, and re-explore previous areas once they have acquired new abilities, in fact, the game out right requires you to do so in order to progress; needing the games big collectable, the Dark Souls, in order to level up and break through gates to reach new areas. This is where the world design overlaps with the gameplay; as the player explores the macabre environments of Deadside, they are constantly asking questions and being left in the dark, but as they explore deeper more and more information is recontextualized. The player remembers weird quirks about the different areas that at first fit right in with the alien and twisted nature of Deadside, but when equipped with new knowledge and new abilities, these areas start to make more sense and begin to open the players mind to more possibilities. Environmental hazards and decorations that may first seem like simple set dressings and obstacles that were meant to seemingly just fade into the players subconscious, are eventually brought back to the forefront of the players mind once they gather new abilities. Compare this to how games, up until this point, would make locked gates and secret areas obvious by having jarring textures or by just straight up telling the player they need a new ability. Even newer games have this problem, with the running industry joke of putting yellow spray paint over anything and everything that can be interacted with. As well, the game offers a refreshing amount of nonlinearity that newer games are too scared to allow, in fear of disrupting the “carefully crafted” narrative. There were times in my play through where I swear I did things and got to areas way before or way after it seemed like I was initially supposed to; but nothing was broken, that is just how the world is structured. Many games nowadays offer worlds that, on the surface, halt the player from progressing farther than the story allows them too; but in Shadow Man, the narrative is open and mysterious enough to allow for the player to get things done in the order they come across them, or however they feel like doing it.
That being said though, there are still some things that haven’t aged the best, or at least they have in the original 1999 release of the game. The controls, while actually pretty intuitive and well done for a pre-Halo video game, are very choppy and require a lot of starting and stopping just to round a corner, the combat is not very good, the ability to dual wield any combinations of items is really fun, but trying to reliably hit any flying enemy is near impossible, and the lack of autosave is really infuriating when my N64 gets nudged and can’t read the cart anymore, making me lose two and a half hours of progress. But thankfully, the good ole boys over at Nightdive Studios have worked their magic and more than faithfully remastered this game for modern systems a couple years ago. So consider these complaints void if you decide to play the remaster.
Shadow Man is a game that was ahead of its time, and even after its time, it still proves itself comparable to even the best of what modern gaming has to offer. It is ambitious, meticulously crafted, and I think stands as a timeless testament to the stance that games are, and have always been, art.
Shadow Man's presentation is its main weapon of allure, so is the nature of the cinematic platformer. The game finds itself in the lineage of juggernauts like Tomb Raider and The Legacy of Kain, but were as Tomb Raider drew the player in with it's Indiana Jones parody, and Legacy of Kain with its enriching dialogue and characters, Shadow Man opts to do it with it's world. Being directly based off of a 1990's comic book series, the game's world is appropriately dark and edgy, but in a more sophisticated way that stops it from being too pulpy. The hellish landscapes of Deadside are full of jagged cliffs, winding and warping tunnels, bridges that seem to lead into expansive nothingness, and rivers of blood that flow through the land; but combined with a more mute color pallet, it all feels grounded and real, while still giving off the vibe of something otherworldly. The asylum that stands erect in the center of the map; it is imposing. It offers a kind of grand scale and volume that wouldn't be popular in the medium until Half-Life 2's citadel would make it a trope. The inner contents of the asylum too strengthen this notion, with the inside being a sprawling labyrinth of gothic architecture and brutal torture chambers, all connected, all intertwined. This all serves the purpose of creating a type of world that was rarely seen in video games at the time, if at all; it even rivals some of the greats from today like Breath of the Wild and Dark Souls (appropriately enough). This isn’t all just for show, I would like to add; the world Shadow Man creates plays directly into its core design as a game.
Despite what I said earlier about Shadow Man being a cinematic platformer, the gameplay more resembles that of a Metroid-vania, with the gigantic, sprawling, interconnected areas that feed into one another. The game is designed for the player to constantly loop back, and re-explore previous areas once they have acquired new abilities, in fact, the game out right requires you to do so in order to progress; needing the games big collectable, the Dark Souls, in order to level up and break through gates to reach new areas. This is where the world design overlaps with the gameplay; as the player explores the macabre environments of Deadside, they are constantly asking questions and being left in the dark, but as they explore deeper more and more information is recontextualized. The player remembers weird quirks about the different areas that at first fit right in with the alien and twisted nature of Deadside, but when equipped with new knowledge and new abilities, these areas start to make more sense and begin to open the players mind to more possibilities. Environmental hazards and decorations that may first seem like simple set dressings and obstacles that were meant to seemingly just fade into the players subconscious, are eventually brought back to the forefront of the players mind once they gather new abilities. Compare this to how games, up until this point, would make locked gates and secret areas obvious by having jarring textures or by just straight up telling the player they need a new ability. Even newer games have this problem, with the running industry joke of putting yellow spray paint over anything and everything that can be interacted with. As well, the game offers a refreshing amount of nonlinearity that newer games are too scared to allow, in fear of disrupting the “carefully crafted” narrative. There were times in my play through where I swear I did things and got to areas way before or way after it seemed like I was initially supposed to; but nothing was broken, that is just how the world is structured. Many games nowadays offer worlds that, on the surface, halt the player from progressing farther than the story allows them too; but in Shadow Man, the narrative is open and mysterious enough to allow for the player to get things done in the order they come across them, or however they feel like doing it.
That being said though, there are still some things that haven’t aged the best, or at least they have in the original 1999 release of the game. The controls, while actually pretty intuitive and well done for a pre-Halo video game, are very choppy and require a lot of starting and stopping just to round a corner, the combat is not very good, the ability to dual wield any combinations of items is really fun, but trying to reliably hit any flying enemy is near impossible, and the lack of autosave is really infuriating when my N64 gets nudged and can’t read the cart anymore, making me lose two and a half hours of progress. But thankfully, the good ole boys over at Nightdive Studios have worked their magic and more than faithfully remastered this game for modern systems a couple years ago. So consider these complaints void if you decide to play the remaster.
Shadow Man is a game that was ahead of its time, and even after its time, it still proves itself comparable to even the best of what modern gaming has to offer. It is ambitious, meticulously crafted, and I think stands as a timeless testament to the stance that games are, and have always been, art.
With a whimper...
Shadow Man was a pleasant surprise for me. Back in the day I bought it brand new at a discounted price without much hope for the game but it ended up being a very enjoyable experience and one that I would like to experience again via its remaster Steam game at some point in the near future.
The game combines 3D platforming with action shooting elements in a Metroidvania-like setup for levels that require some backtracking and solving puzzles/collecting items. You go back and forth between the Deadside and Liveside to fight different types of enemies with the ultimate final goal of stopping the mythical Jack the Ripper from grouping an army of baddies.
The game had good graphics (Expansion pack use recommended) and the soundtrack was decent. It also featured voice acting during cut-scenes which was pretty cool. Despite the gameplay being somewhat janky and tanky, the platforming was acceptable and the gunplay was good, at least enough to progress the game and enjoy the different levels and story progression. Guy Miller did a great job creating the world of the Deadside and the Insane Asylum remains one of my favorite places to visit on a game from an environment and setting point of view.
The game combines 3D platforming with action shooting elements in a Metroidvania-like setup for levels that require some backtracking and solving puzzles/collecting items. You go back and forth between the Deadside and Liveside to fight different types of enemies with the ultimate final goal of stopping the mythical Jack the Ripper from grouping an army of baddies.
The game had good graphics (Expansion pack use recommended) and the soundtrack was decent. It also featured voice acting during cut-scenes which was pretty cool. Despite the gameplay being somewhat janky and tanky, the platforming was acceptable and the gunplay was good, at least enough to progress the game and enjoy the different levels and story progression. Guy Miller did a great job creating the world of the Deadside and the Insane Asylum remains one of my favorite places to visit on a game from an environment and setting point of view.
This review contains spoilers
Shadow Man for the Nintendo 64 is a “Metroidvania '' styled action adventure horror flavor game developed by Acclaim Studios Teeside, whose only other games that I’m seeing were NBA Jam titles and the N64 Port of Forsaken. According to Wikipedia (yeah I know, can’t really trust it to be honest), the studio went about creating the engine first before being pitched by their parent company around eight different comic book series to adapt. This one was chosen, and I’d say that’s a pretty damn good choice considering how cool and gothic it is. The only other tidbit I found in terms of development was around six million dollars or more was the approximate budget. Granted if you compare it to games like Shenmue with that cool 70 million it’s merely a drop in the bucket but six million was considered a lot in terms of the general ballpark budget of that era.
My introduction to this game was rather unknown to be honest, but I remember being hyper fascinated (still am to this day) with exclusive games and I think I might have looked up a list of games to buy on the N64 and thought “oh shit this looks cool let's add it to the list” without looking into whether or not it was an actual exclusive? Since then I picked it up at some point at the local retro gaming store for about 10 dollars and it was one of my first N64 games ever. However, I didn’t touch it due to the fact that getting the N64 to run on an HDTV with an HDMI thing was next to near impossible and that’s how I would’ve preferred to have played it. I ended up buying an old CRTV from my buddy Elliot for 40 dollars and that’s how I managed to play it, with crunchy pixels and all; while playing the Gamecube looks like shit on it, the good ol’ 64 didn’t. There’s also the fact that I’ve been trying to hit up at least one game per console this year and this is the main one that I could “play through” and actually beat other than Super Mario 64. As such, playing this on the console was an experience to say the least…not always a great one however.
The gameplay is something that could be described as a “3D Metroidvania” according to Wikipedia and whoever else. That certainly is what the game is like, as you’re engaging in exploring the labyrinthian styled maze throughout Deadside from the gates into it, to the Cathedral to all of the areas inside the cathedral. Every single area is confusing as hell but after finding your way through the maze you’ll start to memorize little bits and pieces. In this case, I’ll admit to using a combination of a written guide (posted below) and a youtube playthrough of the remaster in case the written guide is confusing as hell (which it often is, considering it’s written by a unique personality in 2001 lol), mainly because if I didn’t use it then I would be stuck playing this game for hundreds of hours because I’m a bit on the slow side sometimes.
Each of these areas have other little areas connecting to other little areas via portals that need to be unlocked by collecting Dark Souls or through fleshy bridges that connect you via realms. The Dark Souls are basically the main collectibles of the game, one that helps you activate certain paths but also power your Shadow Gun, arguably your main form of defense throughout the game due to its unlimited ammo and the fact you get health when you take an enemy out. That’s not to say that there aren’t other weapons: through your journey you’ll be picking up other puzzle pieces that moonlight as weapons such as the Baton, which is a melee weapon that shoots flames while opening little gates to the Enseigne, which you can use as a shield of sorts to even weapons only usable in the Liveside (around halfway through the game?) such as the shotgun or the machine gun. None however is as powerful as the Violator, which certainly lives up to its name eviscerating enemies, and if you get all of the Dark Souls and open the gate behind your spawn point in the beginning of the game on top of a Waterfall then you can get a second one.
Before I move on from the weapons, the other collectible of choice to pick up are the Cadeaux, of which there are hundreds of them. If you’re able to collect 500 or so and bring them back to the Temple of Life then you can trade them for health upgrades. I was only able to get to level 9 of 10 before I gave up but you can technically survive without getting any of them, even if it is a bit on the difficult side. The only other pickups available other than ammo, Cadeaux and Dark Souls are orange energy orbs (for the special weapons like the Enseigne) and health orbs. Now keep in mind, you’ll never be able to pick everything up immediately, the game is hellbent on making you explore every nook and cranny and as such you’ll need to get certain abilities in order to come back to earlier areas and unlock new pathways that you weren’t able to unlock before. This’ll help you unlock even more keys or weapons to unlock even more pathways to the future.
The ultimate goal of the game is again to get all the Dark Souls and defeat Legion and all of his minions. In this goal, you’ll eventually run into the Cathedral of Pain where there will be multiple pathways to different gates that lead to Legion’s enforcers, known as the Five. Now keep in mind, you’ll need to get the three pieces of L’Eclipsque in order to have the Liveside turn to night time so Shadow Man can use his powers in Liveside against the Five. Once you do, you can enter their domains though you’ll need to find Retractors in order to do so, which helps open up the other flesh gates that help you get to other locations. Now luckily three of these five minions are located in the prison, but you’ll also go to an abandoned hotel in New York and through the sewers and subway tunnels of London, England to get another. Most of these bosses and even general combat encounters can be done by walking backwards with one of your many guns and (along with strafing), just unloading everything you got. However, with the bosses make sure that when they’re down to finish them off with the Shadow Gun or else you’ll just be wasting ammo and they’ll get back up. This leads into my main criticism for the game, a thing that Shadow Man can’t exactly control the best so I can’t totally blame it.
If I were to criticize one aspect that’s mainly on the N64 would be the controller support. Now most of it you can get by with just fine if you know what you’re doing. You can lock on aim with R, shoot your weapon with B (though fun fact, you can dual wield weapons by going to one in your inventory and pressing the back Z button. I didn’t know this till’ VERY late in the game so have fun controlling both), A to jump, and the left C button is for opening doors and such. You’ll use these buttons mainly but please keep in mind that the platforming in the game isn’t great with the camera angles, a lot of which requires you to jump backwards in order to do stuff. Now you’ll still probably fail doing this until you master distance, but the other C buttons control the camera angles going left and right which I didn’t know until much later in the game so use this to your advantage. Keep in mind, controlling the camera is cumbersome not only in parkour but sometimes in combat. Some enemies charge up to you really quick, and sometimes with the smaller rooms and stuff cluttering these small rooms, mixed with the one thumbstick and the lock on, sometimes slipping through it gets painful to navigate combat situations quickly. With this final point in mind, checkpoints are also few and far between so if you’re in say, London, as an example then you better know where you’re going with the maze-like locations because it’s hell getting back to where you were. This is coming from someone who only just started playing the N64 however, so I’m sure the N64 veterans are looking at me and spitting down on me from wherever they are. For the most part however, with enough practice you’ll get used to all of the systems enough to make it besides a few frustrating parts here and there.
One thing to note is unlockables: there are certain unlockables that you can obtain from called the Book of Shadows. However, beyond each port of the game it seems to work differently; in the N64 version you’re able to get cheat codes from entering certain areas, mostly skins of enemies (or Bloodshot from Valiant Comics apparently though I don’t think I saw that one) while the others just seem to unlock concept art. Other than that, I think I have everything covered that I wanted to cover with Shadow Man. Again I know there’s a lot more to this game, but the truth is that the structure makes it so complex that I’m sure I’ll miss some stuff anyways. My main feeling about it is that I’m not really into the Metroidvania genre, and I respect it so I can’t dock points based on that, nor will I dock points based on a structure controlled by the warped machinations of the N64 controller anyways lol. However, I’m simply not a fan of the camera, and some of the strange jumps asked of me and a lot of that led to me putting the game off numerous times between the two months I started playing this game.
The plot of the game is as follows: you play as Michael LeRoi, one of many in a long line of Shadow Men, voodoo priests blessed with supernatural warriors who are assigned to defend the Earth from any dark and evil threats. Of course your handler/lover, Mama Nettie, has a prophetic dream about an army of serial killers named “The Five”, who are planning on bringing forth the Apocalypse to the world via a giant army hidden inside of a cathedral located in “The Deadside”, the supernatural plane of existence. All of these are under one evil force: Legion; who have given these serial killers corrupting powers in exchange for their allegiance. Of course, Legion also plans to steal the Dark Souls, evil souls of corrupting power for use in their plans too. Nettie wants Michael to take them all, and after giving him files on all of the serial killers (written by Thomas Deacon, later seen in the sequel), sends him off to Deadside to meet up with Jaunty, a sarcastic irish skull snake demon thing. More briefing from there, and you’re off to see the wizard to collect the dark souls, take down the serial killers and bring an end to Legion’s reign.
Now here’s the main thing of the game: it’s open nature almost ensures that you’ll be missing out on some things. For example, the next two plot points that I remember playing it involve encountering the ghost of your brother, Luke, inside the heart of the asylum before he disappears and runs away. That, and after finding all three parts of L’Eclipse and bringing it back to Mama Nettie, she uses her powers to force the world into nighttime so your Shadowman powers are effective to go against the killers in their place of home, putting her into a permanent coma until it’s done. With this in mind, you’ll find bits and pieces of lore here and there by going back after finding certain places and collecting things to Jaunty and Nettie where you’ll either discuss your findings or get chided to go back and do the job. Otherwise everything’s part of a puzzle and you’re kind of left to your own devices to figure that out.
The final parts I can remember to bring up involve taking down all five serial killers in three different locations. After traveling to New York, London and a prison in Texas to take down The Five as well as shut down some of the machinery, the ghost of your brother Luke gathers your attention again, and Michael chases him down only to encounter him on a throne. SURPRISE, it’s Legion and he’s influenced countless generations and kickstarted the prophecy that Nettie has seen in the first place, only to get you to bring all of the Dark Souls to him so he can use it to take over the world. However, Michael is powerful as hell and after putting all the bullets in him you can, you take him down and escape from the Asylum while the Earth is saved. A simple plot, one that I’m sure is missing a lot of details. Truth be told, while you can play this game on it’s own terms, it’s a bit better to sit down and do some research into the backstory of Michael LeRoi. I don’t read the comics, however what I understand from IMDB is that this game is partially based on a Garth Ennis run? I’ll just post the wiki page for Michael down below if you’d like to look into it yourself.
Audio Design for the most part is pretty solid, keep in mind I played it on a CRTV so it’s going to sound crunchy regardless. The music is pretty atmospheric and stripped down for the most part, with some electronic sounding stuff mixed within it. The main tracks I remember hearing were Deadside and the Main Theme at the menu. I felt that Tim Haywood did a pretty good job for the most part, and helped make Shadow Man’s world its own unique and breathing creature. The sound effects are great too from the guns (especially the Shadow Gun) feeling punchy and powerful, to the footsteps to the horrific groans of all the creatures dwelling to basically murder you. The voice acting and dialogue for this game is something I can say is a bit schlocky sometimes but it’s charming and a lot of fun in its own right. Redd Pepper voices Mike LeRoi here and oftentimes he plays the effective but clueless hero well, turning up the ham at certain points in the game to great effect. Lani Minella does well with Aunt Nettie though I’ll always enjoy Barry Meade as Jaunty, the sarcastic and snide tapeworm looking bastard. He’s a funny dude and always delivers his lines well, in a game that’s kind of hit or miss sometimes whether or not it’s a bit stilted. Still though, I don’t have any complaints otherwise because I felt the voice cast did a good job immersing me in that world.
The art direction and atmosphere for this game are pretty damn cool and are probably the highlight of the game for me. It’s straight up horror themed, and Deadside looks phenomenal in its direction. Every location that you travel looks unique and interesting, overwhelming in its confusion but purposeful all the same. Pretentious bullshit aside, it looks pretty damn good and I’m not going to complain. The highlights for me are the outside of the Cathedral itself, a giant monolith of space that makes it look intimidating as if it was a prison of sorts. In fact, I’ll even go out on a limb here and say I’m genuinely surprised that the N64 was able to make such a monolithic location like this but maybe I’m just underestimating the console. Some locations look like a barren wasteland, and some look fleshy and disgusting, and some just look like they come out of a steampunk hellscape fantasy. It depends on where you go but they all look pretty good and blend in seamlessly. The monster designs are also pretty creepy, whether they’re two headed creatures with no legs crawling at you with their hands or those annoying pterodactyl dinosaur looking fucks, or even the butcher hook people in the asylum that made me shit my pants trying to avoid their attacks. Again, they all do a pretty solid job making it all blend in together so I can’t have anything bad to say about much of it except for a few things.
Shadowman for the Nintendo 64 is one of those games that I can say is a bit of a flawed gem in my eyes. I wouldn’t ever want to play this game again but I can respect its place in video game cult classic history. The world is immaculate, oppressive, maze-like, hellish like the Deadside would be, but by the end my soul would also be dead on the inside. However, I also feel like this isn’t necessarily the game’s fault persay, but on the consoles that it was put on. The N64 controller isn’t the best, neither was the Dreamcast controller at the time. The two consoles that could probably host this the best were the PC version (which I haven’t played yet) and the Playstation 1 version, which according to the reviews were ass and barely playable on the hardware. However, in the years of this game’s release I felt like Shadow Man (at least in the gaming world) became arguably more renowned and rightfully so for the world and atmosphere surrounding it. Out of all of the Valiant Comics characters, arguably Shadow Man and Bloodshot are the most popular, though I’m kind of sad that the game’s success didn’t translate to further games of any sorts.
Regardless however, The cult classic nature of this game is a success story of sorts, one which led to a sequel on the Playstation 2 (lost to time sadly), a movie adaptation pitch with Ice Cube that didn’t end up happening (WESTSYYYYYYYDE), as well as a remaster of this game released by our heroes Nightdive Studios. I got a copy of the remaster a couple of years ago by a buddy of mine on Steam (shoutout to DarkRaptor) so ONE day I will play the remaster, but probably years from now when I have this game flushed out of my system. I hope one day that Nightdive will take the time perhaps to remaster the second game, but in other news with Shadowman: a new Shadowman game featuring Jack Boniface called Shadow Man: Darque Legacy, which is apparently a single player Souls-like game which I have mixed feelings about but nonetheless it’s there.
Links:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/n64/198601-shadow-man/faqs/11447 (Guide)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-IdlK1Z0YA0 (Other Youtube Channel I used as guide)
https://www.neoseeker.com/shadowman/cheats/n64/ (N64 Cheats)
https://kotaku.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-make-a-big-video-game-1501413649 (Comparative game budgets)
https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday/93946368/
https://variety.com/1999/film/news/artisan-warms-up-to-ice-cube-1117756828/ (Film Sources)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Man_(Michael_LeRoi)
https://shadowman.fandom.com/wiki/Michael_LeRoi (Backstory Sources)
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/ShadowMan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y27O551VOJ0&ab_channel=ORDOVIZIUMVIDEOGAME-OSTCHANNEL (Soundtrack)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0292231/
https://manuall.co.uk/nintendo-n64-shadow-man/
My introduction to this game was rather unknown to be honest, but I remember being hyper fascinated (still am to this day) with exclusive games and I think I might have looked up a list of games to buy on the N64 and thought “oh shit this looks cool let's add it to the list” without looking into whether or not it was an actual exclusive? Since then I picked it up at some point at the local retro gaming store for about 10 dollars and it was one of my first N64 games ever. However, I didn’t touch it due to the fact that getting the N64 to run on an HDTV with an HDMI thing was next to near impossible and that’s how I would’ve preferred to have played it. I ended up buying an old CRTV from my buddy Elliot for 40 dollars and that’s how I managed to play it, with crunchy pixels and all; while playing the Gamecube looks like shit on it, the good ol’ 64 didn’t. There’s also the fact that I’ve been trying to hit up at least one game per console this year and this is the main one that I could “play through” and actually beat other than Super Mario 64. As such, playing this on the console was an experience to say the least…not always a great one however.
The gameplay is something that could be described as a “3D Metroidvania” according to Wikipedia and whoever else. That certainly is what the game is like, as you’re engaging in exploring the labyrinthian styled maze throughout Deadside from the gates into it, to the Cathedral to all of the areas inside the cathedral. Every single area is confusing as hell but after finding your way through the maze you’ll start to memorize little bits and pieces. In this case, I’ll admit to using a combination of a written guide (posted below) and a youtube playthrough of the remaster in case the written guide is confusing as hell (which it often is, considering it’s written by a unique personality in 2001 lol), mainly because if I didn’t use it then I would be stuck playing this game for hundreds of hours because I’m a bit on the slow side sometimes.
Each of these areas have other little areas connecting to other little areas via portals that need to be unlocked by collecting Dark Souls or through fleshy bridges that connect you via realms. The Dark Souls are basically the main collectibles of the game, one that helps you activate certain paths but also power your Shadow Gun, arguably your main form of defense throughout the game due to its unlimited ammo and the fact you get health when you take an enemy out. That’s not to say that there aren’t other weapons: through your journey you’ll be picking up other puzzle pieces that moonlight as weapons such as the Baton, which is a melee weapon that shoots flames while opening little gates to the Enseigne, which you can use as a shield of sorts to even weapons only usable in the Liveside (around halfway through the game?) such as the shotgun or the machine gun. None however is as powerful as the Violator, which certainly lives up to its name eviscerating enemies, and if you get all of the Dark Souls and open the gate behind your spawn point in the beginning of the game on top of a Waterfall then you can get a second one.
Before I move on from the weapons, the other collectible of choice to pick up are the Cadeaux, of which there are hundreds of them. If you’re able to collect 500 or so and bring them back to the Temple of Life then you can trade them for health upgrades. I was only able to get to level 9 of 10 before I gave up but you can technically survive without getting any of them, even if it is a bit on the difficult side. The only other pickups available other than ammo, Cadeaux and Dark Souls are orange energy orbs (for the special weapons like the Enseigne) and health orbs. Now keep in mind, you’ll never be able to pick everything up immediately, the game is hellbent on making you explore every nook and cranny and as such you’ll need to get certain abilities in order to come back to earlier areas and unlock new pathways that you weren’t able to unlock before. This’ll help you unlock even more keys or weapons to unlock even more pathways to the future.
The ultimate goal of the game is again to get all the Dark Souls and defeat Legion and all of his minions. In this goal, you’ll eventually run into the Cathedral of Pain where there will be multiple pathways to different gates that lead to Legion’s enforcers, known as the Five. Now keep in mind, you’ll need to get the three pieces of L’Eclipsque in order to have the Liveside turn to night time so Shadow Man can use his powers in Liveside against the Five. Once you do, you can enter their domains though you’ll need to find Retractors in order to do so, which helps open up the other flesh gates that help you get to other locations. Now luckily three of these five minions are located in the prison, but you’ll also go to an abandoned hotel in New York and through the sewers and subway tunnels of London, England to get another. Most of these bosses and even general combat encounters can be done by walking backwards with one of your many guns and (along with strafing), just unloading everything you got. However, with the bosses make sure that when they’re down to finish them off with the Shadow Gun or else you’ll just be wasting ammo and they’ll get back up. This leads into my main criticism for the game, a thing that Shadow Man can’t exactly control the best so I can’t totally blame it.
If I were to criticize one aspect that’s mainly on the N64 would be the controller support. Now most of it you can get by with just fine if you know what you’re doing. You can lock on aim with R, shoot your weapon with B (though fun fact, you can dual wield weapons by going to one in your inventory and pressing the back Z button. I didn’t know this till’ VERY late in the game so have fun controlling both), A to jump, and the left C button is for opening doors and such. You’ll use these buttons mainly but please keep in mind that the platforming in the game isn’t great with the camera angles, a lot of which requires you to jump backwards in order to do stuff. Now you’ll still probably fail doing this until you master distance, but the other C buttons control the camera angles going left and right which I didn’t know until much later in the game so use this to your advantage. Keep in mind, controlling the camera is cumbersome not only in parkour but sometimes in combat. Some enemies charge up to you really quick, and sometimes with the smaller rooms and stuff cluttering these small rooms, mixed with the one thumbstick and the lock on, sometimes slipping through it gets painful to navigate combat situations quickly. With this final point in mind, checkpoints are also few and far between so if you’re in say, London, as an example then you better know where you’re going with the maze-like locations because it’s hell getting back to where you were. This is coming from someone who only just started playing the N64 however, so I’m sure the N64 veterans are looking at me and spitting down on me from wherever they are. For the most part however, with enough practice you’ll get used to all of the systems enough to make it besides a few frustrating parts here and there.
One thing to note is unlockables: there are certain unlockables that you can obtain from called the Book of Shadows. However, beyond each port of the game it seems to work differently; in the N64 version you’re able to get cheat codes from entering certain areas, mostly skins of enemies (or Bloodshot from Valiant Comics apparently though I don’t think I saw that one) while the others just seem to unlock concept art. Other than that, I think I have everything covered that I wanted to cover with Shadow Man. Again I know there’s a lot more to this game, but the truth is that the structure makes it so complex that I’m sure I’ll miss some stuff anyways. My main feeling about it is that I’m not really into the Metroidvania genre, and I respect it so I can’t dock points based on that, nor will I dock points based on a structure controlled by the warped machinations of the N64 controller anyways lol. However, I’m simply not a fan of the camera, and some of the strange jumps asked of me and a lot of that led to me putting the game off numerous times between the two months I started playing this game.
The plot of the game is as follows: you play as Michael LeRoi, one of many in a long line of Shadow Men, voodoo priests blessed with supernatural warriors who are assigned to defend the Earth from any dark and evil threats. Of course your handler/lover, Mama Nettie, has a prophetic dream about an army of serial killers named “The Five”, who are planning on bringing forth the Apocalypse to the world via a giant army hidden inside of a cathedral located in “The Deadside”, the supernatural plane of existence. All of these are under one evil force: Legion; who have given these serial killers corrupting powers in exchange for their allegiance. Of course, Legion also plans to steal the Dark Souls, evil souls of corrupting power for use in their plans too. Nettie wants Michael to take them all, and after giving him files on all of the serial killers (written by Thomas Deacon, later seen in the sequel), sends him off to Deadside to meet up with Jaunty, a sarcastic irish skull snake demon thing. More briefing from there, and you’re off to see the wizard to collect the dark souls, take down the serial killers and bring an end to Legion’s reign.
Now here’s the main thing of the game: it’s open nature almost ensures that you’ll be missing out on some things. For example, the next two plot points that I remember playing it involve encountering the ghost of your brother, Luke, inside the heart of the asylum before he disappears and runs away. That, and after finding all three parts of L’Eclipse and bringing it back to Mama Nettie, she uses her powers to force the world into nighttime so your Shadowman powers are effective to go against the killers in their place of home, putting her into a permanent coma until it’s done. With this in mind, you’ll find bits and pieces of lore here and there by going back after finding certain places and collecting things to Jaunty and Nettie where you’ll either discuss your findings or get chided to go back and do the job. Otherwise everything’s part of a puzzle and you’re kind of left to your own devices to figure that out.
The final parts I can remember to bring up involve taking down all five serial killers in three different locations. After traveling to New York, London and a prison in Texas to take down The Five as well as shut down some of the machinery, the ghost of your brother Luke gathers your attention again, and Michael chases him down only to encounter him on a throne. SURPRISE, it’s Legion and he’s influenced countless generations and kickstarted the prophecy that Nettie has seen in the first place, only to get you to bring all of the Dark Souls to him so he can use it to take over the world. However, Michael is powerful as hell and after putting all the bullets in him you can, you take him down and escape from the Asylum while the Earth is saved. A simple plot, one that I’m sure is missing a lot of details. Truth be told, while you can play this game on it’s own terms, it’s a bit better to sit down and do some research into the backstory of Michael LeRoi. I don’t read the comics, however what I understand from IMDB is that this game is partially based on a Garth Ennis run? I’ll just post the wiki page for Michael down below if you’d like to look into it yourself.
Audio Design for the most part is pretty solid, keep in mind I played it on a CRTV so it’s going to sound crunchy regardless. The music is pretty atmospheric and stripped down for the most part, with some electronic sounding stuff mixed within it. The main tracks I remember hearing were Deadside and the Main Theme at the menu. I felt that Tim Haywood did a pretty good job for the most part, and helped make Shadow Man’s world its own unique and breathing creature. The sound effects are great too from the guns (especially the Shadow Gun) feeling punchy and powerful, to the footsteps to the horrific groans of all the creatures dwelling to basically murder you. The voice acting and dialogue for this game is something I can say is a bit schlocky sometimes but it’s charming and a lot of fun in its own right. Redd Pepper voices Mike LeRoi here and oftentimes he plays the effective but clueless hero well, turning up the ham at certain points in the game to great effect. Lani Minella does well with Aunt Nettie though I’ll always enjoy Barry Meade as Jaunty, the sarcastic and snide tapeworm looking bastard. He’s a funny dude and always delivers his lines well, in a game that’s kind of hit or miss sometimes whether or not it’s a bit stilted. Still though, I don’t have any complaints otherwise because I felt the voice cast did a good job immersing me in that world.
The art direction and atmosphere for this game are pretty damn cool and are probably the highlight of the game for me. It’s straight up horror themed, and Deadside looks phenomenal in its direction. Every location that you travel looks unique and interesting, overwhelming in its confusion but purposeful all the same. Pretentious bullshit aside, it looks pretty damn good and I’m not going to complain. The highlights for me are the outside of the Cathedral itself, a giant monolith of space that makes it look intimidating as if it was a prison of sorts. In fact, I’ll even go out on a limb here and say I’m genuinely surprised that the N64 was able to make such a monolithic location like this but maybe I’m just underestimating the console. Some locations look like a barren wasteland, and some look fleshy and disgusting, and some just look like they come out of a steampunk hellscape fantasy. It depends on where you go but they all look pretty good and blend in seamlessly. The monster designs are also pretty creepy, whether they’re two headed creatures with no legs crawling at you with their hands or those annoying pterodactyl dinosaur looking fucks, or even the butcher hook people in the asylum that made me shit my pants trying to avoid their attacks. Again, they all do a pretty solid job making it all blend in together so I can’t have anything bad to say about much of it except for a few things.
Shadowman for the Nintendo 64 is one of those games that I can say is a bit of a flawed gem in my eyes. I wouldn’t ever want to play this game again but I can respect its place in video game cult classic history. The world is immaculate, oppressive, maze-like, hellish like the Deadside would be, but by the end my soul would also be dead on the inside. However, I also feel like this isn’t necessarily the game’s fault persay, but on the consoles that it was put on. The N64 controller isn’t the best, neither was the Dreamcast controller at the time. The two consoles that could probably host this the best were the PC version (which I haven’t played yet) and the Playstation 1 version, which according to the reviews were ass and barely playable on the hardware. However, in the years of this game’s release I felt like Shadow Man (at least in the gaming world) became arguably more renowned and rightfully so for the world and atmosphere surrounding it. Out of all of the Valiant Comics characters, arguably Shadow Man and Bloodshot are the most popular, though I’m kind of sad that the game’s success didn’t translate to further games of any sorts.
Regardless however, The cult classic nature of this game is a success story of sorts, one which led to a sequel on the Playstation 2 (lost to time sadly), a movie adaptation pitch with Ice Cube that didn’t end up happening (WESTSYYYYYYYDE), as well as a remaster of this game released by our heroes Nightdive Studios. I got a copy of the remaster a couple of years ago by a buddy of mine on Steam (shoutout to DarkRaptor) so ONE day I will play the remaster, but probably years from now when I have this game flushed out of my system. I hope one day that Nightdive will take the time perhaps to remaster the second game, but in other news with Shadowman: a new Shadowman game featuring Jack Boniface called Shadow Man: Darque Legacy, which is apparently a single player Souls-like game which I have mixed feelings about but nonetheless it’s there.
Links:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/n64/198601-shadow-man/faqs/11447 (Guide)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-IdlK1Z0YA0 (Other Youtube Channel I used as guide)
https://www.neoseeker.com/shadowman/cheats/n64/ (N64 Cheats)
https://kotaku.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-make-a-big-video-game-1501413649 (Comparative game budgets)
https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday/93946368/
https://variety.com/1999/film/news/artisan-warms-up-to-ice-cube-1117756828/ (Film Sources)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Man_(Michael_LeRoi)
https://shadowman.fandom.com/wiki/Michael_LeRoi (Backstory Sources)
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/ShadowMan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y27O551VOJ0&ab_channel=ORDOVIZIUMVIDEOGAME-OSTCHANNEL (Soundtrack)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0292231/
https://manuall.co.uk/nintendo-n64-shadow-man/
Aventura entre dos mundos que 20 años después se jugaba genial.
A neat, if somewhat dated 3D platformer/action game with a horror theme based on a comic book. Its gameplay and controls are a bit janky but if you can put up with that the atmosphere and story are really cool, reminiscent of Spawn, The Darkness, and Soul Reaver all kind of rolled into one.
One thing to consider though, stay away from the PS1 version because it barely fucking runs and it's ungodly buggy. It is a solid game to pick up on N64, Dreamcast, or PC though.
One thing to consider though, stay away from the PS1 version because it barely fucking runs and it's ungodly buggy. It is a solid game to pick up on N64, Dreamcast, or PC though.