Shadow Gangs Reviews

Prelude: I met the developer of Shadow Gangs a decade ago on a Retro forum. He first started this project back in 2015, as a Kickstarter campaign which unfortunately was cancelled. He knew that I was loved the arcade version of Shinobi, and was very good at it. Imagine my surprise when he asked me to be a beta tester and give feedback; what an honour and privilege. Review: Firstly, let me just say that this game is absolutely spectacular!!! Not only does this live up to my perceived expectations, but far exceeds them by a long shot. Graphics - The background, foreground, other many layers are a work of art, sublime, lush and colourful. The stage layouts are very imaginative and diverse. The level of detail is something to behold. Hero & Enemies - Dan is very detailed, right down to the pattern on his vest and Nike symbol on his sneakers. The many varied enemies with numerous attack patterns and character are top notch. Also the animations while standing still or crouching are great. Bosses - The bosses are outstanding and original but quite tough; so just like Shinobi, it will take you some time to work out their pattern and then apply a suitable strategy. Bonus Stages - The two different bonus stages are quite inventive, and a new take on things. Game Mechanics - The game mechanics are spot on and allow for precise hits. There's also variation when close to an enemy, be it crouching, standing or jump attacking. Music & Sound Effects - The music is amazing and never gets boring. The numerous sound effects are wonderful, for example when hitting or killing an enemy. Conclusion: A sheer masterpiece in every sense of the word. The amount of time, love and passion put into this is clear for all to see. If you're after a fast paced, old school arcade style romp, then this is the game for you. To complete this game you really will need the skills and reflexes of a ninja; and around 30 hours of game play. This is definitely a modern day Shinobi; and an absolute must have for anyone who loves the original!!!

you have to be into oldscool retros to make the most of it just thinkin of playin arcades in blackpool good days

If you don't like old school games and don't have a knack for giving your best in accomplishing a challenge then Shadow Gangs isn't for you. Only the elite members of the Hall Of Kage can acquire such an unbeatable task but if you dare to give it your all maybe....just maybe, you shall stand among the legends and say I am a Shadow Gang Master! ~Step Up And Test Your Skills~

Great to see an old school game like Shadow Gangs available today. Brings back a lot of good memories from my arcade days. The game starts off at a reasonable level but it might seem hard to beginners. You just need to persevere and you always get that bit further on your next go. I much prefer having a game like this where I need to concentrate and improve to get further than just go flying through a game I just bought and complete it in a couple of hours. Love the graphics and characters and really enjoy the music while playing. As I am progressing my reflexes are definitely getting better. Great boss fights. Overall, a worthy purchase, really enjoying it.

7.5/10 When this game is cool, it's really cool. Dodging out the way, kicking someone in the face, then turning around to throw stars, dodging the blue incoming ninja, stepping out the way of the red one coming your direction then kicking him in the face and finally slashing the blue ninja after stepping out of his landing mark. awesome. but some of the levels have poor design which is a shame because some other levels are pretty cool. The poor level design isn't that it makes it hard or anything, it's just visually boring. the new neo geo version looks much better visually. If it comes out on steam and it's cheaper (like under £10) then I'll get it. I had fun but the game is really expensive for what it is. He would have gotten way more sales if he made it cheaper. I got it on sale. 50% off at least would be preferable. Fun time and really challenging. Not sure how easy mode was but I'm guessing it's still going to be somewhat challenging.

(Way) Shortened Review of Shadow Gangs (Steam version) Shadow Gangs really hit the spot for me (a veteran Shinobi/Shadow Dancer player). I mean, I got over 50 hours of gameplay out of it, got myself in the top 10 scorers on the leaderboards and then felt the need to write a detailed 5-page review, which Steam unfortunately won’t let me post because it’s too long. It’s not a perfect experience by any means but very well executed all things considered. I had tons of fun mastering it and think that it’s an under-appreciated gem of an indie “classic tribute” – a real labor of love, with way too few Steam reviews and leaderboard entries. I am hoping that this positive review might influence some more people to buy and enjoy it, helping fund a sequel, which would be an instant purchase for me. If “Sega” was still Sega, they’d offer to produce and throw resources behind such a sequel, making in an official Shinobi game, enabling it to reach its full potential and join the ranks of the likes of “Sonic Mania” and “Streets of Rage 4”. Maybe there’s some hope of this happening? Perhaps I can post the full review in the forums?

Excellent side-scrolling action in the tradition of late 80's arcade games from companies like Sega and Data East! Shadow Gangs does a great job of replicating the look, feel and challenge of the games of that era, and with a wonderful presentation to boot. The visuals speak for themselves, but I was happy to discover that the game plays just as good as it looks; controls are tight and the combat feels really satisfying. Level designs and enemy types show an impressive amount of variety, with each of the game's levels set in a different locale, with completely unique art assets. Aside from visual variety, the level layouts themselves are more varied than I expected too! Some levels are far more vertical than others, some focus on perilous platforming, and others feature foreground/background switching similar to some of the Shinobi games. The enemy design is quite well done too, each enemy type has a distinct and predictable pattern, and none of them are usually much of a threat on their own - but if you allow them to gang up on you things get very hairy very quickly. The variety in level layouts and enemy attack patterns makes each level and even each enemy encounter a unique challenge, so the game never gets repetitive despite its simple mechanics. In other words: the game puts forth a simple set of mechanics, and through different level and enemy permutations it tests your skill and understanding of those mechanics - just like a good arcade game should. The pacing and length of the game feels just right, with each level (and boss fight) requiring a decent amount of trial and error to figure out, but once you do it feels really satisfying to blaze through them quickly! I've completed the game on the lowest difficulty setting (which the game wisely advises you to start with), and now I'm enjoying the challenge of trying to make my way through it on the higher difficulties. The game is quite approachable as far as diffiulty goes - people who aren't used to 80's arcade games will likely consider it very tough! But the easy difficulty setting provides a nice degree of leniency with some extra HP and lives, and with the Mission Select allowing you to start a new game from later levels, getting to the end is significantly easier than in most of the games that inspired this one. A 1-credit clear on the highest difficulty is a very serious challenge though, so there's definitely something here for seasoned arcade pros as well. I do have a few minor issues with the game, probably the biggest of which is the somewhat finicky behaviour of the camera. It's totally fine most of the time, but in some spots the camera is scripted to move up or down, which can obscure enemy attacks and lead to some unusually cheap deaths. The ability to manually scroll the camera up or down would be a very welcome addition! I was also annoyed a few times when the game let me advance through the level after having missed a few of the mandatory hostages, even getting checkpoints - forcing me to awkwardly backtrack. I don't mind having to rescue the hostages to clear the levels, but with a few of the more open levels it can be needlessly easy to miss places you have to go. Finally, some of the difficulty tuning also seems a little off, with some early bosses seeming more difficult than the later ones. All in all though, the few complaints I have with the game are very minor, and I had a ton of fun with it from start to finish! As a long time arcade game enthusiast it's awesome to see new games come out that embrace this style of game design, especially when done this well. If you're a fan of Shinobi, Shadow Dancer, Rolling Thunder, or any games of their ilk, I would definitely recommend checking out Shadow Gangs.

Terrible game, it has nothing to do with Shinobi not the music, the graphics are not bad but the animation does and the gameplay is clunky. Also the limited lives when this is an arcade game, the timer sucks azz you cant explore a little because as early as the second stage you will run out of time so there is nothing to enjoy. Bosses are lame, this is a game that tries to evoke old times while missing all the important parts those games had. Bought the game as soon it came out because of the Shinobi feel, when as soon as I played the game everything went to hell.

Good game, terrible port. I am not going to go into it too much as a game - If you have ever played Shinobi in the arcades or Sega home consoles, this is what we have here with a modern lick of pain and some nice parallax graphics. The vertical scrolling is just terrible however, behind time wise and often not scrolling up to show the whole part of the level. Music is fine, kind of electric guitar focused pop rock. The problem is the quality is GARBAGE. Obviously, it's 3yo now so the dev has no plans to fix it. The only game in my entire library where I can't eliminate screen tearing, and it's BAD. The game runs at 60 FPS - if i enable vsync in game it syncs to the panels 144hz rate BUT the game speed is tied to FPS so it plays at nearly 3x normal speed. If I use RTSS to cap at 60 FPS, the game is at the correct speed but obviously v-sync doesn't work cause it still tears, and this is with the display's adaptive sync enabled. I mean really bad line tearing right through a part of the screen horizontally, on every movement. If I force the display to 60hz prior to launch and enable in game v-sync, it speeds up again? What? If I use the GPU control panel to force v-sync there, even THAT does not work. I did get around it. Every time I launch the game, I keep the screen at the native 144hz refresh rate, the game forces the screen to 60hz on launch, I have to minimize the game (thankfully it supports 4K so this is not a problem on a 4K panel even in full screen) and then put the display back to 144hz. When I go back to the game windows, with v sync OFF in game, with RTSS ON to 60 FPS lock and with screen forced to 144hz AFTER game launch, I can finally play it. This has to be done every single time. Even options are stupid. Rather than having the usual A for enter and B for back, it's tied to whatever the fire button is. So I have to press X to select things and then B to go back, it's just so lazy. And if I have B assigned to back, I can't assign it to a game action (I wanted to assign it to magic). If you want to play this game, play it on a console. Those are much better although I can't verify if they are 4k, but at least they "just work". I CAN verify the switch version is 1080P and 720P handheld, so native, and works great. Just do not buy the Steam version, cause it's crap indeed. The dev is working on Shadow Gangs 2, so that's where their development time went. Even if it's a great game, I will not support them again because it's no excuse not to fix your first game. I mean ANY other game, anything, just works without tearing. ALL of them. And on the rare occasion I need GPU v-sync, that has always fixed it on every game in the past. I have no idea how it will behave on lower refresh rate screens but I presume even worse.

Back to the 80s-90s! Really fun game, cross of Shinobi, Rolling Thunder, Sly Spy...Good music too!