#Shadow blade ios update#

Not better to an exceptional degree, but still improved.It’s easy to write off mobile games as nothing but greedy cash grabs and endless clones of Flappy Bird and Candy Crush. This is still a good game, and the Reload additions have made it a better game. The original game was so beloved because it did those elements quite well, and even going with default virtual controls and having 3 action buttons, it works well. And all the acrobatic combat and speedrunning that you can do? It still feels great. The story provides for nice context to the action.

All the strengths of the original game are accentuated. It’s just inessential for you.īut for new players, those who are playing this for the first time? I can recommend it. And I think unless you really, really loved the original Shadow Blade, you can pass on this with ease. It’s still fun to be an acrobatic ninja and bounce around from wall to wall, pulling off tricky jumps to get optional items and to stay alive. Playing through Shadow Blade: Reload, returning to the game after 2 years away, wasn’t an unpleasant experience. And sure, the boss fights are fun to complete once you figure out the patterns and secrets, but I don’t think I’d miss them if they weren’t there. Like, I’ve played this, I’ve done the walljumps before, I’ve enjoyed the stealth kills and dropping from great height to bop an enemy. The new stuff adds to the experience, but I forgot that shurikens weren’t in the original game, for example. You’ll recognize certain parts of levels even if you haven’t touched the original game in a while, but there is plenty you haven’t seen – or at least forgot about.īut the problem is that the experience doesn’t feel fresh at all.

The levels are reorganized and revamped, along with new enemies and bosses. The story’s okay, inessential but not unwelcome. The game now has a story with comic-book-style cutscenes. You can now fire shurikens that recharge throughout the level to get a distance advantage on enemies. What’s new? Well, the game has been given a visual facelift. So it’s kind of an unusual proposition for veterans.

#Shadow blade ios update#

I guess if Reload was an update or a paid upgrade to the original Shadow Blade, we’d have no problem here with the project’s existence, but this is a $4.99 release separate from a game that was once $1.99. The game has gotten a big revamping for release on console and Steam, and since it once released on iOS, hey, here you go.

Its presence on iOS feels more like a “well, why not?' sitation versus actually needing to be released. And I know I’m not the only person who comes from this position of “why is this necessary?' The game was an Editor’s Choice back when it released, and got great critical reveiws. The original game was fine, not on the list of games that needed a revamping. So, having played and enjoyed Shadow Blade back in 2014, I feel weird approaching this. It feels like the most immediate artistic statement that he could have made, compared to other artistic works that often have a latency between creation and availability. It’s what fascinates me about Kanye West tweaking The Life of Pablo up until it was released. That can be the problem of remasters, remakes, and the like: you have to strike the balance between modernization and preservation. Sometimes a reworking can successfully defy established expectations and achieve a new potential.īut part of the thing that’s special about the original versions is that they’re an artistic statement of a time and place. Like, there’s something about how progressive metal band The Contortionist plays live that trumps their recorded material to a dramatic degree. This isn’t always the case modifications or alterations can reveal something that wasn’t there before, or help make something that didn’t quite work once now actually be pretty good. And maybe the later verisons sound better over time, but there’s never that same emotional impact that comes from when you fell in love with the original. But for fans before, the ones they fell in love with were the original versions of the songs. Now, I came in to Fair to Midland well after Fables from a Mayfly was released, so my emotional attachment is to the newer versions of the material. For example, one of my favorite bands, Fair to Midland, had a bunch of songs that appeared on earlier albums that they cleaned up and re-recorded along with new material for their major label debut, Fables from a Mayfly. The best way to describe this in relation to the original Shadow Blade is that this is like returning to a piece of work completed a while ago, and doing some further work to it to improve it in some way. Shadow Blade: Reload ($4.99) is not a sequel to Shadow Blade ($1.99), but an enhanced re-release of the original.