SHADOWMAN

Time to re-live one of my all time favourite games from my childhood. Now don't get me wrong this game is awesome but I understand it's not for everyone especially seeing as it is rather dated; 15 years in fact. However this game defined my childhood and in hindsight as a nine year old I probably shouldn't have been playing a game so gruesome. But if I can get at least one person to play Shadowman I'll be a very happy camper! Remember this was in the N64 and Playstation's early years so the looks of the characters aren't super appealing but the overall world and feel is stunning.

Enter Michael LeRoi aka Shadowman a possessed voodoo warrior embedded with the Mask of Shadows which allows him to traverse between the living world (Liveside) and the place where everyone goes after death (Deadside). The game itself borrows heavily from French literature  the Bible and Southern American voodoo lore (see 007 Live And Let Die's Baron Samedi for instance). The great evil known as Legion has taken control of a large part of Deadside and is looking to bring about Armageddon, in doing so he requires the powers of Dark Souls. However Shadowman hopes to obtain the souls before Legion in order to thwart his plans. So Shadowman begins his quests through the sacred temples and grim locales of the Asylum in order to save the world before it's too late.

Having gone back and played this recently for about the fifty-billionth time I still really do love it. I still manage to find new things on each play-through and the adventure platforms aspect of it does satisfy that part of me that not many games do these days. The soundtrack is brilliant as was a lot of Acclaim's work that they did. The locales are all very unique and defined and make you really feel like you're in another realm. The sad part of this is that studios like Acclaim and Rare (the Rare we all knew and loved) truly have gone the way of Deadside which is probably why I still look back to 15 year old games from my youth to satisfy me. This game is a sorely overlooked gem in the N64's library and I urgently press that you all give it a crack. It is available on Playstation but the quality isn't as good and there are a few bugs that affect the gameplay...otherwise PC emulators all the way! Until next time.

Genre: 3rd Person Action / Adventure
Platforms: N64, Playstation & PC
Score: 9.8 / 10