Lost in Shadow | Review

Synopsis: Hudson comes through with a review copy of Lost in Shadow to give my Wii some use over the holidays with something to play besides Donkey Kong Country Returns. Lost in Shadow is a unique action platformer exclusively for Wii where shadows are altered as your main source to manipulate levels to work your shadow boy up the tower and discover its secrets. You will not complete this journey alone as you are accompanied by a sylph that goes by “Spangle” to help manipulate light and shadows to ensure your way to the top. Lost in Shadow is a platformer with puzzles, action, RPG elements, and of course shadows. As some may know, I have been looking forward to the finished product after playing through the demo multiple times, so let’s see how the experience was.

Praise: The visual style behind Lost in Shadow is what makes this title really shine. The gameplay is rather basic but does not grow old and while it does have some RPG elements, the majority of the gameplay focus lies within attacking shadow creatures, manipulating light, and working your way up the tower. Getting used to focusing on the shadows throughout the castle takes some time, but once you get the hang of it, you are hooked! Along with the fun gameplay, there are a lot of puzzles to keep you thinking while not making the game overly difficult and keeping you on your way to the top. The title takes about 8 to 10 hours to complete and it goes by rather quickly collecting keys and unlocking paths to continue to the next floor. Though Lost in Shadow does use the remote and nunchuk, the controls work rather well as it does not rely on motion controls.

Gripes: While my experience was mostly favorable, there were some issues I had in the initial play through. The biggest was combat, as it is very simple, just hit the attack button when by the enemies, and the whole combat aspect of this game was sluggish for the most part. The other problem was that if you miss any keys to unlock your path to the next segment, then you will be backtracking to locate what you may have missed. While the graphics add a lot to the environment and gameplay, the story and sounds are shy of memorable, while the sounds of gears and industrial noises go with the moving behemoth of the castle, it did not make it feel any larger, in fact it kind of made the tower feel smaller.

Overall, Lost in Shadow was a blast to play and easy to go back to after the first play through, even though it does not provide much in the way of additional content, it is just a unique, good looking game, with a concept that borrows from multiple games like Ico and Limbo. I would say that if you’re not a fan of puzzles in your games, you may want to stay away. However, if platforming and puzzles is your cup of tea, then you will like playing through this title over and over again.

Mashbuttons.com gives Lost in Shadow an 8 out of 10.

Lost in Shadow is available now for the Nintendo Wii.

Lost in Shadow dev diary reveals the mysteries

In probably the most clever dev diary I have seen, the new Lost in Shadow diary is pretty cool. With questions fielded and answered by shadows, revealing the reasoning the behind how the main character was made and the perspective size of the castle. After my hands on with this title's demo, and hearing more about it from the dev diaries, I can't wait to get my hands on Hudson's upcoming release.

Hands on: Beyblade and Lost in Shadows

So I go home yesterday and find a package from Hudson, not sure what to expect I tear it open and find the demo disks to both Beyblade Metal Fusion Battle Fortress and Lost in Shadow. As some of you may be aware of, we have been covering Lost in Shadows for the last couple months, so here are my impressions of time spent with both demos.

I will start with Beyblade, a game where you play as a “blader” fighting in the World Beyblading Championships based on the TV series. The demo consists of a tutorial and two gameplay modes allowing me to choose from a number of available players. After a brief tutorial I start blading like an animal, flicking my wrist to throw my blade into the arena trying to knock out my opponents. The way you shove the computer is by shaking the remote in the direction of the opponent for that extra oomph. From the looks of the demo, you are able to play a type of survivor mode to see how man Beyblades you can knock out in one turn and a mode where you play in the tournament either against friends or the computer. I felt this title was pretty simple, with a lot of remote shaking, but like other games based on TV series’ there will probably be mass amounts of tweens lining for this release.

Lost in Shadow surprised me with a demo lasting significantly longer than Beyblade taking about a half an hour to complete. In the demo, the story starts with your character suspended in some sort of trance when the big baddy comes out strikes you, releasing your shadow from your body. From there I was walked through a tutorial by accessing memories to help me gain mass and get me to the tower to ascend and seek vengeance. Using a “Spangle”, which appears to be a type of fairy you use to find moving part in the tower make your way to the goal. The use of shadows and ability of fight shadows along with manipulate light make this a platformer puzzler that I am definitely looking forward to as plays just as good as it looks.

Lost in Shadow box are and pics revealed

Just received from the friendly folks at Hudson is the box art and screens from their upcoming summer release, Lost in Shadows. For those just following this title, it is a Wii exclusive where the player is put in a strange tower in an unknown world full of moving shadows. Using a companion sylph named Spangle, you move the shadows around to help navigate your shadow boy to his destination. The concept is rather unique and I am looking forward to a good non racer, FPS, or sandbox title to play through for a bit.

Lost in Shadow, possible fun or frustration

So I have heard only little things here and there regarding Hudson's Lost in Shadow. After receiving the recent trailer for the title, I feel equally confused, but want to check it out. Also, after watching the trailer I see much frustration once I can get into the game to try and figure out exactly how to manipulate the environment to navigate through the story.