Shadow of the Orient is a terrific throwback to the old school kind of platformer that I used to enjoy during the 16-bit era, reminiscent of classics on the Amiga and Super Nintendo like First Samurai and the Mega Man X franchise. It has beautiful pixel art, and even though it is quite short at just 15 stages, there is plenty of challenge here and plenty to love about the way it has been executed by Canadian indie developers Spacelab Studios.
This one originally began its life as a PC game, but is now being ported to Switch and the current gen of consoles. I can imagine that without a physical controller that the control scheme would have been quite fiddly for this type of game, so being able to play on the likes of Switch or Steam Deck feels like an ideal way to experience Shadow of the Orient.
You take on the role of young martial arts warrior Xiaolang who is on a mission to rescue a bunch of kidnapped kids from the nefarious clutches of a dark overlord in a generic but no less beautiful ancient Oriental setting. The gameplay is a pure old fashioned action platformer with the stages allowing a fair amount of exploration and featuring lots of hidden routes and secrets, not to mention a rogues gallery of mythological foes to hack and slash your way through. Shadow of the Orient is split into three acts and there is a boss at the end of each part of the triumvirate.
Stages ask you to find and free the ensnared children, with some puzzle solving and exploration required in order to do so. You begin with your fists and feet but can pick up new weapons such as a sword (which has a tasty enough combo system to its use), throwing knives and even hadouken-style fireballs. Xiaolang is incredibly nimble and can jump, double jump, wall jump and slide, and the controls and physics are spot on.
The stages are imaginative and varied in their execution and feature plenty of devious environmental obstacles, secrets and collectables as well as power ups such as being temporarily enveloped in a wheel of circling flames that destroy enemies on contact and make our hero temporarily invulnerable. The collectable booty you hoover up along the way can be spent in an in-game shop where you can upgrade Xioaling’s arsenal and even add new abilities to his repertoire. The game has handy little in-action hints and tips that act as a tutorial for all of the ways Xiaoling can move or attack, and this is done in a wonderfully non-intrusive fashion that doesn’t insult the intelligence.
Shadow of the Orient doesn’t really do anything that we haven’t seen before multiple times over the years, but it is extremely competent and well crafted. The visuals are beautiful, in particular some of the explosive effects when you off an enemy, and there is a tremendous amount of character in the sprites, and also the excellent narrative-driven introductory vignettes that are woven through the game to tell Xiaoling’s story. Props must also be give for the banging soundtrack courtesy of renowned retro videogame music aficionado Genatari. I felt instantly at home in this universe, and it actually feels like stepping back in time to my formative days of gaming where this genre produced so many classics.
It isn’t a huge game and can be beaten in a few hours in the right hands, but it is quite tricky at times and some of the puzzles and hidden kidnapped youngsters are quite tricky to seek out. There are two different difficulty levels and a speed run mode that add a bit of longevity, as well as achievements to unlock, but I am finding it hard to find any real negatives.
As with any old-school title of this ilk there are a few enemies that can be a pain in the arse to counteract – I am looking at you, bats. Always bloody bats! Shadow of the Orient is one that I would have happily paid for back in the day and would urge retro enthusiasts to pick up; the pricepoint is reasonable and this is a really good time.
