Game Highlight: Shadow Dancer

System: Sega Megadrive / Sega Genesis

Date Published: 1990

Company: Sega

1991: Screaming awesome 16bit graphics and sounds, the sleek black Sega Megadrive was on every child’s birthday list in that year. When home rental of the system was finally available, Shadow Dancer was the 1^st game we went back with. I guess the title sounds cool, and Super Shinobi was the current top game for the system. (Ninjas + TV Game = Good), that’s the equation running in the rot-filled brains of local pre-teens during that period.

One of the Megadrive’s early showpiece titles, the game was designed to pull crowds with big detailed sprites and backgrounds. You attack using shurikens and blade, rescue hostages within a stipulated time limit, and confront a boss at the end of each round. Predecessor of Pokemon, you also have a pet dog that you can set loose to incapacitate your enemies while you move in for the kill. There’s no life bar; one fatal hit and you die, otherwise you get knocked back. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what can kill you, especially when it comes to enemy collisions.

Shoot all ninjas: Coming from an NES owner, the game’s presentation was indeed beautiful and hearing digitized grunts was magic that post-NES gamers took for granted. Beyond the sensory wrappings, throwing infinite shurikens gets pretty stale after a while, one-hit-deaths and slow pacing makes this a mediocre roam. The dog attack is the game’s only saving grace, would be great had this feature been utilized more.

Wow moment: Ascending the Statue of Liberty in a video game, that’s some graphical achievement in the history books!

Overall, Shadow Dancer is too short and simplistic. It was a common issue that plagued numerous Sega launch titles. Seems like these games fell under the same 3-button control scheme: Attack, Jump, Magic. The action is average, music is forgettable. Maybe worth a play just to reminisce the joy of early Megadrive ownership.