We are still waiting on a suitable Amiga AGA emulator with robust recording features before tackling such games.Shadow Dancer
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Player's Review
Shadow Dancer arcade conversion for the Commodore64 developed by US Gold / Images Design and Published by SEGA Europe Ltd. in 1991.
"Master the Ninja Art, jump and fight your way to victory with Sega's ambitious martial arts game SHADOW DANCER. You are Joe Mushashi, Master Ninja, your hands and feet are lethal. Battle against merciless Streetfighters as you seek revenge for Kato, your loyal student's killing , whilst trying to foil the evil Sauros' attempts to obliterate the US Shuttle. With your Shuriken (Ninja Stars), Shinobi Sabre and canine companion YAMOTO you are virtually unstoppable."
I first played this game on the Spectrum and thought it was a good game for what it was within the systems limitations. The idea of a co-op ninja game with you and your dog was appealing to me and it worked out well. Challenging in its own way but still enjoyable. Playing the C64 version is almost a different game with its much smaller sprites . It's certainly more annoying with fast projectiles and respawning enemies. Especially the Ninjas. Kill them and they quickly return. Sometimes its just easier to leave them alone and only attack when they get close. No more Ninjas will likely appear until the previous is killed.
I tend to always focus on what I find bad about a game when I write these descriptions so lets see if I can find something good to write about. This game stands out in its presentation. It has an Intro and animated Outro which for a C64 is a rare thing. The levels are short but thankfully so as you can only take one hit and its back to the start if you do. There is no music while playing but you get a short piece before starting each level. There is a time limit but you get plenty so it is safe to take your time. The looks reasonable and pretty much what is expected from us gold. The gameplay is ok but not without its annoyances. You need to hold fire for a second then hit up or down if you want to switch platforms which can leave you unable to fire for a moment leaving you vulnerable so timing is important. Send the dog (again by holding fire) when possible to sort out enemies that might attack while you jump. You also get a limited amount of Magic used by pressing 'Space'. It can be useful on the Bosses but also when you get more then one enemy on screen that is shooting and you really need to jump between them. They can be deal with, but sometimes its just safer to blast them with the magic.
Overall I enjoyed the game but the Ninjas constantly flying on make it more annoying that it needs to be. I did leave a death in the longplay to show what happens and also failed a bonus section to show what happens. I'll just add that this game has one of the worst tape loaders encountered, much like Alien Storm. Each time it loads a level, it takes so long it seems like its loading in the whole game into memory each time. I used a floppy version for recording but it was still worth noting.
Lastly, there is something familiar about the conversion. The way the levels load, the screen wipes and the sounds are very reminiscent of the game 'First Samurai' I think the lead programmer (Jon Williams) may have re-used parts of Shadow Dancer to make that game.
00:00:00 Intro
00:02:40 Mission 1
00:10:05 Mission 2
00:16:20 Mission 3
00:23:40 Mission 4
00:29:35 Mission 5
00:34:08 The End
"Master the Ninja Art, jump and fight your way to victory with Sega's ambitious martial arts game SHADOW DANCER. You are Joe Mushashi, Master Ninja, your hands and feet are lethal. Battle against merciless Streetfighters as you seek revenge for Kato, your loyal student's killing , whilst trying to foil the evil Sauros' attempts to obliterate the US Shuttle. With your Shuriken (Ninja Stars), Shinobi Sabre and canine companion YAMOTO you are virtually unstoppable."
I first played this game on the Spectrum and thought it was a good game for what it was within the systems limitations. The idea of a co-op ninja game with you and your dog was appealing to me and it worked out well. Challenging in its own way but still enjoyable. Playing the C64 version is almost a different game with its much smaller sprites . It's certainly more annoying with fast projectiles and respawning enemies. Especially the Ninjas. Kill them and they quickly return. Sometimes its just easier to leave them alone and only attack when they get close. No more Ninjas will likely appear until the previous is killed.
I tend to always focus on what I find bad about a game when I write these descriptions so lets see if I can find something good to write about. This game stands out in its presentation. It has an Intro and animated Outro which for a C64 is a rare thing. The levels are short but thankfully so as you can only take one hit and its back to the start if you do. There is no music while playing but you get a short piece before starting each level. There is a time limit but you get plenty so it is safe to take your time. The looks reasonable and pretty much what is expected from us gold. The gameplay is ok but not without its annoyances. You need to hold fire for a second then hit up or down if you want to switch platforms which can leave you unable to fire for a moment leaving you vulnerable so timing is important. Send the dog (again by holding fire) when possible to sort out enemies that might attack while you jump. You also get a limited amount of Magic used by pressing 'Space'. It can be useful on the Bosses but also when you get more then one enemy on screen that is shooting and you really need to jump between them. They can be deal with, but sometimes its just safer to blast them with the magic.
Overall I enjoyed the game but the Ninjas constantly flying on make it more annoying that it needs to be. I did leave a death in the longplay to show what happens and also failed a bonus section to show what happens. I'll just add that this game has one of the worst tape loaders encountered, much like Alien Storm. Each time it loads a level, it takes so long it seems like its loading in the whole game into memory each time. I used a floppy version for recording but it was still worth noting.
Lastly, there is something familiar about the conversion. The way the levels load, the screen wipes and the sounds are very reminiscent of the game 'First Samurai' I think the lead programmer (Jon Williams) may have re-used parts of Shadow Dancer to make that game.
00:00:00 Intro
00:02:40 Mission 1
00:10:05 Mission 2
00:16:20 Mission 3
00:23:40 Mission 4
00:29:35 Mission 5
00:34:08 The End
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