Lost in Shadow scores 9/10 in the verdict of The Games Market editorial team.
Once Upon a Time
The Tower of Shadows
by Simon Larocca·March 2, 2025
When I was little, it really didn’t take much to have fun: inventing claustrophobic dungeons with traps and monsters in the shadows was easy, the important thing was to play together, and with a bit of imagination you created incredible worlds. My friends and I, scraped knees and BMX bikes with pedals sharper than Wolverine’s bones, played at being the protagonists of Pitfall,
jumping from one low wall to another and imagining lakes of scorching lava instead of tiles.
The simplest and
most fun gameplay in the world.
The same one that I somehow rediscovered by immersing myself in the original world of Lost in shadow, a video game released for grandma Wii in 2010, produced and developed by Hudson
Soft. It is a unique and rare game, with fantastic atmospheres that
recall the fantasy films of the Eighties, with their glossy images, oddball creatures
and a soft sense of melancholy that permeates their
teenage stories.
The Tower of Shadows,
this is the title under which the game arrived in Italy without much media
fanfare (a deadly commercial harakiri for the store shelves of the time,
believe me), seems to draw heavily from classic platform games , while adding
a unique touch of personality and, above all, a basic idea that elevates it
above the crowd, both in terms of storytelling and raw gameplay.
We will play as a shadow
torn by force from a mysterious boy: the opening cutscene is rather
raw and will see our avatar violently attacked by a disturbing creature
with armor and heavy shoulder pads.
[Shadow Tower gameplay scene]
The goal of the game will be to climb the very tall
tower and find the human to whom the shadow belongs, so as to become one again. Needless to say, the number of environmental puzzles we will encounter will put all
our timing and dexterity skills with the wiimote, the distinctive controller of Nintendo’s home console, to the test: a blessing
and a curse, but definitely iconic.
One of the strengths is the development of the plot based on what we will discover along the way, thanks to messages and clues scattered along the path that leads to the top of the tower. Getting into the gameplay mechanics is not immediate: fortunately, the initial tutorial lets us become familiar with the controls, making us operate levers and cross bridges, all of course seen from the perspective of a shadow and, as such, we will have to get used to seeing the world through its eyes.
Emblematic, after the first few minutes of gameplay, the
waterfall scene, perhaps the first real gameplay moment in which we will understand a
concept so far removed from our way of thinking.
There will be no shortage of enemies
standing between us and our goal, but fortunately we won’t be alone! Like
good old (well, not exactly, he’s forever young!) Peter Pan had
Tinker Bell, we will have an air sprite who will accompany us on the
upward journey toward the lost flesh-and-blood mate, actively supporting us and
becoming an integral part of the gameplay.
Oscillating between light and darkness,
the shadow protagonist must make its way through a game world where
everything and everyone opposes its rise, a sort of atypical coming-of-age journey that inevitably recalls great classics of
literature, films and comics, as well as, of course, our beloved video games.
From
a good connoisseur, I do not have few words to describe the beauty of this
game: the levels are inspired, the interaction with the elements present on the
screen will often leave you speechless and you will deeply understand the importance of being yourself, as well
as how painful and devastating it can be to lose part of one’s vital essence.
Playing The Tower of Shadows, in short, you will understand why Peter Pan
dared to leave Neverland just to snatch back his rebellious
shadow that had flown off to the house of a certain Wendy.
Let's not be offended, Trilly.
9
Pro
Level design, both inside and outside the Tower, that look as if they had come out of a painting
Original and well-structured gameplay, a breath of fresh air that unjustly went unnoticed
If you loved Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian, this is the game for you
Contro
If you like original platformers with a gradually increasing difficulty level, don’t miss it.
If you're as impatient as my girlfriend, put down the Wiimote and go back to screeching your tires in Mario Kart
My name is Simon Larocca, and I am a gamer, collector, and lover of pop culture in all its forms. I go to the cinema whenever I can, I have been reading since I started wearing glasses, so, basically forever, and I have a passion for storytelling in all its forms, so powerful that it became my profession. But as Doc from Ritorno al Futuro would say, there would be no present if one did not look at the past with respect and admiration, and it is the Simon child of more than thirty years ago, give or take a year, who is to thank for that.
Simon Larocca
My name is Simon Larocca, and I am a gamer, collector, and lover of pop culture in all its forms. I go to the cinema whenever I can, I have been reading since I started wearing glasses, so, basically forever, and I have a passion for storytelling in all its forms, so powerful that it became my profession. But as Doc from Ritorno al Futuro would say, there would be no present if one did not look at the past with respect and admiration, and it is the Simon child of more than thirty years ago, give or take a year, who is to thank for that.
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![[Shadow Tower gameplay scene]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.thegamesmarket.com%2Fapi%2Fv1%2Ffile%2Fproxy%3Fkey%3Dstaging%252Fmagazine%252Fcontent%252Fla-torre-delle-ombre-img-0.png&w=3840&q=75)
