Shadow Blade: Reload

First played this game back in 2012 on mobile. Still amazing game on every aspect. Great games never get old.

Shadow Blade: Reload is an exhilarating side-scrolling action platformer that demonstrates how rewarding precision-based gameplay can be when paired with responsive controls and thoughtful level design. Developed and published by Dead Mage, the game revolves around speed, agility, and skill, placing players in the role of Kuro, a young ninja tasked with restoring balance to a world threatened by the collapse of an ancient alliance. While the story remains relatively simple, it provides enough motivation to support the intense gameplay, allowing the action and level design to remain the primary focus throughout the adventure. The campaign takes players through a variety of visually appealing environments inspired by both traditional Japanese culture and modern industrial settings. This blend creates a unique atmosphere that separates the game from more conventional ninja adventures. Each stage is carefully constructed to encourage fluid movement, requiring players to leap across hazards, scale walls, avoid deadly traps, and defeat enemies without sacrificing momentum. Rather than slowing the pace with lengthy encounters or excessive exploration, every level encourages mastery throu…

Shadow Blade Reload is your typical 2.5 action adventure where you follow a simple and typical story across 7 regions. Each region contains between 5 and 7 stages with some of the final stages being bosses. You go through obstacles, fight enemies, collect Kanji & orbs and you get scored at the end based on factors like how many enemies you defeat, how much stuff you collect and how fast you are. The game’s biggest selling point has got to be the controls. It feels amazing with a controller. Not only because you’re super fast but you can jump infinitely as long as you touch a wall. It might sound broken but the levels are generally designed with that in mind, especially when you play on 2 harder difficulties. The environments change significantly with more obstacles and enemies. The game is a joy to play and it’s kept engaging. Other aspects like graphics, sound etc. are fine. They might not impress compared to what’s available on the market, but they’re done with care. In terms of flaws, most are real nitpicks. You need to install a program on PC in order to view the cutscenes, luckily the installation program is found in the game’s folder. There are also some minor visual bugs…

I enjoyed this fast-paced old school 2d platformer. Totally feels like you are playing as a capable ninja!

Firstly, make sure you have LAV extensions installed if you want to watch the animated videos that tell the story during the game. The install folder has an exe you can run, and it works, but I would install the basic K-Lite codec pack which includes this and more and is up to date, and I can confirm 100% unlocked the game videos. I have a soft spot for this game as it does exactly what I want out of an action platformer - that being responsive, focused harcore action without being OTT like speed run type "super speed" titles and focusing on combat, i.e., destroying the enemies, on top of the platforming pitfalls you must navigate. Looks good, sounds good, controls well, cheap and worth every cent, this is my type of game. There are hidden bonuses but it's not one of those games you will be wandering endlessly and wondering where to go next, which is precisely what I love about it. Just a straightforward and challenging action game. Oh, it has native 4K support and controller remapping as well as a simple hints page explaining all the movement and attacks available to you. Unfortunately it's one of those older games that doesn't recognise LT and RT, and that is a real shame when…

on the native linux version the controller is not recognized by default. Switched to proton and now the controller works but for some reason the devs decided to map the movement to the thumbstick instead of the d-pad which feels horrendous. I don't see any settings to change that. I'm not going to play this with keyboard.