Shadow Man

1999 · Action-Adventure · Nintendo 64 / PC

About Shadow Man

Shadow Man (1999) is Acclaim Studios Teesside's dark action-adventure based on the Valiant comic, in which voodoo warrior Michael LeRoi crosses between the living world and Deadside to stop serial killers and the demon Legion.

Shadow Man in Depth

Sometimes described as a 3D metroidvania, the game follows conventions of the Metroid and Zelda series rather than role-playing mechanics: progress is non-linear, and new powers open access to new areas and paths forward. Michael LeRoi moves between Liveside, the world of the living, and Deadside, the land of the dead, using his dead brother Luke's teddy bear as the link between them.

In 1888 Jack the Ripper, frustrated that his ritual murders have not unlocked a mystical power, is promised it by a being called Legion in exchange for building an asylum for killers in Deadside. In the present day the voodoo priestess Mama Nettie bonds the Mask of Shadows to Michael, making him the latest Shadow Man, a line of voodoo warriors who guard the living from Deadside. Nettie dreams that Legion will bring the Apocalypse by gathering the Dark Souls of damned warriors to raise an immortal army, and that five serial killers, the Five, each carry a Dark Soul and are hiding in Liveside, where Michael's powers fail by day. Michael must collect Deadside's souls, assemble a knife called the Eclipser so Nettie can trigger an eclipse, and track the Five down.

Making Shadow Man

Announced in 1997 for a late 1998 release on the Nintendo 64, Shadow Man slipped to 1999 and was released on 31 August for the Nintendo 64, Windows and PlayStation, with a Dreamcast version on 1 December. The Dreamcast, PC and N64 versions received favourable reviews, while the PlayStation version was criticised for poor technical performance. N64 Magazine gave it 93%, calling it "a dark and glittering jewel in the N64's gaudy crown", Computer Games Strategy Plus praised it as "graphically rich and emotionally binding", and Edge called it "near-peerlessly expansive in size and demands on player time", though Next Generation thought it "a well-intentioned misfire". Nightdive Studios re-released it digitally in 2013 and remastered it in 2021, and a sequel, Shadow Man: 2econd Coming, followed on the PlayStation 2 in 2002.

Shadow Man Trivia

The studio built its engine first, with no concept in mind, then chose Shadow Man from about eight comic series Acclaim offered.
Deadside's design drew heavily on the decaying industrial structures of Northeast England, where the studio was based.
The Asylum's headquarters was based on Pieter Bruegel the Elder's painting The Tower of Babel.
Its budget was more than $6 million.
Nightdive's 2021 remaster restored content cut from the original.