This game reminds me most of Batman Returns on the SNES, especially with the similar sprite sizes and the fact that it's a single-player only beat-em-up.
I said same thing. It really does remind me of BR. Both based on comic book movies just a couple years apart too. And Batman and the Shadow have crossed over a few times in comics.
Hi! I designed and did about 60% of the graphics for this game. The game was about 99% done, but Alec Baldwin had dissasociated himself from the movie before it launched, which, for as far as I know was the major nail in the coffin. Also the Genesis version had some serious programming issues, which may have added to the the cancellation, the cartridge was also the 1st 16 megabit cart, which was costly.. so it could have been a number of factors, but I think cart cost plus a box office failure was the main one. Ocean in Manchester UK was pretty much doing nothing but platformers with puzzle sections at that time, and I pushed to make a different genre for once, but we had a lot of problems with the movie studio, they were asking for the shadow character to face in 4 directions when walking left, right, up and down which would have blown the cartridge size to insane levels. As for the dark backgrounds,I was trying to direct the other members of the team to desaturate the backgrounds so that the blacks were more dark greys so the characters popped more A la Capcom's and Konami's games but everyone just did what they wanted and way too much black was used in a number of backgrounds. Sorry.
_"It's really not that bad of a film. Sure, it's cheesy as heck and the story isn't much, but hey it's got Ian McKellen, Penelope Anne Miller, Tim Curry..."_ Sorry Alec Baldwin, you didn't make the cut 🤣
Dang, the graphics actually look really nice in this game, especially for a dime-a-dozen SNES beat-em-up. The animations are fun and the pixel art is detailed and colorful. Shame the work of these artists basically went to waste.
That's Drunk for you. He is so focused on gameplay he does not notice background similarities. Pretty basic comparison to make, but I didn't notice either till you showed me.
A game based on The Shadow classic would be awesome. Something like a expanded Hitman where you have your agents or followers take down your target's criminal empire before you step in, show you are just as bad as they are and finish them off. This guy was Batman before there was Batman and the original anti hero would be a great concept to play as.
@The CunninLynguist It was part of the opening spiel in the radio drama. Think, like, Rod Serling talking about "entering an alternate dimension" at the beginning of Twilight Zone, or "Don't attempt to adjust the picture on your television set, there is nothing wrong" at the beginning of episodes of The Outer Limits.
Been watching you for 7 years and I am proud of you for all the good work you have done and great entertainment you have provided. Hope you continue on!
@@ShawnAuth Saw it in theaters when it came out and wasnt terribly impressed by it but ive watched it again a few times and come to terms with it haha. Its super corny but its good.
The Shadow is somewhat better than The Phantom but both are decent. They are *Citizen Kane* in comparison to modern kak like Captain Marvel or feminazi Star Wars!
@@mgtowlite7414 I also personally believe that a truly faithful movie of The Shadow in today's world would be better than almost the entire MCU. The character and his lore are THAT strong.
Ich trag ein N auf meiner Mütze, das zeigt dir an Ich bin der Rächer der Geruchlosen: Der Nasenmann Nimm das Z von Zorro, drehs um 90 Grad und dann Wird aus dem Z ein N, und das heißt Nasenmann - Reinhard Mey
the shadow wasn't only a bunch of Pulp novels it also was an old timey radio show that I used to love listening to as a kid(by the way I'm not old enough to have been alive when old radio shows were on but I was just raised on Old radio shows because they were a lot of my Christmas presents as a kid). It was a mystery radio show and each episode told different stories so there was no set cast like you would have in a sitcom. It's one of my favorite old radio shows and they are free to listen to online. there are a lot of old radio shows to listen to online for free I think that's because a lot of them are so old that they may now fall into public domain.
I still remember that i had a bootleg cart of this game when i was a child and i really loved the graphics and soundtrack, i still think that the amusement park level along with it's music are some of the best the beat em up genre had to offer but you can see that the game still wasn't complete, some attacks like throws barely do any damage and this makes a lot of the fights drag not to mention how the collision on some enemies doesn't seem to work properly and they can leg sweep you easily, but one of the memories that i have with this game is unlocking cheats for level select and unlimited lives, i had no idea how i've done this and could never replicate that since
Oh my goodness, I’ve been thinking the same thing! Although the series continued past NES/Famicom, and spans a few different genres (racing, party, falling block puzzle, fighting game, if I remember correctly) for a few different consoles.
All things aside...a limited release could of helped them recoup the development losses. Back then, rental stores would have eaten this up, regardless of the movie's performance.
This was being developed long before the concept of "Limited releases". Back when you made a game be it good or bad to sell as many as possible on it's own merit. Having Carts made was not cheap so a "Limited Release could bankrupt you. No BS "Collector's Edition" tat, no useless crap... The closest thing we came was odd stuff like Earthbound's big box but that was mostly because you got a strategy guide with the game (Which you at the time kinda needed...) These days, unless you're a LOW budget studio Limited Releases are kinda B.S. "Collector's Editions" which are chock full of cheap crap as opposed to something interesting? Even moreso higher up the Horsehockey chart.
@@reignick1133 you're thinking of the wrong type of limited release. Rental stores did have limited release games, that much is factual. Think the last system was really N64 with limited rental games, with stuff like Clayfighter Sculpture's cut
@@thecunninlynguist Yeah those "limited release" games were 100% bought and paid for by Blockbuster Video at a premium and *never intended for Retail sales.* Meaning? near 100% profit with the only "Middle man" being Nintendo in the production of those Carts *but at a MUCH lower margin.* And while this would have brought at least some coverage to the costs of development of the shadow for SNES? There's just no way it would have generated anywhere near-total coverage let alone profit. Ocean for the most part in this era were making RISKY gambles and bleeding money through poor managment. Those interesting Rental Limited releases were sold the same as any product to a company: Via a Pitch meeting.. for Clayfighter sculptor's cut & Final Fight Guy Blockbuster could track rental history through their systems to see there was indeed a demand thus a potential turnaround on investment. The Shadow bombed so hard at the box office and was rather mediocre in performance in rentals. Even if Ocean had produced a sales pitch for blockbuster? That would have been a heck of a HARD sell.
It also got a review in Game Player's Magazine. They used to have taglines introducing the game and reviewer. I'll never forget "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Mike Salmon does, and that's why he'll never have a daughter." GP had a lot of fun stuff like that.
The sprites and HUDs reminded me a lot of Batman Returns for the SNES. I remember renting this movie and it didn't suck but it wasn't memorable whatsoever either
I played through this a while back and your review is how I feel about it too. I did email the owner of Piko Interactive about acquiring the rights for this game to finish and or polish it. He said Atari has the rights and I believe they wanted too much for it. It would be cool to have a remake of the game with better controls, shortened levels, different enemies for all or most stages if possible, and the option to go back to the really enjoyable SNES soundtrack.
The game seems fine, except for the fact that The Shadow throws maybe a handful if punches in the whole movie... The Shadow messes with minds more than he throws dudes around. I love the character, and the movie. I feel like the movie would be better appreciated in today's market more so than the 90s.
Yeah, I can't help but think someone could make a really good Shadow game these days. Think something like "Watch_Dogs" in 1930s New York, with psychic abilities instead of hacking.
Wait, wtf? I never knew this was an unreleased game! Back when i was a kid, i had a friend who had this game, on cartridge nonetheless. The wonders of Brazil's piracy market back on the 90's... remembers me of a weird MK3 version that another friend had too, where Jade was always invincible and shit. Or the pirated Rock and Roll Racing where hell was a main level on the campaing, but passwords didn't worked.
@@timedasher Yes, in a NTSC shell, probably without the frontal screws tho. Those were quite common here in Brazil. Also, it was common for our SNES to be "unlocked" and be able to run PAL catridges as well, but if I remember, that bootleg my friend had was on a NTSC shell.
Damn, that boss fight with perspective mode 7 looks awesome! This also tells that the HUD is made out of sprites instead of the third background layer.
So many people don't know that this was an OOOOOLD radio serial...my grandfather who was born in the 1920's told me about listening to The Shadow on the radio as a kid.
The Shadow really wasn't that bad of a movie. My Dad gave it to me as a random Easter gift, probably because it was cheap, and I ended up really liking it. Has a great end credits song too.
I too unironically enjoy The Shadow movie. Yeah, it's a bit cheesy, but it has a great art deco look, some really funny bits, and some great action scenes, and Alec Baldwin is very cool as the Shadow. And while some of the CG is showing its age, the Phurba (the living golden dagger) is still friggin' frightening. I hope they worked it into the game somehow.
I love the scene in "The Shadow" when Tim Curry starts screaming an twisting like a mad cat while he shoots a Tommy gun to the ceiling! Campy gold. Did anyone notice that "Batman Begins" basically knocked-off "The Shadow" plot?
There are games you can look at without knowing what system they were on and guess that system every single time. This is an SNES looking game if I've ever seen one. The character details, colors, and special effects are all textbook SNES flair. I've never played or even seen this game before right now, but I'm going to grab it and go play it on my Steam Deck right now.
I remember this movie, but mostly as what got me into the audio dramas, and I could have sworn I rented this game but I guess it must have been a dream (or ROM lol) if you say Ocean canned it
I have played this game and had pretty much the same thoughts on it. It's pretty decent, but it doesn't really do anything to stand out from all the other Final Fight clones. The lack of a 2 player mode does hurt the game quite a bit (especially in this day and age), because that is always the most fun way to play through these. Making the game so long probably seemed like a great idea on paper as beat-em-ups are almost always short, but your criticism on that is probably exactly why they are kept short. They wear out their welcome if they are made longer then 8 stages or so.
3:42. LOL i've said that sentence to my friend before when talking about 2nd and 3rd Thor movies, when i say the second Thor movie was dark and my friends saying no its not and i gotta explain i was talking about the lighting and colors, not conceptually. XD
now I LOVED the Pirates of Dark water game as a kid. I remember my buddy Chris and I used to play the hell out of it. I never saw the movie for this, unlike Pirates, however I did have a couple of the toys from the movie. I had the Shadow and the main baddie. This game also has a strong Batman returns vibe to it as well, I think mostly b/c it is also a 1 player beat'em like Batman returns was. Idk if I would have had the patience to play through 8 levels though.
Obviously this would be more fun as a two player co-op but I'm not really sure how that would work w/The Shadow since he does nearly all of his fighting alone. Maybe they could have had player two be The Shadow in his Lamont Cranston identity and then had player 1 and 2 fight it out at the end to see if he ends up controlling or falling to his dark impulses instead of the boss rush?
@@duffman18 yup. US SNES library of officially released is like almost 800. Throw in EU/JPN only games, that makes it easily over a thousand, then you have something like this that's unreleased. Who knows how many unreleased titles there are out there.
The SNES had 718 US-released games, and 978 Japan-exclusive ones. Across all regions there were 1756 unique games released for the SNES during the system's official life. That's not counting games that have come out after the system left store shelves, or unfinished and/or unreleased games, such as this one. Considering he splits his time between the enormous SNES game library and a whole bunch of other platforms (NES, Genesis, Game Boy, N64, arcade, and even modern retro-style games), which all have sizable libraries themselves, I don't think he has to worry about running out of games anytime soon.
Totally agree about the movie! I've always thought The Shadow was one of the better early 90s Batman cash-ins, alongside Sam Raimi's totally underrated Darkman. It's just so wonderfully weird, and I liked Alec Baldwin in the role. (Plus a great Jerry Goldsmith score.)
The movie is stupidly awesome, and the official pinball machine that came out the same year is held in very high regard as one of the best of the 90’s.
@@joaogabrielportosilvaresco7975 Well, you know well about the "gray market" here. I've even played Mario vs Sonic on the SNES, which was a hack of some Speedy Gonzales (Ligeirinho) game. Camelôs were capable of anything, maybe The Shadow came from there.
You asked about Oceans plethora of movie based games. Ocean is a subsidiary of Sony if I'm not mistaken. While the movies at the time may not have been Sony productions, I'm sure there are connections somehow.
It's unsurprising a lot of good tie-in material was made for this movie. Pretty much everything about this project was well conceived, and the final movie had the potential of being good if not great... it just didn't DO anything with all the cool stuff it built.
3 ปีที่แล้ว
Is that the apple from Streets of Rage at 4:47? I hereby baptize it as "The Apple of Rage". As always, nice review and interesting thoughts, Mr Drunk!
My dad brought me this game home when I was a kid so there are copies out there. I was a sega fan so i left it in the box and never opened it. I was going through some items and found it last month still looked brand new. I donated it ti goodwill so maybe somebody can get some enjoyment out of it but they may have trashed it because nobody wants that stuff anymore. Probably should have played it at least once
I really liked the film - I'd say it was 'tongue in cheek' rather than cheesy. It looks and sounds great (fantastic score by Jerry Goldsmith). Such a shame it wasn't a hit. Never knew about this game. Fascinating.
As always. Great video. I also think the movie just didn't get released at the right time. If it came out during the mid-naughties (Sin City Era) I think it would have found great success. Unfortunate but it is what it is. I wonder if they'll ever do another one.
the shadow was doing what sin city did a decade or more later, and i am guilty of thinking that this game did get a release....thanks for the info Drunk, will try this game when i can....
This movie also somehow got a really, really good pinball table.
Yes yes double yes triple yes.... I played this game 15 years ago maybe 20 and it's one of the best pinball tables I've ever played.
Yes, with a little elevated area surrounded by bumpers resembling the mirror room in the movie. And the sound was great, too.
The morphing ramp was pretty dope.
I member
I discovered this movie was a financial success, albeit a terrible film hahahah
This game reminds me most of Batman Returns on the SNES, especially with the similar sprite sizes and the fact that it's a single-player only beat-em-up.
I said same thing. It really does remind me of BR. Both based on comic book movies just a couple years apart too. And Batman and the Shadow have crossed over a few times in comics.
@@carn9507 Well Batman is essentially The Shadow ripoff, so not surprising
The way he punches, the special move that hits everyone on screen, the way he move
I was thinking the exact same thing. Even the way he walks and the health bars
exactly.
Hi! I designed and did about 60% of the graphics for this game. The game was about 99% done, but Alec Baldwin had dissasociated himself from the movie before it launched, which, for as far as I know was the major nail in the coffin. Also the Genesis version had some serious programming issues, which may have added to the the cancellation, the cartridge was also the 1st 16 megabit cart, which was costly.. so it could have been a number of factors, but I think cart cost plus a box office failure was the main one.
Ocean in Manchester UK was pretty much doing nothing but platformers with puzzle sections at that time, and I pushed to make a different genre for once, but we had a lot of problems with the movie studio, they were asking for the shadow character to face in 4 directions when walking left, right, up and down which would have blown the cartridge size to insane levels.
As for the dark backgrounds,I was trying to direct the other members of the team to desaturate the backgrounds so that the blacks were more dark greys so the characters popped more A la Capcom's and Konami's games but everyone just did what they wanted and way too much black was used in a number of backgrounds.
Sorry.
I'd rather believe that Ocean canceled the game because it didn't meet their strict quality standards for licensed games, it was too decent.
_"It's really not that bad of a film. Sure, it's cheesy as heck and the story isn't much, but hey it's got Ian McKellen, Penelope Anne Miller, Tim Curry..."_
Sorry Alec Baldwin, you didn't make the cut 🤣
He forgot to mention the boss of this movie as well, who's also the same actor that plays Ricky Tan in Rush Hour 2.
To be fair, he did mention Alec Baldwin first. 🤷♂️
He did “The Last Emperor” with Bertolucci, and Madame Butterfly, John Lone is a classic in Chinese Cinema (just a hint)
He was a good Shadow.
@Brian Babin You talking about movie?
What 16 bit games lurk in the hearts of men? The SNES drunk knows.
Oh, man, I loved The Shadow movie when it came out. I still love it. It's amazing.
I remember that era- didn't the phantom come out soon after too? Lot of good movies that people have forgotten now came out in that era 🍻
Oh, that knife...
@@WaldoBagelTopper The best Phantom was Phantom 2040, change my mind.
Man! Thanks to this channel I've find so many good snes games!
Dang, the graphics actually look really nice in this game, especially for a dime-a-dozen SNES beat-em-up. The animations are fun and the pixel art is detailed and colorful. Shame the work of these artists basically went to waste.
"I don't get [Nintendo Power's] comparing it to Double Dragon at all"
I think I found the Double Dragon reference at 3:19
That's Drunk for you. He is so focused on gameplay he does not notice background similarities. Pretty basic comparison to make, but I didn't notice either till you showed me.
Looks pretty good considering the year, highly recommend to actually listen to the old radio shows voiced by orson Welles they’re great
At 1:24 there's an in-game ad for Pizzarias. I loved those as a kid
A game based on The Shadow classic would be awesome. Something like a expanded Hitman where you have your agents or followers take down your target's criminal empire before you step in, show you are just as bad as they are and finish them off. This guy was Batman before there was Batman and the original anti hero would be a great concept to play as.
What evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows...
The weed of crime bears bitter fruit!
was that the tagline? I vaguely remember that. Thought that was Darkman's tag, haha.
Love for giantess vampires lurks in the hearts of men
@The CunninLynguist It was part of the opening spiel in the radio drama. Think, like, Rod Serling talking about "entering an alternate dimension" at the beginning of Twilight Zone, or "Don't attempt to adjust the picture on your television set, there is nothing wrong" at the beginning of episodes of The Outer Limits.
@@thecunninlynguist well, Sam Raimi DID make "Darkman" because he couldn't get the rights to "The Shadow"...
The Shadow himself looks really cool in this game. Like, that is a *very* nice sprite!
I have the original first 4 comics, dad was incredibly obsessed with this character.
Been watching you for
7 years and I am proud of you for all the good work you have done and great entertainment you have provided. Hope you continue on!
I love the Shadow movie. Its super fun and old school.
Have you seen the Phantom movie? If not, I highly recommend that. Another comic classic with a fun movie adaptation, albeit a bit cheesy.
@@ShawnAuth Saw it in theaters when it came out and wasnt terribly impressed by it but ive watched it again a few times and come to terms with it haha. Its super corny but its good.
I loved it too
The Shadow is somewhat better than The Phantom but both are decent.
They are *Citizen Kane* in comparison to modern kak like Captain Marvel or feminazi Star Wars!
@@mgtowlite7414 I also personally believe that a truly faithful movie of The Shadow in today's world would be better than almost the entire MCU.
The character and his lore are THAT strong.
Love the original radio program.
I’m not that old. I’m just eclectic.
Drunk: “The 8 levels feels like an eternity.”
Me: Most 16bit made by Ocean feel that way.
Most 8-bit games by Ocean do as well.
I'm convinced Ocean's Robocop 2 was designed by people who straight up hate video games.
For real, Jurassic Park was fun but I had no idea if I even made it halfway through in an eight-hour day :-/
I always like to hold out hope that Ocean made ONE straight-up good game. But I think "decent" really is the highest pinnacle they ever reach.
I want to thank you for making this video and hope you have a great rest of your day
MisterScoot was playing this on Twitch just the other night, and now this comes up. It's interesting if nothing else.
"Whose nose? THE SHADOW'S NOSE!!"
Who smells the farts of men?
Ich trag ein N auf meiner Mütze, das zeigt dir an
Ich bin der Rächer der Geruchlosen: Der Nasenmann
Nimm das Z von Zorro, drehs um 90 Grad und dann
Wird aus dem Z ein N, und das heißt Nasenmann
- Reinhard Mey
This actually looks amazing
I actually loved this movie. And always wished they had made a game. Thanks for confirming a wish from my childhood.
Have a great rest of YOUR day, bro!
the shadow wasn't only a bunch of Pulp novels it also was an old timey radio show that I used to love listening to as a kid(by the way I'm not old enough to have been alive when old radio shows were on but I was just raised on Old radio shows because they were a lot of my Christmas presents as a kid). It was a mystery radio show and each episode told different stories so there was no set cast like you would have in a sitcom. It's one of my favorite old radio shows and they are free to listen to online. there are a lot of old radio shows to listen to online for free I think that's because a lot of them are so old that they may now fall into public domain.
"The SHADOW Knows!"
I still remember that i had a bootleg cart of this game when i was a child and i really loved the graphics and soundtrack, i still think that the amusement park level along with it's music are some of the best the beat em up genre had to offer but you can see that the game still wasn't complete, some attacks like throws barely do any damage and this makes a lot of the fights drag not to mention how the collision on some enemies doesn't seem to work properly and they can leg sweep you easily, but one of the memories that i have with this game is unlocking cheats for level select and unlimited lives, i had no idea how i've done this and could never replicate that since
You just keep FINDING this stuff! Thanks!
Just watched the movie again, its a childhood favorite
I'd play it, especially remember seeing previews of it as a kid and realizing just now that it never came out lol
You always bring out great games ! Love your channel bro keep it up !👍🏾✊🏾🔥
One thing I like about the game is the music is awesome, and it really creates that atmosphere that represents the shadow.
You should do a video on Ufouria: The Saga
Fun little Sunsoft Metroidvania that was only in Europe and Japan
Oh my goodness, I’ve been thinking the same thing! Although the series continued past NES/Famicom, and spans a few different genres (racing, party, falling block puzzle, fighting game, if I remember correctly) for a few different consoles.
NoJoTo yeah, they all seem pretty awesome. Hope to play one day
@@opaljk4835 I own Ufouria on Wiiu virtual console, and while it runs faster than the original, it’s still fun.
Ive suggested that game on another video he did. I would love him to do it. Ufouria is awesome, love it, really the first good Metroidvania.
All things aside...a limited release could of helped them recoup the development losses. Back then, rental stores would have eaten this up, regardless of the movie's performance.
It's definitely something i would have likely rented for a weekend back then like i did batman returns
@@carn9507 The SNES Animated series Bat Man game was my shit back then haha
This was being developed long before the concept of "Limited releases". Back when you made a game be it good or bad to sell as many as possible on it's own merit. Having Carts made was not cheap so a "Limited Release could bankrupt you. No BS "Collector's Edition" tat, no useless crap... The closest thing we came was odd stuff like Earthbound's big box but that was mostly because you got a strategy guide with the game (Which you at the time kinda needed...)
These days, unless you're a LOW budget studio Limited Releases are kinda B.S. "Collector's Editions" which are chock full of cheap crap as opposed to something interesting? Even moreso higher up the Horsehockey chart.
@@reignick1133 you're thinking of the wrong type of limited release. Rental stores did have limited release games, that much is factual. Think the last system was really N64 with limited rental games, with stuff like Clayfighter Sculpture's cut
@@thecunninlynguist Yeah those "limited release" games were 100% bought and paid for by Blockbuster Video at a premium and *never intended for Retail sales.* Meaning? near 100% profit with the only "Middle man" being Nintendo in the production of those Carts *but at a MUCH lower margin.* And while this would have brought at least some coverage to the costs of development of the shadow for SNES? There's just no way it would have generated anywhere near-total coverage let alone profit.
Ocean for the most part in this era were making RISKY gambles and bleeding money through poor managment.
Those interesting Rental Limited releases were sold the same as any product to a company: Via a Pitch meeting.. for Clayfighter sculptor's cut & Final Fight Guy Blockbuster could track rental history through their systems to see there was indeed a demand thus a potential turnaround on investment.
The Shadow bombed so hard at the box office and was rather mediocre in performance in rentals. Even if Ocean had produced a sales pitch for blockbuster? That would have been a heck of a HARD sell.
It also got a review in Game Player's Magazine. They used to have taglines introducing the game and reviewer. I'll never forget "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Mike Salmon does, and that's why he'll never have a daughter." GP had a lot of fun stuff like that.
Amazing Snesdrunk thanks 😊
I'm just super happy that so many unreleased games are finally being made available by some means or another
I wanted this game so bad when I was a kid and it never came. I loved that movie.
Man, I loved this movie. I totally would have bought/played the game.
The sprites and HUDs reminded me a lot of Batman Returns for the SNES. I remember renting this movie and it didn't suck but it wasn't memorable whatsoever either
I've rented this game on a video store in Brazil back in the 1990s. Didn't knew it wasn't released officially 😯
I played through this a while back and your review is how I feel about it too. I did email the owner of Piko Interactive about acquiring the rights for this game to finish and or polish it. He said Atari has the rights and I believe they wanted too much for it. It would be cool to have a remake of the game with better controls, shortened levels, different enemies for all or most stages if possible, and the option to go back to the really enjoyable SNES soundtrack.
YOOOOOO A SHADOW GAME!???!!!!? That is awesome
This game should have been released in the first place and it's look cool. 😀👍🎮
It was a good game, amusement park level music is awesome, such a shame game was never released
I love the old pulp heroes, and I had no idea this existed! Thanks dude.
The game seems fine, except for the fact that The Shadow throws maybe a handful if punches in the whole movie... The Shadow messes with minds more than he throws dudes around.
I love the character, and the movie. I feel like the movie would be better appreciated in today's market more so than the 90s.
Yeah, I can't help but think someone could make a really good Shadow game these days. Think something like "Watch_Dogs" in 1930s New York, with psychic abilities instead of hacking.
@@Mrx2848 or something like Control.
I recommend watching the movie it's pretty cool. Never knew there was a game for it. I would have really enjoyed playing on rent for a weekend.
I loved the movie. Recently watched it again, and I still think it's better than 95% of Marvel crap.
There is one thing I know: THE SHADOW KNOWS
Wait, wtf? I never knew this was an unreleased game! Back when i was a kid, i had a friend who had this game, on cartridge nonetheless.
The wonders of Brazil's piracy market back on the 90's... remembers me of a weird MK3 version that another friend had too, where Jade was always invincible and shit. Or the pirated Rock and Roll Racing where hell was a main level on the campaing, but passwords didn't worked.
Me too, I did play The Shadow as a kid, I rented it a few times in a store close to my home in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil got lucky this time, I guess!
I was about to post the same thing, was one of my favorite games.
That's neat, the pirated cartridge was in Snes?
@@timedasher yep, I remember my mother bought it on a trip to São Paulo
@@timedasher Yes, in a NTSC shell, probably without the frontal screws tho. Those were quite common here in Brazil.
Also, it was common for our SNES to be "unlocked" and be able to run PAL catridges as well, but if I remember, that bootleg my friend had was on a NTSC shell.
Damn, that boss fight with perspective mode 7 looks awesome!
This also tells that the HUD is made out of sprites instead of the third background layer.
So many people don't know that this was an OOOOOLD radio serial...my grandfather who was born in the 1920's told me about listening to The Shadow on the radio as a kid.
I'm so so sure that I actually have seen cartridges of this in game rental stores back then! I'm pretty sure one of my friends even talked about it.
The Shadow really wasn't that bad of a movie. My Dad gave it to me as a random Easter gift, probably because it was cheap, and I ended up really liking it.
Has a great end credits song too.
I too unironically enjoy The Shadow movie. Yeah, it's a bit cheesy, but it has a great art deco look, some really funny bits, and some great action scenes, and Alec Baldwin is very cool as the Shadow. And while some of the CG is showing its age, the Phurba (the living golden dagger) is still friggin' frightening. I hope they worked it into the game somehow.
The Shadow was one of the first films I ever saw in a surround sound theatre
Thanks for sharing. Loved the movie. And have some of the figures. I want to play this for sure.
*Mornin’, y’all!*
I love the scene in "The Shadow" when Tim Curry starts screaming an twisting like a mad cat while he shoots a Tommy gun to the ceiling! Campy gold. Did anyone notice that "Batman Begins" basically knocked-off "The Shadow" plot?
Chicken.....Sissy! Come out and fight like a man!
There's your exit Claymore...
Pretty cool beat em up and Shadow has some pretty sweet moves
The Shadow is an excellent movie. Still watch the movie even today.
Razorfist to appear in comments in 5, 4, 3...
He got asked about it on his Twitter. His already streamed it twice before the video came out.
There are games you can look at without knowing what system they were on and guess that system every single time. This is an SNES looking game if I've ever seen one. The character details, colors, and special effects are all textbook SNES flair.
I've never played or even seen this game before right now, but I'm going to grab it and go play it on my Steam Deck right now.
I remember this movie, but mostly as what got me into the audio dramas, and I could have sworn I rented this game but I guess it must have been a dream (or ROM lol) if you say Ocean canned it
This reminds me a lot of the Kamen Rider beat-em-up that was on the SFC
The Pinball Machine is very well loved.
I have played this game and had pretty much the same thoughts on it. It's pretty decent, but it doesn't really do anything to stand out from all the other Final Fight clones. The lack of a 2 player mode does hurt the game quite a bit (especially in this day and age), because that is always the most fun way to play through these. Making the game so long probably seemed like a great idea on paper as beat-em-ups are almost always short, but your criticism on that is probably exactly why they are kept short. They wear out their welcome if they are made longer then 8 stages or so.
Oddly enough I don't have this rom. I need to fix that immediately.
3:42. LOL i've said that sentence to my friend before when talking about 2nd and 3rd Thor movies, when i say the second Thor movie was dark and my friends saying no its not and i gotta explain i was talking about the lighting and colors, not conceptually. XD
worse than poorly lit, the second Thor was just boring. Thor Ragnarok was damn good fun in comparison
now I LOVED the Pirates of Dark water game as a kid. I remember my buddy Chris and I used to play the hell out of it. I never saw the movie for this, unlike Pirates, however I did have a couple of the toys from the movie. I had the Shadow and the main baddie. This game also has a strong Batman returns vibe to it as well, I think mostly b/c it is also a 1 player beat'em like Batman returns was. Idk if I would have had the patience to play through 8 levels though.
Obviously this would be more fun as a two player co-op but I'm not really sure how that would work w/The Shadow since he does nearly all of his fighting alone. Maybe they could have had player two be The Shadow in his Lamont Cranston identity and then had player 1 and 2 fight it out at the end to see if he ends up controlling or falling to his dark impulses instead of the boss rush?
How do you still find new games to review?
There's thousands of games for these old consoles
@@duffman18 yup. US SNES library of officially released is like almost 800. Throw in EU/JPN only games, that makes it easily over a thousand, then you have something like this that's unreleased. Who knows how many unreleased titles there are out there.
@@thecunninlynguist Who knows how many unreleased games there were? The Shadow knows. Probably.
The SNES had 718 US-released games, and 978 Japan-exclusive ones. Across all regions there were 1756 unique games released for the SNES during the system's official life. That's not counting games that have come out after the system left store shelves, or unfinished and/or unreleased games, such as this one. Considering he splits his time between the enormous SNES game library and a whole bunch of other platforms (NES, Genesis, Game Boy, N64, arcade, and even modern retro-style games), which all have sizable libraries themselves, I don't think he has to worry about running out of games anytime soon.
Totally agree about the movie! I've always thought The Shadow was one of the better early 90s Batman cash-ins, alongside Sam Raimi's totally underrated Darkman. It's just so wonderfully weird, and I liked Alec Baldwin in the role. (Plus a great Jerry Goldsmith score.)
This game really does give off a Batman returns vibe and this game looks similar! Awesome review Drunk!
The movie is stupidly awesome, and the official pinball machine that came out the same year is held in very high regard as one of the best of the 90’s.
Unreleased? Damn, I never knew! I remember renting The Shadow from a video store here in my one-horse town in Brazil circa 2002. Go figure.
I had this same odd feeling watching this video. Maybe it was released in Brazil somehow?
@@joaogabrielportosilvaresco7975 Well, you know well about the "gray market" here. I've even played Mario vs Sonic on the SNES, which was a hack of some Speedy Gonzales (Ligeirinho) game.
Camelôs were capable of anything, maybe The Shadow came from there.
Wait, this never released? A gaming magazine in my country had quite the extensive review of it. Looked pretty neat.
Started listening to your podcast!
I downloaded the game before the video even finished. 🤣
I remember I wanted this game so bad. I always assumed it was a limited release and no store in my area stocked it.
I would so play this
It's cool this ROM made it out into the wild so we could check it out.
You asked about Oceans plethora of movie based games. Ocean is a subsidiary of Sony if I'm not mistaken. While the movies at the time may not have been Sony productions, I'm sure there are connections somehow.
I hope YOU have a great rest of your day
It's unsurprising a lot of good tie-in material was made for this movie. Pretty much everything about this project was well conceived, and the final movie had the potential of being good if not great... it just didn't DO anything with all the cool stuff it built.
Is that the apple from Streets of Rage at 4:47? I hereby baptize it as "The Apple of Rage".
As always, nice review and interesting thoughts, Mr Drunk!
My dad brought me this game home when I was a kid so there are copies out there. I was a sega fan so i left it in the box and never opened it. I was going through some items and found it last month still looked brand new. I donated it ti goodwill so maybe somebody can get some enjoyment out of it but they may have trashed it because nobody wants that stuff anymore. Probably should have played it at least once
I really liked the film - I'd say it was 'tongue in cheek' rather than cheesy. It looks and sounds great (fantastic score by Jerry Goldsmith). Such a shame it wasn't a hit. Never knew about this game. Fascinating.
I recently discovered Adventure Island 4 (translated rom). It's one big open world, and a fun romp.
As always. Great video.
I also think the movie just didn't get released at the right time.
If it came out during the mid-naughties (Sin City Era) I think it would have found great success.
Unfortunate but it is what it is. I wonder if they'll ever do another one.
This kinda reminds me of a combination of SNES Batman Returns and the arcade beat-em-up Punisher game.
The game does have some issues with enemies attacking you through hitstun, but apart from that it's a solidly made brawler with a great atmosphere.
Shadow is one of my fav movie.
That game actually looks really cool
This game was 60 bucks in 1994 equating to 106 bucks today.
Wait.... A game called "The Shadow"
is dark? Can't say they didn't warn you.
In darkness there are no shadows
the shadow was doing what sin city did a decade or more later, and i am guilty of thinking that this game did get a release....thanks for the info Drunk, will try this game when i can....