Lost in Shadow Review
Lost In Shadow is a game for the Wii in which you will get to step into the shoes of your shadow. You will find that you have been thrusted off the top of the tower, well at least your shadow will fall the length of the tower. You will then have to navigate the world all the way back up the tower by running in the shadow of what lies in the foreground.
Graphically this has the feel of a Wii game written all over it, yes the artistic style is unique, but in the foreground you're going to find a lot of objects that don't try to excel in pushing the Wii to the limit. It might have something to do with the fact the important graphics are the actual shadows of said objects.
The music selection is slightly haunting and eerie, but the sounds of the levels will easily drown out the music.
The controls are very basic. You're going to need to use the nunchuck for movement, and the Wii mote to point at objects that could possibly be manipulated to change the shadows and allow you to get further into the level.
The concept is unique with the fact that the most important pieces of the game laying in shadow, but there's just not enough there to make this feel like a mind-blowing experience. You'll fight monsters in the shadow, and you'll have to dodge all sorts of objects to continue in your quest, but there are times when the shadows just don't give you enough information to go on and you'll get that feeling of truly being lost. Perhaps this is what they are going for, but all I find is frustration. Yes there's a lot of levels to this game, but the addition of complexity isn't noticeable enough for me that I couldn't tell you what was different between one level and another. There's also a couple of times where it appears that you're able to make a jump, one that you've made dozens of times in other places, but for some reason the game basically gives you a "so close, but that's not going to work" feel.
Now the object of each level is going to be to collect these eyes that are spaced out in the level, you'll see that you'll have an indicator on the left that will tell you how many you have and how many remain. If you try to approach the shadow of billowing black smoke without all the pieces you will find that damage will be inflicted upon you. Speaking of damage, you do have the ability to take some hits before going down, so don't worry about messing up ever so slightly.
If this game was on any other system I don't think that it would have been a good game, I'm not saying that because its on the Wii it gets a pass, but the level of games on the Wii, historically, show that a more artsy game can reside on the system just fine. If you're looking for something different, and don't mind the ever so slightly rise and repeat feel to the game, with the exception of the level name changing from time to time, I'd say give this game a whirl. For those out there looking for a bit more substance, and something to really sink your teeth into, you might find that this game is lacking. I'd love to reward this game for being unique, but unfortunately there's not enough weight in just that, so I'm going to have to give this game a 6.3 out of 10.
