I didn’t play Shadowgate, but this skeleton reminds me of HeroQuest and that’s good enough for me
Blistered thumbs
Raise your thumb if you’ve ever impaled it on a HeroQuest skeleton’s scythe. Country’s gone soft these days, I tell you. I’ve seen those new Heroquest skellies. You couldn’t injure yourself on those scythes if you tried. It’s polearm-ical correctness gone mad! Well, good news if you’re nostalgic for a simpler time, where tiny scythes could maim you for life, and binary digits came in lots of eight and not a binary digit more. RPG Beyond Shadowgate is a vastly-expanded, modernised sequel to the classic NES adventure, created by the original’s designers, and it just released last week.
“With a world that is over five times larger than Shadowgate, Beyond Shadowgate captures the same look and feel as the 8-bit console version while including modern design sensibilities,” reads the Steam page. How does one measure the size of a labyrinthine fantasy world, exactly? Ah, they’ve got a graph and everything! 250 rooms! 40 monsters! 180+ deaths! Oh! I’ve written about how much I love bespoke death events before, so this speaks to me. Here’s some story:
35 years have passed since Jair defeated the Warlock Lord in the caverns beneath the living castle, Shadowgate. In that time, the land of Kal Torlin prospered and the events of Shadowgate were forgotten. But once again evil is stirring, scheming to bring the world to ruin.
Ah, 35 actual real-life years, I getcha. That 35 years also buys you a new hint system, controller support, day/night progression, and a few more modern bells and whistles. The developers' last outing was a VR adventure in the same series, and while it looks reasonably handsome, I’m much more drawn to the lovely retro art in this one. I get the sense a fair few people were excited for it, hence its succesful Kickstarter. Did you play Shadowgate? Should I play Shadowgate? Would you... kiss Shadowgate? Let me know!