Shadow Archer Special

Genre: Top-Down Arcade

Players: 1

.

Review:

This… is it. The end of the line. The grand finale, such as it is. On August 25, 2022, developer and publisher Ultra Dolphin Revolution released this game, Shadow Archer Special, on the Wii U eShop. It is the final game that Nintendo’s ill-fated console would ever receive, coming to the platform many years after the console’s death warrant had already been signed.

The third game in the Wii U-exclusive Shadow Archer series, Shadow Archer Special is a return to the style of gameplay that was in the original Shadow Archer, making this another Top-Down Arcade-style game where you once again take the role of the titular archer, who must fend off hordes of spiders and other beasts in a dark forest.

As with the first game, This game uses simple, 8-bit-style pixel art 2D visuals backed by a chiptune rendition of the third movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata on repeat. After all if it “worked” the first two times…

For the gameplay, I feel as though the folks at Ultra Dolphin Revolution heard my complaints about the first game and made an honest attempt to fix at least some of them… and then bungled it anyway.

The immediate difference you’ll notice this time is that movement is much faster… too fast, unfortunately. Your character zips around in a way that’s unwieldy and difficult to control, which makes dodging enemies far more difficult in this game, as if Shadow the Archer took a super-speed potion that had the side-effect of making him act like he’s drunk.

There’s other new additions here too. Enemies aren’t quite as damage spongey as they were in the first game. There are new types of arrows you can pick up and temporarily use to attack enemies, new enemy types… however, in the end, the game still has the same problems. Even if it’s not as repetitive, it’s still pretty repetitive, still tedious, and still not very fun.

On balance, the new improvements to Shadow Archer Special and new problems more or less balance out, resulting in a game that’s about as bad as the original Shadow Archer, albeit in slightly different ways. However, I would argue just as strongly that it’s not a game you’ll want to buy, unless you want to own a little piece of history. Under $5 to own the last Wii U game ever made… does that make this worth getting? I say no, but you’re free to feel differently.

tl;dr – Shadow Archer Special is an Arcade-style game where players take the role of the titular archer shooting arrows at spiders in a forest. This game improves on the original Shadow Archer in some ways, but makes things worse in other ways, ultimately resulting in a game that’s still tedious, frustrating, and not worth owning unless you just want to add to your collection the final Wii U game ever released. Personally, I don’t think it’s worth it.

Grade: D

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Ben, Andy Miller, Exlene, Homer Simpin, Johannes, Talissa, Eli Goodman, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Ilya Zverev, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}