NEC’s PC Engine was a massive hit in Japan, but never reached great heights in the US despite a rock-solid game library. One of its better-received games was Cyber Citizen Shockman, which blended in a bit of RPG mechanics for upgrading alongside a sword-based Mega Man-style action-platforming approach. It’s something that we’ve seen replicated over time, but to have something with deliberate platforming and sword usage at that time was unusual and it’s still not the most common gameplay style. Franchises like Mega Man Zero and to a lesser extent Mighty Gunvolt Burst and Azure Striker Gunvolt have featured content in them that is similar, but nothing matches the feel of Shockman’s first entry.
It very much feels like an early 16-bit incarnation of what a Mega Man Zero game would play like with classic Mega Man platforming thrown in. It’s a fascinating game to play on modern hardware and have it to compare to newer games that try and do something similar and see just how well it holds up, but also tops the newer games in some ways. Having two characters to use for co-op play helps this stand out even compared to newer games inspired by Mega Man. The gameplay feel is looser for platforming than Mega Man, but the combat feels more fluid than those games. With it being sword-only, there’s more of a risk/reward system in place when it comes to dealing out and taking damage.
There’s a greater risk of being hit, but swords also deal out a lot more damage than most other platforming games' attacks of the era – resulting in a surprisingly modern-feeling experience. Regular enemies can be taken out in a couple of hits, while bosses take about a dozen or so and offer up a healthy challenge. Like a Mega Man game, you can choose your own path through the game and to the final boss – but unlike Mega Man, you don’t have to beat every single stage and can either go a long route to topple a lot of stages or go through only a handful if you so desire.
Cyber Citizen Shockman offers up a steady challenge and taking your time through stages or just going through as many as possible, rewards with money you can use for upgrades to deal more damage and endure more of it. You can also pay for hints on upgrades and their effects and one area the game as a whole needs improvement on is its explanations of quality-of-life enhancements. The ability to remap buttons shows off the control scheme, but nothing shows how to save or load states despite the function being visible on the main menu. It’s a small thing in a way given how short the game is for a smaller playthrough, taking around an hour, but it does still stick out as odd since the triggers are for rewind/fast forward and even tapping both of those or the bumpers doesn’t bring up anything for a save state option. The same holds true for either using the plus or minus button, or the inactive face buttons that aren’t used for core controls. That odd issue aside, the other additions to this version of the game are impressive.
The art gallery shows off a lot of illustrations for characters and environments and appears to have been scanned in the best quality possible. There was clearly a lot of work done to preserve the artwork and it’s a good thing it was kept, because “little” pieces of history like that can be lost and you get a better sense of how much effort and care went into the game when you see it. The modern-day re-release also features a cheat option for either unlimited health or money – although if you’re using the former, you don’t really need to use the latter since money is so easy to obtain without the risk of enemy damage.
Visually, it looks about as good as it should – with a lot of visual filters available that keep the integrity of the original graphic design intact. I found that playing without any filters was best, but the CRT-replicating filters look good and subtle, which is rare. A lot of times, those lead to an unnatural darkening of the picture, but here they’re done well and look a lot like an old CRT TV would. Being able to choose between borders or pillarboxes is nice too, especially after the recent Mega Man Battle Network Collections only had border art available. There are impressive RGB filters to adjust the entire game’s visuals with that I enjoyed for subsequent playthroughs just to experience something visually different from any other game experience.
Musically, the chiptunes soundtrack is enjoyable – but not especially memorable. It does have a fair amount of variety with more intense songs hitting during boss battles and more relaxing fare during regular stages. The sound effect work impressed me more than the soundtrack, with a fun bounce for jumping and a nice usage of fire effects for falling into lava and then leaping high due to the flames. The audio falls short of other parts of the experience, but is far from bad. It just lacks a punch to make it feel top-shelf when it comes to the audio.
Closing Comments:
As a whole, Cyber Citizen Shockman is an excellent side-scrolling platformer that has a few signs of its age, but the core gameplay is timeless. It’s a tightly-controlling game which helps it age nicely. The same holds true for sharp, but simplistic character models and environments that have a good amount of color and life to them, which can stand out even more thanks to having CRT and RGB filters used during gameplay. The soundtrack is the weakest point, but doesn’t prevent this two-player sword-based Mega Man-style platformer from being a must-buy for any fans of the genre.
Cyber Citizen Shockman Zero
