Game: Cyber Citizen Shockman 3: The Princess From Another World
Genre: Action, adventure, platformer
System: Nintendo Switch (also available on PS4 and Xbox)
Developer|Publisher: Shinyuden | Ratalaika games
Age Rating: EU 7 | US Everyone 10+
Price: US $5.99 | UK £5.99 | EU €5,99
Release Date: May 3rd, 2024
A review code was provided, with many thanks to PR Hound.
Cyber Citizen Shockman 3 Bringing Back Sound PC Engine CD Goodness
Cyber Citizen Shockman 3: The Princess From Another World is not just a long game title but a retro game from the PC Engine CD days. Now it has been made available to modern systems at a much more affordable price compared to hunting down the original game and console that works. Not only that, it has a few of those quality life improvements to go with it too. If you’re a retro fan, this is certainly one to look into.
Anime as Heck
The plot focuses on the heroes Tasuke and Kyapiko. By day, they are just a couple of humble school kids. But they are actually androids created by a mad scientist known as Doc. When danger comes knocking, they transform into armoured superheroes with nifty swords. In this third entry of the series, our heroes are taking a well-earned vacation. This peace is obviously short-lived when a spaceship piloted by a princess attacks. So they transform and head off to save the day. But all is not quite what it seems.
The plot is explained through some nicely presented anime cutscenes. It certainly brought back plenty of nostalgia for me watching anime back in the 90s. The story is absolutely wacky with over-exaggerated characters and dialogue, but I absolutely loved it. One moment, I’m running through the city, taking out robots. The next, I’m in a demon realm dealing with monsters. You don’t get plots that are this absurd in games anymore. Playing the previous games would probably help me understand the main characters in this game, but as someone not familiar with the series at all, I still liked it.
Slice and Shoot in Cyber Citizen Shockman 3
The gameplay is very basic. Cyber Citizen Shockman 3 is just a simple scrolling action game with minimal platforming. You enter a level moving to the right, taking out waves of enemies before taking on a boss and moving on to repeat the process until the day is won. You can play as either of the two characters, but their move sets are the same.
Your main weapon is a sword, which does decent damage up close, but if you hold the attack button down, you can shoot out an energy orb to do damage at long range. You can actually wall jump in the game, but this only appears to be needed for one tiny segment. To the degree that the game will literally remind you to use it when it’s needed.
Gameplay is occasionally mixed up with some cool segments where you ride on the back of a robot or giant insect, morphing gameplay into more of a space shooter. If you look at Cyber Citizen Shockman 3 objectively, the gameplay feels a bit bland. There are no upgrades to find. Just collect 100 pellets to gain an additional life.
A lot of time is spent attacking constant waves of enemies, and boss fights are generally quite easy to grasp and do not require too much thought to defeat. But you know what? I still dug this game. Maybe it’s a wide variety in enemy design or the tight controls. Maybe I’m just a sucker for retro games. But I was taken by this formula so much that I ran through Cyber Citizen Shockman 3 again. Even if it took less than an hour to finish. This was very common for retro games back in the day. A two-player mode is available, but I was unable to test this.
Features
A lot of extras have been implemented to appeal to old and new fans. You have the usual features such as save states, rewind features and some extensive detailed display settings. Cyber Citizen Shockman 3 doesn’t offer any history but does provide various artwork to view, including the original game case, CD, and manual.
There are also a few cheats added if you want to breeze through the game, like an invincibility option, a one-hit kill and even the ability to unlock the game’s bonus mode from the start. The game is fairly priced, but I do feel it would have been better if it was packaged with the other Shockman games, which are already available on Nintendo Switch.
The PC Engine and CD were a gorgeous system, so these graphics really don’t feel aged at all. The emulation feels spot-on for this port, with no performance issues in TV or handheld modes. The soundtrack is also excellent, taking me right back to the 90s with its epic vibes.
Conclusion: Retro Shock
Shockman 3 will not appeal to everyone, but I liked this game. The gameplay formula is very simple and probably hasn’t aged as well as other entries in the series. However, with its over-exaggerated anime presentation and tight controls, I had an absolute blast with it. Easy to recommend to fans of the series or retro gamers. But if retro is not your thing, you can give this one a miss. Still, for a low price point, even the curious should consider giving this a go just to see how great the PC Engine CD was.
Final Verdict: I Like it
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