Shadow Complex (Xbox 360)

Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Platform: Xbox Live Arcade

Mesmerizing side-scroller blends elements of Die Hard and Super Metroid

When it was released in mid August, Shadow Complex became the fastest-selling downloadable title in the history of Xbox Live Arcade, moving roughly 200,000 units in the first week. The game is based on Orson Scott Card’s novel Empire and follows an all-too-familiar Hollywood action trope—a mild-mannered, John Cusack-ian everydude stumbles unwittingly across a terrorist plot and must avert a nuclear holocaust before 4pm, at which time he’s supposed to pick up his daughter from soccer practice in order prove to his estranged wife that he's dependable. Shadow Complex explores a few novel creases in this formula but the narrative is mostly beside the point.

The everydude in the case of Shadow Complex is a character named Jason Flemming (a nod to James Bond creator Ian Fleming, perhaps?) who discovers a high-tech, subterranean military complex while hiking in the woods with his girlfriend. Exploring the impressively vast network of tunnels reminded me of the buzz I felt as a kid when I first watched Steven Spielberg’s Goonies at a grade-school sleepover. There’s something endlessly compelling about the prospect of having your boring, mundane day-to-day existence injected with such an unexpected tsunami of adrenaline and existential imperative.

The developers at Chair Entertainment studiously modeled the gameplay after Super Metroid—arguably the pinnacle of 2D platform-adventure games—and somehow managed to improve an already stellar gameplay template. But the biggest leap forward is the richness of what’s come to be called the 2.5-dimensional gameplay perspective. Despite the fact that you can only guide Jason along a 2D plane, the environment and enemies exhibit fully three-dimensional depth and movement. Trees sway fitfully in the breeze. Water spills over a rocky rim in the near distance, pouring into a subterranean pool below. These scenic details add a bristling dynamism to the game world that makes the action come alive in a powerful way.

Yet another addictive element here is the transformation of our humble hero through high-tech equipment upgrades. Don the stylish Thrust Boots and you'll explode into a sonic-booming sprint after a few moments of uninterrupted running. May God grant eternal rest to the poor henchmen souls who stood in my way as I plowed through them like a bullet the size of a battering ram.

Easily one of the best games of 2009, Shadow Complex offers a sublime balance of old-school side-scrolling fun and current-gen, wow-triggering visuals—believe me, I don’t cram four hyphenated modifiers into a single sentence for just any ol’ videogame