These Four Games Are Leaving Xbox Game Pass Today (January 31)

Cyber Shadow was a little too accurate of an NES-homage game for me, but I know a lot of people liked it.

Cyber shadow was amazing. I booted it up and finished it as soon as it appeared on the "leaving soon" list. I wonder what I'll be forced to play next.

@Spiders so too hard?

@isturbo1984 I'm usually a bit soft when it comes to hard games but I thought it was fine personally. It had its hard moments but nothing too bad and you were always back in the action pretty quick with the check points.

I think most "hard" games mostly come down to trial and error so really it's just a matter of if you find the gameplay loop compelling enough to go through the trials and learn from your errors. I found Cyber Shadow plenty compelling and pushed through. I really enjoyed that feeling of breezing through sections that used to be an ordeal after you had learned the level and gotten an upgrade or three. I also thought it felt much more like an idealised version of a NES game and did well at picking and choosing what modern qol features to add so it wasn't frustratingly old school. One of the better throwback games I've played.

@MetalGear_Yoshi Yeah, the checkpoints helped. I actually thought it was genuinely harder than the old Ninja Gaiden games on pure game design. But the limited lives and awful checkpoints on the NES is what just made a lot of these games unfair.

I could feel myself getting better and better as the game went on. A really good feeling.

@isturbo1984 Yeah... More frustrating than challenging and without the hooks to grab me. I think I got to Level 3 or 4 and my interested just died off.

I generally like “NES-Hard” games and indies that pick up that torch), but this one just didn’t grab me. I know a lot of people adored it and it was GOTY for some.