It's a travesty that we still haven't seen a sequel to ChAIR Entertainment's massive Castlevania/Super Metroid mash-up Shadow Complex. The original was praised heavily by the gaming press, loved by gamers, and soon became the unofficial poster child for the awesomeness of the Xbox LIVE Arcade - here we had a sprawling action adventure with incredible production values, going for budget bin prices and delivered straight to your Xbox 360 hard drive. Today we expect massive blockbusters to be available via Games On Demand and so on, but back in 2009 we hadn't seen anything quite like it on XBLA. Shadow Complex was a truly brilliant game and undoubtedly deserving of its critical acclaim. In an industry so addicted to sequels, it's absurd that Shadow Complex hasn't gone on to become a long-running franchise. It has all the ingredients: sleek, intuitive gameplay; enthralling 2.5D exploration; an instantly likeable lead character, and a loving fan base who would jump at the chance to follow Jason Flemming on another adventure. With a script penned by comic book veteran Peter David, and cranking up the scale and production to make use of the Xbox One's power, a Shadow Complex follow-up would be an instant hit. It's not just a pipe dream, by the way - at Comic Con this year, writer Peter David crashed the ChAIR panel and the ensuing banter made it sound like Shadow Complex 2 is pretty much a definite. Now, if Microsoft could just slip them a couple of bucks to ensure it stays Xbox-only...
Game-obsessed since the moment I could twiddle both thumbs independently. Equally enthralled by all the genres of music that your parents warned you about.
