[{"TitleName":"Shadow Dancer","Publisher":"U.S. Gold Ltd","Author":"Dave Semmens, Doug Townsley, Jim Kinlough","YearOfRelease":"1991","ZxDbId":"0004421","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 89, Jun 1991","Price":"£2.99","ReleaseDate":"1991-05-23","Editor":"Richard Eddy","TotalPages":52,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Richard Eddy\r\nSub Editor: Warren Lapworth\r\nStaff Writers: Mark Caswell, Nick Roberts, Lloyd Mangram\r\nArt Editor: Mark Kendrick\r\nPhotography: Michael Parkinson\r\nProduction and Circulation Director: Jonathan Rignall\r\nSystems Operator: Paul (Charlie) Chubb\r\nReprographics: Matthew Uffindell (Supervisor), Robert Millichamp, Robb Hamilton, Tim Morris, Jenny Reddard\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Judith Bamford\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executive: Christine Moore\r\nAdvertisement Production: Jackie Morris (Supervisor), Joanne Lewis\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\nSubscriptions: Caroline Edwards [redacted]\r\n\r\nTypesetting Apple Macintosh Computers using Quark Express and Bitstream Fonts.\r\n\r\nSystems Manager: Ian Chubb\r\n\r\nColour origination Scan Studios [redacted]. Printed in England by BPCC Business Magazines (Carlisle) Ltd, [redacted].\r\n\r\nDistributor COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nYearly subscription rates: UK £17.20 Europe £24.00, Air Mail overseas £37. US/Canada subscriptions and back issues enquiries Barry Hatcher, British Magazine Distributors Ltd [redacted]. Yearly subscription rates US$47.00, Canada CAN$57.00 Back Issues US$5.20, Canada CAN$6.20 (inclusive of postage). \r\n\r\nCOMPETITION RULES\r\nThe Editor's decision is final in all matters relating to adjudication and while we offer prizes in good faith, believing them to be available; If something untoward happens we reserve the right to substitute prizes of comparable value. We'll do our very best to despatch prizes as soon as possible after the published closing date. Winners names will appear in a later issue of CRASH. No correspondence can be entered into regarding the competitions (unless we've written to you stating that you have won a prize and it doesn't turn up, in which case drop us a line). No person who is related, no matter how remotely, to anyone who works for either Newsfield or any of the companies offering prizes, may enter one of our competitions.\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced whole or in part without the written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return anything sent into CRASH - including written and photographic material, software and hardware - unless it is accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. Unsolicited written or photo material on 35mm transparencies is welcome, and if used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates. Copy published in CRASH will be edited as seen fit and payment will be calculated according to the current printed word rate. The views expressed in CRASH are not necessarily those of the publishers.\r\n\r\nCopyright CRASH Ltd 1991 A Newsfield Publication. ISSN 0954-8661. Cover design and illustration by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"US Gold\r\n£11.99\r\n\r\nTerrorists aren't very nice people, are they viewers? But there are a few square-jawed heroic types who'll stand up to them and give them a taste of their own medicine. Joe Musashi is one of them. The hero of Shinobi has returned after a long rest to find a terrorist gang have been busy planting bombs in civilian establishments across America. So Joe dons his espadrilles and snazzy white togs, buckles on his razor-sharp katana sword and calls to heel his faithful mutt (let's call him Fido) and heads into action.\r\n\r\nLevel one takes you, playing both Joe and Fido to Miami airport where the terrorists have been busy wiring up explosives. With a copy of The Sledge Hammer Guide To DIY Bomb Disposal and a pair of ear plugs, Joe strides through the three sections that make up the level, dismantling bombs as he goes.\r\n\r\nBut it's not that easy. Evil terrorists are waiting to ambush our pal, but using throwing stars, limited ninja magic, sword or Fido's sharp choppers, they can be dealt with. Fido's quite a handy pal to have. With a press of the space bar he'll run ahead and hold a terrorist while you dispose of him.\r\n\r\nAfter battling through the concourse and cargo loading bay, Joe enters a plane and faces a huge, fireball-throwing samurai robot. Beat that and you're into the bonus level, which goes like this: your standing at the bottom of a tower, looking up at its lofty heights. You have an unlimited supply of shuriken stars to lob at the nasty ninjas who leap down and try to plant their size ten espadrilles on your nut.\r\n\r\nLater levels take place on a speeding train, in a factory, down the sewers and at a shuttle base, a nasty guardian awaiting man and dog at the end of each.\r\n\r\nAre we bored with ninjas yet? Well, just a bit. I've played so many I'm turning Japanese - if not going slightly orientally mad (yes viewers, he thinks he's a Bonsai tree - Ed). But let's look at the game on its own merits.\r\n\r\nShadow Dancer is a good scrolly beat-'em-up with arcade adventure overtones. It's fast, tough and, above all, playable. The character sprites are all speedy little chaps, especially Joe, who leaps around like a turbocharged Bruce Lee, while the backgrounds are pleasantly colourful and varied. Yup, I liked this a lot; it's well worth having a go at.\r\n\r\nMARK 80%","ReviewerComments":["Shadow Dancer follows in the footsteps of countless other ninja beat-'em-up games. But Shadow Dancer's novelty is that our hero's brought his dog along. The graphics are mainly monochrome, the odd bit of colour cropping up when you come to large obstacles like walls and oil tankers. The sprites are really well drawn and shaded and the animation's neat. I found the gameplay fun for a while but the novelty of having a dog to help me out soon wore off.\r\nNick Roberts\r\n74%"],"OverallSummary":"Fido gives Shadow Dancer that extra bit of excitement over most ninja adventures.","Page":"40,41","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Nick Roberts","Score":"74","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Mark Caswell","Score":"80","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Ah-ha! We can see you, you sneaky ninja, lurking at the bottom there! Fetch, Fido/Rover/whatever your name is…"}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"75%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"80%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"74%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"77%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictivity","Score":"78%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"77%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 66, Jun 1991","Price":"£1.95","ReleaseDate":"1991-05-02","Editor":"Andy Ide","TotalPages":84,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Andy Ide\r\nArt Editor: Sal Meddings\r\nGames Editor: James Leach\r\nStaff Writer: Linda Barker\r\nDesign Assistant: Andy Ounsted\r\nAdvertising Manager: Simon Moss\r\nDeputy Advertising Manager: Philip Davenport\r\nProduction Coordinator: Melissa Parkinson\r\nPublisher: Jane Richardson\r\nPublishing Assistant: Michele Harris\r\nGroup Publisher: Greg Ingham\r\nCirculation Director: Sue Hartley\r\n\r\nYour Sinclair, Future Publishing [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: Computer Posting [redacted]\r\nDistribution: MMC [redacted]\r\n\r\nCover Illustration: Robert Bliss\r\nISSN 0269 6983\r\nABC July-Dec 1990 60,368\r\n\r\nYS comes to you from the same folks who 'knock out' Commodore Format, ST Format, Amiga Format, New Computer Express, Amstrad Action, MacPublishing, Classic CD, PC Plus, 8000 Plus & Sega Power, Amiga Power, Amiga Shopper & Needlecraft"},"MainText":"US Gold\r\n£10.99 cass\r\nReviewer: Andy Ide\r\n\r\nWho knows what a bull terrier looks like? That's right, they're those really ugly white dogs, built like bricks, with the piggy little eyes! And doncha just love 'em?! They're so cute!\r\n\r\nIn fact, if there's one thing that'd improve my life then i think that'd be it - a little 'bully' pup to came into the shed with me everyday, go shopping at Tesco's, hit a nightclub now and again, watch the footie. A mans best friend indeed! But seeing as how my landlord doesn't allow animals in the flat (even though James has managed creep in a couple of times) I'm simply going to have settle for second best - which means loading up Shadow Dancer and having some kind of white dog wolf thing trotting along behind my heels instead. Ho hum!\r\n\r\nSHINOBI!!\r\n\r\nNot that that's too much of a rough option actually, because USGold's jolly-long-awaited Sega beat-'em-up is a tad far-fetched. Just like in Shinobi, its predecessor, you don't so much punch and kick your way through the levels as litter the place up with a million deadly shurikens.) Anyway, back to this dog.\r\n\r\nHe (or she) doesn't have a name, so for the sake of argument let's call him Doris. The game works like some sort of weirdo 1-player/2-player thing. As I said, Doris trots gaily behind as you spin out your pointy-edged disks to wreak havoc in all directions. The only trouble with all this is that sometimes (well, quite often, the truth be told) the baddies (or terrorists) can all get a bit much for you. They're positioned in such away that it's often incredibly hard to kill one guy and not get swiped by the yobbo behind him. But don't despair 'cos this is where Doris comes in. (Hurrah! Simply command her to jump in front of you and sacrifice herself on the sword (or bullet, or whatever it is that the first bloke's firing at you) while you quickly nab the bloke behind with one of your shurries. Peasy.\r\n\r\nAND IT WORKS REALLY WELL!\r\n\r\nYes indeed. It's a gimmick to be sure, but a solid one. Of course, every gimmick needs same strong backing in the graphics and gameplay departments if it's to work, in Shadow they've come up trumps. It looks nice and crisp for a start. You've got no trouble making out your little man and his dog, who both trot along with great assurance. (As does the scrolling.)\r\n\r\nThis is helped by loads of detailed, but very clear, backgrounds. Shadow Dancer's only got 4 levels, but each of them is split up into 3 or so sub-levels, and there's often a bonus level tagged onto the end. Pretty gigantic and whopping, I'm sure you'll agree! (This really gets you hooked. Because it doesn't take as long to complete a section as it would a 'normal-length' level, there's a strong temptation to move quickly on and knock the next one on the head too.)\r\n\r\nSo, finally (and at completely the wrong end of the review), let's see what these levels are made up of...\r\n\r\nWell, you kick off in an airport lounge, then a cargo hold, followed by what looks like a subway station - and that's just the first level ignoring the bonus section! Cor blimey! Other 'bits' include the roof of a speeding train, some sewers (with a few extremely unfriendly alligators in them) and the final level in which you've got to protect a US space shuttle. (The end-of-level baddies are equally various too - there's a big monster who throws out bouncing balls at you, a locomotive that shoots out some weird flaming rivets, and, ohh, loads more.)\r\n\r\nSo what's the verdict? Well, pretty blimming marvellous really. I don't usually go for these beat-'em-up things but this certainly kept me glued for a good couple of hours (and then some). There seems to be a lot to it (which is always nice to know when you've just forked out over £10) and it's pitched at just the right difficulty level. (And the dog stuff works well too.)\r\n\r\nSo, an impressive arcade conversion, which takes a simple idea, throws it onto a pretty ricketty old formula and comes up with something rather jolly good at the end of the day. It should appeal to a wider audience than these kinds of things usually do.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Strong beat/shoot-'em-up conversion with a good gimmick (a fighting dog). It works.","Page":"77","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Andy Ide","Score":"85","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"And here's the end-of-level-baddie in Level 1. He throws balls at you, under the obvious misapprehension that for some reason you're Peter Shilton."},{"Text":"Go fetch, Fido! Here we see your trusty hound jumping out in front of you to waste a weird-looking fish-thowing muscleman. Kill!"},{"Text":"Hurrah! It's that old ninja magic! Hit the Enter key and you send out trillions of shurikens that lay waste to all nearby opposition."},{"Text":"Now, come on, sunshine - drop the gun. (And how did you get it through customs in the first place, eh?)"},{"Text":"Ooh, I feel just like Bruce Willis in Die Harder (except he didn't have Fanny the Wonderdog following him everywhere!). Here we are at the airport (at the beginning of the game) where all sorts of wicked terrorists are, er, trying to shoot you basically. (Mind you, it helps to kill the boredom while you wait for you 16-hour delayed chartered plane to Malaga to turn up!)"}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Life Expectancy","Score":"84%","Text":""},{"Header":"Instant Appeal","Score":"81%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"86%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"85%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"85%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 113, Jul 1991","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1991-06-18","Editor":"Garth Sumpter","TotalPages":52,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Garth 'Shell Suit' Sumpter\r\nDesign Editor: Andrea 'Old Levis' Walker\r\nStaff Writers: Steve 'Biker Jacket' Keen\r\nSU Crew: Alan 'Donkey Jacket' Dykes, Tony 'Black Knight' Naqvi, Chris 'Parka' Jenkins, John 'Sandles' Cook, Pete 'Floppy Hat' Gerrard, Phillip 'Leather Boots' Fisch, Graham 'Lab Coat' Mason\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Jerry 'C&A' Hall\r\nAd Production: Jo 'Hotpants' Gleissner\r\nMarketing Dept: Sarah 'Cowboy Boots' Ewing, Sarah 'Neglige' Hillard\r\nPublisher: Graham 'Oxfam' Taylor\r\nManaging Director: Terry 'Sleeveless Shirt' Pratt\r\n\r\n(c)1991 EMAP IMAGES\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nDISTRIBUTION: BBC FRONTLINE\r\nSU SUBSCRIPTIONS: [redacted]\r\n\r\nTypesetting by Garthtype.\r\nColour work by Proprint.\r\n\r\nReproduction of any part of this magazine without the consent of Andrea will result in a whine so large as to render you impotent for the rest of your life so don t use any part of this magazine as a contraceptive (except perhaps the staples which if you stuck into your soul mate during a romantic moment ought to do the trick of turning them off you for life!). It's always difficult life - especially if you're a teenager. I mean, did you know that teenagers worry more about problems than any other part of society? To it is end we'll be producing Andre's Problem Spot next month, so if you've got any teenage problems then just drop her a line at Andrea's Problem Spot, SU, [redacted]. See you next month dudes."},"MainText":"Label: US Gold\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nPrice: £11.99 Tape, £n/a Disk\r\nReviewer: Alan Dykes\r\n\r\nHot Dog! Joe Mushashi is back, complete with canine consort, in a helter-skelter, smash'em-skull'em feast of doggie dodgems and martial arts.\r\n\r\nShadow Dancer is a conversion of the arcade follow up to Shinobi and remains faithful to the original. Ninja Joe's mission is especially dangerous this time as the Zeed Empire's evil criminal underworld has hatched a dastardly plot to destroy the city with deadly high explosives and thus make it safe only for thieves, murderers, drug barons and Zeed minions. They were bound to try again, because, like all true villains, they never learned their lesson from the first major kicking they received in Shinobi.\r\n\r\nHowever Zeed have reckoned without the intervention of Joe Mushashi, the Shadow Dancer, who is so civic minded that people have started to call him Joe Public! Sersious though folks, unless Shadow can defuse all the terrorist bombs in the city the whole world could be next of the criminal empire's agenda of destruction!\r\n\r\nIn order to reach the hidden pyrotechnics, Joe must use his finely honed combat skills of sword and shuriken, to cut through the army of Ninja enemies who are out to foil him. His dog is also a veteran evil fighter, and it's just as well, because our hero needs as much help as possible. During the game you can set this amazing mutt on Joe's enemies which serves quite a useful function in keeping them busy while you are dealing with the bombs.\r\n\r\nIt's essential that you despatch Zeed's representatives quickly because, by comparison with many other heroes I've come across, Joe is a bit of a softy, and it only takes one or two knife blows or grenades to make him go all weak at the knees and crumble into nothingness. Under these circumstances it's fortunate that there are four life continues. There is no life gauge to show how weak the character is getting, which is a little annoying as he has a tendency to collapse when least expected.\r\n\r\nShadow Dancer is a ninjitsu acrobat, and no mistake!, he can run, jump, crouch, somersault and generally surprise and confuse the hell out of the opposition, and it's this agility that makes all the difference, since the city is riddled with traps as well as enemies. In addition to his dog, his blade and his shurikens, Joe also has four blasts of baddie busting magic available to start the mission with.\r\n\r\nThe graphics are reasonably detailed and although the main sprites have do have a cut-out look to them, everything is generally large and easy to see. Colour is rather sparse on the playing screens though. Control is quite precise which considerably helps overall enjoyment and gameplay. The introduction music is very ninja sounding but action sounds are less impressive.\r\n\r\nShadow Dancer is quite a standard ninja based platform beat 'em up and isn't a bad follow up to Shinobi as it does have quite a bit of action and excitement. Fido adds a new dimension to the game but considering current anti dog feeling in the country, will Joe Mushashi be forced to put a muzzle on him?.","ReviewerComments":["What a pussy puppy! Give me a saber toothed Pit Bull anytime! This goes to prove that it's not the dog that you have, it's the way that you walk it!\r\nPhillip Fisch"],"OverallSummary":"Able bodied antics from the ninja veteran. Even with a canine sidekick the going isn't too easy and although not completely original Shadow Dancer is still a fun fight.","Page":"14,15","Denied":false,"Award":"Sinclair User Silver","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Alan Dykes","Score":"85","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Phillip Fisch","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"SHADOW FAX\r\n\r\nShinobi was originally a big coin-op hit a few years ago and when converted to the Spectrum in 1989 was assured of success. Shadow Dancer is the official follow up to this.\r\n\r\nThose of you who keep an eye on the world of consoles will no doubt be aware that another sequel to Shinobi, named Revenge of Shinobi was produced specifically for the Sega Megadrive. This game is not available on any other format.\r\n\r\nShurikens are illegal in Britain, so don't start doing Joe Mushashi impressions down on the local building sites or you might find the local constabulary more difficult to contend with than the Zeed Empire."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"85%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"81%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"89%","Text":""},{"Header":"Lastability","Score":"87%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"85%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]