Cyber Citizen Shockman is back for the final installment in the trilogy from Ratalaika Games with The Princess from Another World!
Cyber Citizen Shockman 3 was originally released in 1992 and has been resurrected by Ratalaika Games for current gen consoles. After winning the lottery and taking a much needed vacation, our two heroes, Arnold and Sonya, are forced to turn back into Shockman and defeat an alien threat that has ruined their vacation. This starts players on a side-scrolling adventure that looks and feels like they are still in the 90’s.
The game looks and feels like you are playing some of the run and gun classics from 90’s and looks like the continuation of the Cyber Citizen Shockman franchise that it is. For those that are new to the franchise it feels like a classic Mega-Man side scroller but without the thematic bosses who share a name with their power. The bosses in this game border on the extreme in difficulty compared to the stages themselves. This time around the gameplay is less sticky, meaning much smoother controls and animations. Which is great because in the first two installments I felt like I died more to incomplete jumps than anything else.
The game does lean towards feeling tedious as you press on between the difficult bosses and the repetitive gameplay. Visuals hit that nostalgic itch as does the gameplay itself and the story is humorous at times but not enough to keep me engaged long term.