Shadowgate - for NES

Shadowgate is an adventure game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, brought to the console by Kemco in 1989 from the computer adventure of the same name made by ICOM Simulations. You play the last of a great line of hero kings, sent into Castle Shadowgate to stop the Warlock Lord before his black magic wakes the behemoth and destroys the world. What sets Shadowgate apart on the NES is its mood: still, detailed first person views of the castle, a narrator who speaks to you directly, and a steady promise that your next move could be your last.

You move room to room and work with a short list of commands, looking at things, taking them, opening them and using them on each other, with everything you have gathered kept in view. Some of what you find is essential and some of it is deadly to the touch, and Shadowgate is famous for how readily it kills you. Torches burn down as you explore, so light has to be managed as carefully as any puzzle item. It is a game for one player, played at whatever pace you like, and its music is some of the most atmospheric on the system.

Players still love Shadowgate because it is genuinely eerie and genuinely fair once you learn to read it. Every grim death comes with a line of writing you remember, the castle rewards curiosity and note taking, and solving it feels earned rather than handed over. For collectors, Shadowgate is the NES at its least typical: a slow, text rich adventure on a console built for reflexes, and one of the few of its kind that found a real audience here. It is a cornerstone of the console's adventure shelf and a fine cartridge to hand to anyone who thinks the NES was only about jumping.

• Genre: Puzzle Adventure
• Players: 1
• Region: NTSC
• Release Year: 1989
• Developer: Kemco

Cartridge Only: No Box or Manual
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Condition & Authenticity
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