Preview by: Brandon “Spangle” Cackowski-Schnell

The Lost in Shadow demo certainly starts off on an intriguing note. There's a very tall tower and atop it, a boy trapped in what looks like a force field. A hooded figure that may or may not be a robot under all of that armor approaches the boy, pulls out a strange Lego-esque sword and strikes him, separating the boy's shadow from his body. The hooded figure then picks the shadow up by the throat and tosses it off of the tower. The shadow lands at the base of the tower, gets up and with the help of what appears to be a fairy and sets off on a journey to the top of the tower, presumably to reunite itself with its body.

As the shadow boy is stuck in the shadow world, he can only interact with the shadows cast by other objects. If a ledge casts a shadow, he can run along the ledge. If a spiked gate throws a spikey shadow, he must jump over it, just as he must jump gaps in shadows. The platforming is solid with the boy having the ability to jump gaps, pull himself up on to ledges and ascend and descend ladders. Relying on shadows for all of your navigational needs provides for some interesting platforming elements, particularly where shadows end up being extended or altered by the foreground objects shifting position. For example, a column that swings into place in front of an obstacle may provide a temporary shadowy ledge that you can traverse, effectively removing the obstacle from your path. In cases where the environment isn't moving on its own you can use the ability of your companion, Spangle, to search for environmental objects that can be moved.

Holding down the B button allows Spangle to search for move points, and once these points have been uncovered, continuing to hold the B button will move the environment in some away, allowing new shadows to be cast so that the boy can progress through the stage. Further levels will have you manipulating light sources as well as physical objects to make whatever shadows you need to continue your journey.

The game is broken up into stages with the goal of each stage being to get from the beginning to the end. To do so the boy has to find each of three eye statues which then allows him to dispel the magical barrier preventing his escape. Some of the statues are present along the path while some require a certain amount of environment shifting and backtracking as well as a keen eye to see areas that can be dropped down into. In the demo I played there was no way to know where a statue was, or the exit for that matter leading to a certain amount of pointless running around.

As you search for the exit you'll come across memory stations that not only tell the backstory of the shadow boy but also add weight to your shadow. The heavier you are the more damage you can withstand allowing you to wwithstand drops and enemy attacks. Along the way you'll also come across Shadow Corridors, rifts into an alternate shadow dimension that you'll have to traverse to make the entrance to the corridor disappear, allowing you the ability to progress in the real world. The shadow corridors have the same shadow based platforming but with other wrinkles not available in the real world such as the ability to tilt the game world to manipulate the shadows to help you overcome obstacles. The game implied that the shadow corridors were optional however the ones I came across all had to be dispelled in order to progress. As you progress further along in your trip to the top of the tower you'll obtain a rusty shadow sword as well as some shadow beasties to stick said sword into bringing shadow combat into the platforming mix.