Designer(s) Ravi Mehta Developer Terminal Sunset Mode Single-player video game | Initial release date 1995 Genre Shoot 'em up | |
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Publisher Starplay Productions, Inc. Platform Macintosh operating systems Similar Souls in the System, Gauntlet Dark Legacy, Screamer Rally, Shattered Steel, Shockwave Assault | ||
ShadowWraith is a top-down view scrolling shooter video game created by a company called Terminal Sunset for the Macintosh, and published by StarPlay. This game has a sequel called Souls in the System.
Contents
As of December 2002, the StarPlay online product catalog indicated that the company was no longer selling games directly.
Story
In the game, the player assumes the role of an artificial intelligence representation of a man named Alex Kendall, who was assassinated for having associations with the Defense Department. Before his annihilation, Kendall's work in the Defense Department had grown unsatisfying for him, and so he instead devoted his time and efforts to the expansion of the ever growing cyberspace. In his latest project, he had created a way of designing a person's ego into the net, with such a cybernetic ego incorporating personality and intelligence in addition to tactile senses, using his own as a prototype. His attempt at doing so was a success, though Kendall never got a chance to reveal his findings to the world, as he was killed shortly after, awaking to see his family die at the hands of his murderers. Soon afterwards, Kendall's mind came to life again in the form of a cyberspace program.
Throughout the game, the player controls Alex Kendall's cyberspace program of himself, seeking revenge of his family, and his own mortal self. The phrase "Revenge is best served on the Net" is shown in the opening titles before game play commences.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack for ShadowWraith is widely considered among the greatest video game soundtracks of all time and was composed by Steven Allen, Andrew Schlesinger, Volker Tripp, and Thomas Chenhall, with the songs being stored in MOD format. It consisted of the following song titles in alleged order of game play:
- Extend
- Into the Shadow
- Haunt
- Night
- Cyberride
- Fall
- Wraith
- Marshins
- Dance of Zax
- Overlord
- World
- Ryu
- Stardust (Memories)
- Oblivion
- Silntrac (Silent Racer)
- Elysium
- Molecule (Molecule's Revenge)
- DENSETSU
- Pulse
- Off Line Pulse
- Dance Factory
- Internal Impactor
- Evergladez
- Space
- Xenon
Reception
Inside Mac Games complimented the game on its detailed physics model and music, among other things, and commented that ShadowWraith was better than the other games in its genre, though there were slight difficulties with switching weapons during gameplay and slower performance on 68030-based Macs.
