Sometime in the past few years, shadows became a curiously pervasive trend in game design. Not the presence of shadows, but rather the ability to play as a shadow. XBLA’s Limbo is the most recent high-profile example of the trope, but Wii gamers will be able to partake of the trend as well early next year thanks to Hudson’s Lost in Shadow.
Lost offers a different take on shadow play than Limbo, though. Whereas the latter used its bleak graphics as an homage to German impressionist films of the early 20th century, Lost resembles nothing so much as Sony’s PlayStation 2 masterpiece Ico. Its visuals are saturated with light, yet fairly monochromatic at the same time — ethereal and dreamlike. Unlike in Ico, though, you’re not responsible for the welfare of a scatterbrained princess, and you’re not simply fighting shadows; you are a shadow.
