Top 50 Video Games: Number 30

#30: Shadowgate
System: Nintendo Entertainment System
Publisher: Kemco
Released: 1989
Players: 1


Shadowgate's narrative is always entertaining.


Most non-gaming people see video games as things for children. It has always been this way. Early popular video games were cartoonish and simple looking, largely due to the limitations in technology. Games were aimed at a broad audience, typically family friendly. Few games (particularly on the home console systems) were aimed at more mature audiences. Shadowgate was one of the earlier examples of these games.

Shadowgate is an adventure game in which you guide your character through a creepy castle one room at a time. The interface was just a step above a text-based adventure game. Each room you entered had a single static screen and a description that would crop up. The player would then interact with the room using commands like USE, GET, OPEN etc to collect any interesting objects in the room, solve any puzzles and move on to the next area. The gameplay wasn't the thing that made Shadowgate memorable for me, it was the atmosphere.


Players will see this screen many, many times.


Shadowgate couldn't really scare you, not in a 'gotcha!' sort of way anyways. It used eerie music and detailed narrative to create a dark, tense mood. I remember sitting in front of the little TV in my parents' kitchen playing this game when everyone had gone to bed. It was very dark and there were windows all around me which was a tad creepy, and I couldn't help but cast a glance at the basement door behind me every now and again. Shadowgate's music is some of the best and most effective of any game I've ever played. The best games are effective on more than one level, and creating an immersive atmosphere is a key part of this. My favorite games are the ones that draw you in fully, and Shadowgate certainly did that for me. Shadowgate has 3 games as its progeny: Deja Vu (A murder mystery/detective game) and Uninvited (trapped in a haunted mansion) both for the NES, and the highly stinky Shadowgate 64 for the highly stinky Nintendo 64. The adventure genre is nearly dead, and looking back on games like Shadowgate makes me wonder how it could have happened.