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There are many ways to get rich, and our hero has found a new one. Spread around abandoned places are lots of shiny golden rings. All he needs to do is reach them. However, these ruins are guarded by evil zombie-robots who try to home-in on him.

Luckily, our hero is a Shadow Switcher. At a press of the Fire button, control switches between the hero and his black shadow. The shadow cannot be harmed by the robots, which allows a few seconds' breathing space - but any contact between the moving hero and a zombie costs a life and sends him back to the start of the level.

Keys are collected to open the iron gates blocking certain areas, and some levels include cracked floors that crumble under the hero's feet. Electric lightning bolts flicker in and out of life, meaning careful timing is needed to zip past them. Later levels add moving staircases that automatically push the hero in one direction.

Once all the rings on a level have been collected, the exit door opens and our hero can make his escape.

There are a total of 40 original levels to conquer - and a built-in level editor allows the player to make his own devious screens.

Shadow Switcher manages to convince us that we are back in 1984, with its retro-vibe brickwork look, a funky soundtrack that reminds me of Lazy Jones, and addictive, frustrating and maddeningly compulsive all-in-one puzzle-action gameplay. Such a game lives or dies by its level design, and while the first few levels gently ease the player into the basic mechanics, it soon lets rip with fiendish, clever, convoluted tricks and traps that push you into exploiting the persona-switch mechanic as much as possible. This is before even working out how best to distract the wandering zombies so you can freely collect all the rings.

Completing all forty levels will take some effort. The level designer a la Lode Runner is the icing on the cake. Shadow Switcher didn't need to be flashy, its whole is way more than the sum of its components.

The brickwork platforms and ladders give echoes of the classic Lode Runner, but this offers a different challenge in mastering its "shadow switching" mechanic. First impressions are great, with the jaunty title music and a rolling demo of how to play.

Graphics are effective, even if the hi-res aesthetic may look a little old-fashioned. It takes a few goes to really grasp how effective the shadow can be, luring zombies away from rings and then racing behind them to grab the spoils. It does share something with Lode Runner - the built-in level editor is a great addition to increase the lasting appeal. It just needed a little more variety to make it really stand out.

It takes a lot to make a platform game stand out, especially nowadays, so I was very happy to find that Shadow Switcher does exactly that. It does have a bit of a Lode Runner feel to it but is most definitely its own entity.

Shadow Switcher is deeply rooted in the mid-1980s, but with a modern twist that works so well, I can't believe it wasn't done 35 years ago. The switching mechanic is not a gimmick; it's a very clever piece of design and its use is integral to your progress.

There are some really devious screens to figure out, but it never becomes frustrating and I found it a constant joy to play. It might look and sound like a throwback, but Shadow Switcher is one of the best games I've played for this annual.

Presentation 88%
Useful demo mode, an imaginative two player mode and an easy-to-use level editor.

Graphics 38%
Deliberately (and successfully) designed to look like an early 1980s game.

Sound 57%
Authentic early 1980s music, with more than a hint of Lazy Jones to it.

Hookability 91%
Old-school platform sensibilities lend an immediate, addictive appeal.

Lastability 93%
Forty mind-bending levels within the game, with the prospect of unlimited user-made levels to keep you going for as long as you could ever want to.

Overall 90%
Despite its primitive appearance, Shadow Switcher is something of a platforming classic.