As many of you probably read with our review of Shadow Complex two weeks ago,  the Super Metroid-inspired title is a fun action platformer with a few minor flaws. But according to the XBox Live Arcade community, these flaws didn’t keep Shadow Complex from becoming the top selling game of not only XBox’s Summer of Arcade but the highest first week sales figures and single week sales figures ever on the platform. Reaching over 200,000 downloads in its first week, Shadow Complex has set a new target for all aspiring downloadable games creators.

Scott Austin, director of digitally distributed games at Microsoft was quoted, “Congratulations to Chair Entertainment and Epic Games for creating an outstanding game… As the capstone title of the second annual Summer of Arcade program, Shadow Complex has raised the bar for downloadable games. We’re proud to offer such high-quality content on Xbox LIVE Arcade.”

With great new releases coming out this summer like Battlefield 1943, ‘Splosion Man and Shadow Complex for XBox Live Arcade and Fat Princess for the Playstation Network, downloadable games continue to prove their viability in the gaming marketplace. Hats off to Chair Entertainment for setting this new milestone.

XBox 360′s Summer of Arcade, despite a few awkward weeks in the middle, kicks back up for a strong finish with its fifth and final game release, Shadow Complex. Shadow Complex could best be compared in gameplay style to the SNES classic Super Metroid. An action platformer, the player traverses through levels deep in an underground bunker, facing off against various poorly trained soldiers who are about as accurate as Cobra in the G.I. Joe cartoon.

Unlike the classic, players have full 360 degrees of motion to which they can aim their gun using the right analog stick. Also different is the inclusion of foreground and background enemies. A player cannot move themselves in to the background plane to combat enemies but they can shoot from their current position at the enemies off in the distance. This can leave players with interesting choices of taking out the immediate threat in front of them in the foreground or to take a few quick shots and aim for the sniper in the background.

In terms of setting, however, the game feels similar to a James Bond movie with high-tech gadgets combined with a little bit of modern realistic sci-fi that could be found in a game like Perfect Dark Zero. There are large mech-like bosses and interesting new weapons like a gun that allows players to create platforms in mid-air that they can use to walk on.

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