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Shadow Blade: Reload
Shadow Blade is an action-platformer set in a visually striking world where the ancient teachings of ninjas and samurai clash upon a modern landscape. Sprint through stages littered with traps, slaying enemies along your path without hesitation as Kuro, the blade of shadow!
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-08-31 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-13.
What reviewers agree on
77 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“Actually a pretty fun platformer with great art style, cutscenes, and gameplay. Worth the money.”
“This game is quite enjoyable. It’s fast, fun and often requires quick thinking. There are a ton of levels and a bunch of unique mechanics that can really be challenging at times. I particularly liked how upping the…”
“Shadow Blade: Reload is an action-platformer where you are a ninja. Your objective is to get through each level as efficiently as possible. Currently, finished playing the main game. It was overall a pleasant experience…”
28 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“Actually a pretty fun platformer with great art style, cutscenes, and gameplay. Worth the money.”
“This game is quite enjoyable. It’s fast, fun and often requires quick thinking. There are a ton of levels and a bunch of unique mechanics that can really be challenging at times. I particularly liked how upping the…”
“Shadow Blade: Reload is an action-platformer where you are a ninja. Your objective is to get through each level as efficiently as possible. Currently, finished playing the main game. It was overall a pleasant experience…”
26 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“This game is quite enjoyable. It’s fast, fun and often requires quick thinking. There are a ton of levels and a bunch of unique mechanics that can really be challenging at times. I particularly liked how upping the…”
“Absolutely love it, as many have mentioned, it will itch at your speed running abilities as the levels have a great flow and are very fun to complete. There is also a level editor which is quite basic currently, but I…”
“Unbeliavably fun! This game has amazing controls, fluid and responsive, they feel very natural and intuitive. It has a great double-jump mechanic that allows for some very precise movements and sometimes even ridiculous…”
24 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“This game is quite enjoyable. It’s fast, fun and often requires quick thinking. There are a ton of levels and a bunch of unique mechanics that can really be challenging at times. I particularly liked how upping the…”
“This is a great ninja themed platformer with more of a focus on speed then stealth. Never heard of it until it popped up in my discovery queue a while ago. Finally picked it up during the last Summer sale. The story…”
“Truly a very-very good plaftormer. Long, difficult (but not unfair) oriented to mastering - with a brilliant map editor. I put it on the podium of platformers right next to super meat boy and battleblock theater! And…”
23 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“This game is quite enjoyable. It’s fast, fun and often requires quick thinking. There are a ton of levels and a bunch of unique mechanics that can really be challenging at times. I particularly liked how upping the…”
“Shadow Blade: Reload is an action-platformer where you are a ninja. Your objective is to get through each level as efficiently as possible. Currently, finished playing the main game. It was overall a pleasant experience…”
“Absolutely love it, as many have mentioned, it will itch at your speed running abilities as the levels have a great flow and are very fun to complete. There is also a level editor which is quite basic currently, but I…”
27 of the 101 reviews raise this · 19 of them still recommend the game.
“Cool game but I can't finish it due to bug (smth codecs related according to forums). Stuck at Ch. 4, Lvl 7 after boss fight - just black screen. I tried to instal codecs from main folder (helps to some people) but it…”
“Shadow Blade: Reload is an action-platformer where you are a ninja. Your objective is to get through each level as efficiently as possible. Currently, finished playing the main game. It was overall a pleasant experience…”
“A nice little speed running focused game with ninjas and evil cyborgs. The controls are pretty tight (but still occasionally glitchy due to early access stuff, not too much though). Levels are very well designed - there…”
10 of the 101 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“A platformer, the controls don't feel quite right. As such dying didn't always feel like it was my fault. Got stuck inside of walls a few times, had to restart the level over again. At least levels are fairly short.…”
“Overall, the game is fairly good. Levels flow pretty well, the platforming is interesting, and it's very quick. That being said, Shadow Blade: Reload needs to decide whether or not it wants to be a platformer, or a more…”
“Shadow Blade isn't a bad game, but i wouldn't recommend it. At the start of the game i got a message to "install codecs" to view videos, without any other information given. Apparently they're in the game folder but the…”
9 of the 101 reviews raise this · 9 of them still recommend the game.
“This is a great ninja themed platformer with more of a focus on speed then stealth. Never heard of it until it popped up in my discovery queue a while ago. Finally picked it up during the last Summer sale. The story…”
“I'm puzzled when I look at reviews that say "Mark Of The Ninja clone" or "Strider 2". These people have obviously never played the other titles or maybe they just idled the game for cards and took a guess based off the…”
“LOVE this game. LOVE it. If you're into ninjas, sidescrollers, quick paced action, comic books, cliché ninja stories; if you're into ANY of these, buy it. If you're not...well, buy it. Because it's awesome.”
7 of the 101 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“Nice and cool game. Only big downfall I've found so far is lack of good controller support as it lacks support for the X360 controller which I own and only seem to work with the XONE controller out of the box. Because…”
“A platformer, the controls don't feel quite right. As such dying didn't always feel like it was my fault. Got stuck inside of walls a few times, had to restart the level over again. At least levels are fairly short.…”
“Shadow Blade isn't a bad game, but i wouldn't recommend it. At the start of the game i got a message to "install codecs" to view videos, without any other information given. Apparently they're in the game folder but the…”
7 of the 101 reviews raise this · 7 of them still recommend the game.
“Shadow Blade: Reload is an average platform game about ninjas and super-powers (somewhat). It's short - something like three hours, four at best, considering you can complete each level in two or three minutes; it's…”
“This is a great little platformer! However, If you don't like replaying levels to get a good score, it may not have so much appeal. The controls are very tight and the gameplay is very smooth and acrobatic (wall jumps,…”
“i have to say, for the price i paid (currently 3.74 on sale), this game gives a LOT of fun. it's short, sure, but the mastery and the speed running communities will freakin LOVE this game. the controls are simple, but…”
Counted across 101 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 87.3% positive rating · as of 2026-05-13
“Gone from the days of gaming are the distilled shots of adrenaline and the twitch based action from titles such as Shinobi or Strider that pressed us to try again and again. Now replaced with fluff and filler, the complex tutorials and drawn-out narratives that take the place of…”
— a player, Steam review · 23 hrs played“Before considering a purchase of this game, it's important to know that there are some technical issues. If you plan on using a PS4 controller, while the left stick will function properly, left and right will be reversed on the d-pad; since there's no way to alter gamepad…”
— a player, Steam review · 17 hrs played“Surprisingly satisfying ninja sidescrolling action. There's a bug with the cutscenes that might not be fixable for everyone but the core gameplay is rock solid and a lot of fun. This would have been a classic back in the 16 bit days. ADDENDUM: To fix the cutscenes playback issue…”
— a player, Steam review · 5 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2023-03 via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-09-19.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-08-12. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-09-25). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Shadow Blade: Reload - 85% Off in the Steam Summer Sale!
We’re excited to share that Shadow Blade: Reload is now available at 85% off during the Steam Summer Sale! If you haven't had the chance to play, now is a great time to dive into Kuro's journey and ex
White screen issue fix is live.
The latest update should fix the issue some users had with seeing a white screen on Windows.
White screen issue fix is live.
The latest update should fix the issue some users had with seeing a white screen on Windows.
More Challenge Levels Added!
For those of you Ninja enough to complete the challenge levels, 5 brand new levels have been added with the latest update. Get it now! Dust off your Katana! Some Linux version fixes are included with
More Challenge Levels Added!
For those of you Ninja enough to complete the challenge levels, 5 brand new levels have been added with the latest update. Get it now! Dust off your Katana! Some Linux version fixes are included with
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-13.
| Genres | Action, Indie |
| Player tags | Action · Indie · Ninja · Platformer · Fast-Paced · Side Scroller · 2D · Singleplayer · 2.5D (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Steam Achievements · Full controller support · Steam Trading Cards · Steam Workshop · Steam Cloud · Steam Leaderboards · Includes level editor |
| Languages | English, French, German, Russian |
| Controller | Full support |
| Achievements | 37 |
| Official site | http://shadowblade.ninja |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS *: Windows XP and up Processor: Intel Core Duo or faster Memory: 1 GB RAM Graphics: Dedicated video card recommended Storage: 900 MB available space