Split Personality: Hard Reset Devs Revive Shadow Warrior

In a post-re-Rise-of-the-Triad world, any franchise reboot is possible. Case in point: Shadow Warrior. The original was a ninja-themed first-person shooter sliced and diced from Duke Nukem 3D's cloth - Build engine, unrepentantly offensive humor, and all - but it didn't exactly have legions of lovers banging down doors for its long-overdue return. At least, not that I'm aware of. Maybe I should've looked in more shadows. Regardless, it's coming back, and Hard Reset developer Flying Wild Hog's hefting the weighty, blood-rusted katana of responsibility.

The company whose name makes it impossible for me to not think about Cards Against Humanity announced the rather surprising project via Facebook:

"Our next project is finally revealed, we're working on a total reimagining of Shadow Warrior with Devolver Digital."

So then, it probably won't be the same game you knew back in the day, except with handsomer decapitations. I'm not saying there won't be plenty of gruffly attractive, well-dressed cranial severings, but Flying Wild Hog's fingerpints will probably be quite apparent. Will Shadow Warrior still be abjectly racist in its "humorous" sensibilities? I suppose time will tell.

Really, the same goes for pretty much everything at the moment. Details are basically non-existent, but we'll be finding out more very soon. But hey, if nothing else, we know for certain that Flying Wild Hog has a fairly magnificent in-house engine and decent-ish old-school shooter chops. Hard Reset's level design might have been as drearily dreadful as its setting, but bosses were big and guns went kaboomzang real good. Appearances, then, at least seem to suggest this'll be a pretty natural fit. For now, though, it's impossible to say anything for sure.

Hurrah! Get excited! Or don't! It really doesn't matter at this point. How about the original Shadow Warrior, though? Did you play it? Did you enjoy it? Have you been silently suffering ever since its credits rolled, praying that it'd eventually return to softly cradle your still-beating heart one last time?