Tandem: A Tale of Shadows is a surreal puzzle-platformer whose concept would have been more interesting if I hadn’t already seen it before.  You switch between two characters, a girl named Emma and a teddy bear named Fenton, who are looking for the missing Thomas Kane, the son of a famous magician.  Viewing her from a top-down perspective, Emma can roam about freely and use her light and other objects to create shadows for Fenton to traverse.  Fenton himself moves in a 2D, side-scrolling space and must use shadows as platforms and paths, and the two must work together to reach the end of each level.

The idea would have been more unique if I hadn’t already played Shady Part of Me, in which you play as a girl and her shadow.  The girl can walk about freely on the floor, but must avoid light, while her shadow can platform across the walls, but must avoid getting trapped in darkness.

Despite the strong feeling of deja vu, my 25 minutes (spanning 7 levels) with the demo was fun enough.  The game eases you in with several super short and easy puzzles, and then they slowly get slightly more difficult and involved, where Emma and Fenton must work together to hit switches or Emma must create shadows at just the right angle for Fenton to reach a certain platform.  It never got particularly challenging, but this was just the demo, so I have no idea how high the difficulty level gets later on throughout the game’s 40 levels.  The demo ended with a level that had us avoiding these clockwork spiders, which made the gameplay just a bit more interesting.

With similar ratings, people seem to enjoy both games equally, but I thought I’d end this brief review with a quick comparison.  Tandem has more colorful graphics, with a Victorian steampunk aesthetic, while Shady Part of Me is more artsy, with muted colors.  Tandem has enemies to avoid, like the aforementioned spiders, and I also read that there are boss fights, while Shady Part of Me has no enemies to speak of.  Lastly, I’ve already covered Tandem’s story, which involves the two main characters trying to solve the mystery of a missing boy.  Shady Part of Me, on the other hand, has a story that’s far more focused on psychology and mental illness.  (As for one tiny difference, which may or may not matter, Tandem doesn’t seem to have an option for subtitles, while Shady Part of Me does.  Though Shady Part of Me has a lot of dialogue, while the Tandem demo only really had dialogue during the first cut scene.)  So while both games have very similar gameplay, they definitely have a lot that sets them apart and makes them unique in their own way.  As for which you should play, I can’t really say when I haven’t played Tandem in its entirety, but I hope this quick comparison at least helps in that regard.

As for price, length, and availability, neither game will deter you, as they are both available on all major consoles and PC, roughly 6 hours long, and sell for $14.99 (though I’ve seen Shady Part of Me go on sale for $2.99).