At the heart of The Tower of Shadow lies a mystery. The player controls the shadow of a young boy. The shadow has one purpose in life: to scale the colossal tower that dominates the game's skyline. He does not speak. Nobody knows who he is or how he came to be. He just climbs. And climbs.

But even a shadow must abide by certain rules, and thus the player must fulfill certain criteria as they help the shadow to climb the tower. First, the shadow can only walk on the thin line between shadow and light. While he is not affected by height or distance, he must always have a shadow foothold, and he will disappear if he is fully engulfed by either the dark or the light.

With a number of tortuous levels to negotiate, The Tower of Shadow demonstrates Hudson Soft at its creative best. The sprawling levels are full of clever problems that force the player to challenge conventional ways to explore, and to use the varied abilities of the shadow boy and Spangle.