Shadow of the Beast
Shadow of the Beast, Amiga original by Reflections. Master System conversion by Techmagic and published by Sega under licence from Psygnosis in 1991. Exclusive to PAL territories.
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Player's Review
"From beyond the edge of darkness the warrior cries revenge. Shadow of the beast is unleashed on the Master System in a superlative arcade adventure. Relentless combat as the Beast battles over 100 different alien forms in 8 hostile regions of a supernatural world. It feels so real - you can almost taste knuckle."
One of the Amiga's most remembered games based on the technical achievements to produce a stunning game to look at with multi layered smooth parallax scrolling and large colourful sprites. It saw a conversion onto nearly every platform of the era and mostly taking advantage of each platforms strengths to produce an authentic conversion. What is also well remembered is how badly it plays though with poor collision detection making it difficult to hit fast moving enemies and an energy reserve that fades away quickly leaving quite the frustrating game.
So lets join the Beast on the Master System on his quest to become the 'Running Man'. The Master System version looks nice and retains the original games trademark parallax effect. It does however control quite poorly with plenty of lag between the button press and the action on screen which can cause you to take damage. In light of this the gameplay is dramatically different. Whilst you get a much smaller amount of energy, you get multiple lives so if you die, its not game over as you just return to the start of the current level. There are plenty of health potions to find just as in the original and also some extra lives.
The level maps are slightly extended in this version allowing you to go off exploring a bit more. The main change for this version of the game is an inventory system allowing you to store items needed for later use like health potions, keys as well as useless objects designed to waste space. Poisons that reduce your energy can also be found in blue bottles which I avoid in the longplay. A magic wand in the castle should also be avoided as it will turn out the lights until you lose a life. Special care needs to be taken as if you use an item at the wrong time, it will be lost and you may not be able to complete the game.
00:00 - Attract Mode
01:50 - Level 01
02:47 - Level 2a
04:08 - Boss - Keeper of the Orb
04:49 - Level 2b
05:56 - Boss - Death Skeleton
06:21 - Level 03
11:18 - Boss - Hydrassas the Dragon
11:45 - Level 04
17:10 - Level 05
22:51 - Boss - Skarios the Slayer
23:47 - Level 06
25:05 - Boss - Corannis the Varg
25:39 - Level 07
28:00 - Boss - The Evil
One of the Amiga's most remembered games based on the technical achievements to produce a stunning game to look at with multi layered smooth parallax scrolling and large colourful sprites. It saw a conversion onto nearly every platform of the era and mostly taking advantage of each platforms strengths to produce an authentic conversion. What is also well remembered is how badly it plays though with poor collision detection making it difficult to hit fast moving enemies and an energy reserve that fades away quickly leaving quite the frustrating game.
So lets join the Beast on the Master System on his quest to become the 'Running Man'. The Master System version looks nice and retains the original games trademark parallax effect. It does however control quite poorly with plenty of lag between the button press and the action on screen which can cause you to take damage. In light of this the gameplay is dramatically different. Whilst you get a much smaller amount of energy, you get multiple lives so if you die, its not game over as you just return to the start of the current level. There are plenty of health potions to find just as in the original and also some extra lives.
The level maps are slightly extended in this version allowing you to go off exploring a bit more. The main change for this version of the game is an inventory system allowing you to store items needed for later use like health potions, keys as well as useless objects designed to waste space. Poisons that reduce your energy can also be found in blue bottles which I avoid in the longplay. A magic wand in the castle should also be avoided as it will turn out the lights until you lose a life. Special care needs to be taken as if you use an item at the wrong time, it will be lost and you may not be able to complete the game.
00:00 - Attract Mode
01:50 - Level 01
02:47 - Level 2a
04:08 - Boss - Keeper of the Orb
04:49 - Level 2b
05:56 - Boss - Death Skeleton
06:21 - Level 03
11:18 - Boss - Hydrassas the Dragon
11:45 - Level 04
17:10 - Level 05
22:51 - Boss - Skarios the Slayer
23:47 - Level 06
25:05 - Boss - Corannis the Varg
25:39 - Level 07
28:00 - Boss - The Evil
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