Shadow of the Beast
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| Shadow of the Beast | |
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| Developer(s) | Reflections Interactive |
| Platform(s) | Commodore Amiga, Sega Mega Drive |
| Release date | 1989 |
| Genre(s) | platform game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Shadow of the Beast is a side-scrolling platform computer game produced by Reflections Interactive and published by Psygnosis in 1989. The original version was released for the Commodore Amiga, but the game has been ported to many other systems.
Psygnosis had published numerous side scrollers with high quality graphics before (most notably Obliterator), but Shadow of the Beast was considered revolutionary because its graphics, with many more colours on screen and multiple (up to twelve in outdoor sections) levels of parallax scrolling backdrops, were of a level rarely if ever seen before in action games. It was also notable for its score composed by David Whittaker that used high-quality instrument samples.
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[edit] The first Beast
The first game's story is about a man named Aarbron who was kidnapped as a child and corrupted through magic into a monstrous warrior-servant for the evil beast lord Maletoth. The creature's memory of his human life returns when he watches a man, which he later recognizes as his father, being executed. This prompts him to seek revenge.
The box artwork of the game, like many Psygnosis releases of the time, was created by fantasy artist Roger Dean, in a style reminiscent of his Yes album cover artwork.
The music score was composed by David Whittaker and consists of twelve tracks. They are similar in style and have a new-age like sound. The track names are:
# Opening
- Intro
- Welcome
- Inside the tree
- The power orb
- The well
- Aarbron's revenge
- To the castle
- In the dark passages
- Beyond mind and reality
- The thing
- Game over
Despite mostly highly positive reviews, some reviewers complained that the game was too difficult, and some criticised the game as a matter of style over substance, but the game became a hit and spawned two sequels. Because the game was built for the Amiga's powerful graphics and sound capabilities, conversions to other gaming platforms are sometimes considered less attractive by fans of the game.
[edit] Sequels
There were two sequels for the game: Shadow of the Beast II in 1990 and Shadow of the Beast III in 1992. The former was again ported to a number of platforms.
[edit] Shadow of the Beast II
Shadow of the Beast II finds the hero in half-beast form, wandering the lands of Karamoon in search of his kidnapped sister. She had been taken away from her mother's cottage by the dragon-form of the Beast Mage, Zelek, servant to Maletoth. Along the way, Aarbron befriends the wise dragon Barloom and must defeat the evil dragon Ishran. Tree Pygmies in the forest and the goblins in the Crystal Caverns serve as interactive, complicated foes. For example, a bottle of booze picked up at the Karamoon oasis must be given to the goblin jailer to free Aarbron from his cell. Only after Aarbron gives the old man his ring and his parchment does he obtain a spell powerful enough to harm Zelek. The game is very difficult; with no continues available; and with apparently rather little or no thought at all for the actual player. For example, a number of puzzles offered only one attempt before the game would kill the player, and there was no mechanism to stop players getting ahead of themselves by entering a certain area without the necessary equipment. Thus, many players had to cheat to see more than a fraction of it, by asking the first Pygmy to his right about "ten pints".
As in the first game, the cover art for Shadow of the Beast II was created by Roger Dean and the game was packaged with a promotional black T-Shirt that featured Dean's artwork. The music for 'Beast II' was composed by Tim Wright.
[edit] Shadow of the Beast III
The final chapter of the saga, Shadow of the Beast III was released for the Amiga in 1992. In this game, Aarbron has finally maintained a human form but must face Maletoth once and for all to regain his full humanity. It did not get as much attention as its predecessors, in spite of the overwhelmingly positive reviews, with most praising the improvements in gameplay and toning down of the difficulty level. Its graphics and sound - though still high quality - were not revolutionary anymore in 1992. Beast III had four distinct stages instead of one big area. The game placed less of an emphasis on the action elements so prominent in the first two games, instead preferring a more cerebral approach. The Beast III package did not contain a T-shirt, but rather a badge with a game logo in its place.
[edit] Soundtracks
The soundtrack of the first Beast game by David Whittaker is the most famous one. Also, Tim Wright's more atmospheric soundtracks for the sequels are noteworthy. The original Amiga music for all of the Beast games can be downloaded from the web in MP3 format (see external links below). In addition, the full soundtrack to the first Beast game was arranged, studio recorded and released in 1999, on an Amiga music compilation CD entitled Immortal.
[edit] Ports
After Shadow of the Beast's enormous success on the Amiga, it was ported to almost every other computer and video games console of the time. Namely, the Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, SNES, Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega Master System, Atari Lynx, TurboCD and FM-Towns (there even was an Atari 8-bit version in the works [1]. The FM-Towns version was the last to be released, titled Shadow Of The Beast Complete, with enhanced in-game graphics and the original soundtrack, which was missing from all the other ports.
[edit] Sega Genesis
The Sega Genesis port is considered by some to be one of the hardest video games ever made [2]. This is due to a sloppy conversion; the original had a 50Hz refresh rate, but all Sega Genesis games had to have a 60Hz refresh rate due to being made for NTSC televisions. Accordingly, the conversion team increased the refresh rate to 60Hz, but did not change the amount of time each frame remained on screen, making it run 16.7% faster than the original. Many gamers struggled to complete it after its release, but due to the incredibly high difficulty level with no continues available, very few achieved this goal until Sega revealed the invincibility cheat in January 1992. As if to make up for this, the Japanese Mega Drive version not only ran at the correct speed but had enhanced in-game graphics as well as a toned down difficulty setting, but the game still lacked continues.
Shadow of the Beast II has also been ported, albeit to fewer platforms. These are the Atari ST and FM-Towns computers, as well as the Mega Drive/Genesis, and Sega CD consoles. The Sega CD port of the game had drastic changes made to it, the most noticeable being a new soundtrack complete with voice acted dialogue sequences and added FMVs. The in-game graphics were also slightly enhanced, and some areas of the game were redesigned to be fairer than the original.
Despite the success of the first two games, Shadow of the Beast III was not ported to any other system, and remains an Amiga exclusive.
The PC Engine Super CD-ROM port of Shadow of the Beast features a soundtrack arranged by Tim Wright, of Beast 2 and Beast 3 fame. It is considered by many as the definitive studio cover of the original Whittaker's soundtrack.
The Sega Mega Drive version suffers from distorted sound as the volume is too high. The same effect from when the volume is too high for older speakers to cope with on certain older HI-FI stereo units.
[edit] References in other games
Graphics from Shadow of the Beast and Shadow of the Beast II were featured in two special levels in the original Lemmings game (Amiga, MegaDrive, PC, Super Nintendo, and Atari ST versions), called "A Beast of a Level" and "A Beast II of a Level".
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- CoLD SToRAGE Tim Wright's website.
- MODMancer Radio - icecast radio station, 24/7, covering Computer Games
- Amigamusic.com - Amiga music mp3 site, with all of the Shadow of the beast music recorded to Mp3
- YouTube - Videogame recordings of Shadow of the Beast games
- Shadow of the Beast at Lemon Amiga
- Good Old Games - 8 bit version and magazine review
- Shadow of the Beast series at MobyGames
- Shadow of the Beast at World of Spectrum
