Shadow of the Beast box art
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Shadow of the Beast (1989)

Reflections Interactive, The Creative Assembly

Amiga · Amstrad CPC · Atari Lynx · Atari ST/STE · Commodore C64/128/MAX · Commodore VIC-20 · FM Towns · Sega Master System/Mark III · Sega Mega Drive/Genesis · Super Nintendo Entertainment System · Turbografx-16/PC Engine CD · ZX Spectrum

2.76 from 41 ratings

117 members have it in their collection · 1 playing now · 23 backlogged · 16 wish listed

Shadow of the Beast is a platform game developed by Reflections and published by Psygnosis in 1989. The original version was released for the Amiga and later ported to many other systems. The game was known for its graphics, with many colours on screen and up to twelve levels of parallax scrolling backdrops, and its atmospheric score composed by David Whittaker, which used high-quality instrument samples.
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Details

Developers
Reflections Interactive, The Creative Assembly
Publishers
Psygnosis, Tec Toy
Genres
Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Platform
Themes
Action, Fantasy, Horror
Series
Shadow of the Beast

Release dates

  • Oct 1989 (Full Release) (North_America) Amiga
  • 1989 (Full Release) (Europe) Amiga
  • 1990 (Full Release) (Europe) Amstrad CPC, Atari ST/STE, Commodore C64/128/MAX, ZX Spectrum
  • 1990 (Full Release) (North_America) Commodore C64/128/MAX
  • Sep 1991 (Full Release) (Japan) FM Towns
  • Feb 19, 1992 (Full Release) (Brazil) Sega Mega Drive/Genesis
  • Mar 27, 1992 (Full Release) (Japan) Turbografx-16/PC Engine CD
  • 1992 (Full Release) (North_America) Atari Lynx, Turbografx-16/PC Engine CD
  • 1992 (Full Release) (Worldwide) Sega Master System/Mark III
  • 1992 (Full Release) (Europe) Sega Mega Drive/Genesis
  • TBD (Cancelled) (North_America) Super Nintendo Entertainment System

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Remakes

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Rating distribution

5 stars
0
4 stars
6
3 stars
21
2 stars
12
1 star
2
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Community All Reviews Statuses

scoopings

Status scoopings Jun 12, 2024

Preliminary: Quite the dramatic beginning music and showing all the production companies involved etc. Beautiful font for the title and great music. A bit slow tho enter image description here

Oh that was one of those boot/intro movie/cutscene discs I've been seeing more of. The actual title screen isn't quite as epic ha. I can't imagine having to sit through all this every time …

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Preliminary: Quite the dramatic beginning music and showing all the production companies involved etc. Beautiful font for the title and great music. A bit slow tho enter image description here

Oh that was one of those boot/intro movie/cutscene discs I've been seeing more of. The actual title screen isn't quite as epic ha. I can't imagine having to sit through all this every time you wanted to play back in the day. Ok, nevermind, I'm in properly now and the music is definitely a jam and the parallax backgrounds are impressive.

Wow, after trying 3 different versions and different ways to play it blahblah over 2 days, I finally got it working right (I thought it was still broken but nope, just a very long music playing boot) and uh, the combat is boring. Hypothetically a good game, love how you get hints like Go In Here, Find the Door the Key Goes To etc, and full of beautiful Look and Sound but.. after all that work lol

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2 Comment Permalink
Chovus

Status Chovus Aug 30, 2021

Played the SNES rom, which was never released. That explains why the game felt unfinished. I started by going right, getting the gun and going all the way to the castle. Took a few tries. I forget why, but I gave up that way and wanted to start over to see what was to the left. Beat the 1st boss …

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Played the SNES rom, which was never released. That explains why the game felt unfinished. I started by going right, getting the gun and going all the way to the castle. Took a few tries. I forget why, but I gave up that way and wanted to start over to see what was to the left. Beat the 1st boss with the wave beam thing, then to the giant skeletal boss thing on the bridge. I almost gave up here because there was no audiovisual feedback to tell whether I was hurting the boss, unlike the orb in the previous fight that flashed red when hit. That, and the boss would move forward and instantly kill you. I did figure out that there was just barely enough time to win by ducking and shooting constantly, with a bit of moving to stay in range and falling back when it approached. I made it to the next red dragon boss, but it had the same lack of feedback. I had the timing down to jump kick him in the face, followed by 3 quick punches, then fall back to avoid damage. But after doing that a few dozen times I guess the fight was never finished and is unbeatable. Don't think I want to try the proper version because the game is not fun. Sluggish movement (especially that stupid delay for turning around), very precise timing required for combat and avoiding hazards, and the more trial and error based gameplay. Maybe if the gun and ranged powers were not severely limited the game might be a bit fun.

It is not really fair to rate an unfinished version, but based on the core gameplay it feels like a 3, maybe 4 out of 10.

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1 Comment Permalink
deimosremus

Review deimosremus 3/5 · Jan 3, 2015

Kind of an unfortunate title, Shadow of the Beast has some of the most impressive graphics from the era, and of course some truly memorable music. However, its cryptic gameplay and lack of oomph in its hit detection bring it down quite a bit.

0 Comment