Shadow of the Beast was in my opinion, the greatest side scrolling game ever made. Created by Psygnosis through Reflections, the game was made for the AMIGA 500, however my first taste of it was on a Commodore 64 cassette.
You play as a “Beast” like man on a mission to avenge his dad’s death in a world that is both intense and the only legal way to experience hallucinations.
Shadow Of The Beast revolutionized three-dimensional gaming on a 2D side-scrolling platform, meaning that it used 2D graphics to create a 3D look.
The fore ground moved at normal play speed while 3 overlapped mountain silhouettes each moved slower than the next in the background. Cloud and sky movement also added to the “depth of field”. The game also used graphics that seemed to leap of the screen by starting in the background that move toward you as they got bigger then shrunk away again. (The most notable of this was the multiple eye sequence early in the game)
For its day (1989) it had the beast graphics ever scene, it was incredibly smooth with very animated movements that did not seem clunky, stiff and blocky (or as I like to call it, “Mario-ish”). The game featured secret area’s which offered an alterative path in some area’s
but were not detrimental to getting to the next area Your main weapons were your fist and feet, combined with jumping they made a fun weapon of choice. Power-ups were throughout giving you limited burst of speed and strength; weapons were also limited yet effective.
The first level of the game saw you in an outside environment with many “trippy” foes that you either had to beat down, dodge or time correctly to get past. The color and size of the first level was the most impressive for me and the multiple “eye’s in the sky” area was just awesome. This saw you on to level 2, which was really a sub level of 1. You were in an underground forest situation running along wooden beams of either tree roots of “Ewok Village” style ramps which eventually got you back to level 1. Level 3 saw you in a castle, which was full of paths and ladders, a fairly standard level to look at, but very challenging to pass, weapons really help out in this area. From memory the fourth level was similar to the first except you are underground and finally the last scene, which is so completely different from the rest of the game. This time you are armed with a jet pack and have to navigate your way through a cave system with what I think was a lava river below you. This level needed absolute concentration due to the flying foes, exploding ceiling bugs, electrical currents and finally the BOSS, an R-Type looking boss that gives you no room to move.
The soundtrack for this game is amazing with its pipe flute tech sound. It gave an eerie yet powerful feel to the game, which made it feel like a blockbuster movie.
I had played many games prior to its release but this one title alone is responsible for my gaming addiction I have 19 years later. It impressed my so much when I first saw a broken bootleg copy on the C64 that I bugged my Dad for an Amiga just so I could get the full version, a couple of grand later he hands me my first pc with Shadow of the Beast.
This game is so good, I’d love to see a revamped version on Xbox Live Arcade.
