Overview
Shadow of the Beast is a platform game published by Psygnosis, originally for the Amiga, but later ported to many other systems. It is most notable for its graphics, which were extremely good for the time. The ugly cover art was painted by famous artist Roger Dean.
Shadow of the Beast was graphically impressive for it is time and received generally positive reviews, the main criticism of the title was it is brutally high level of difficulty and lack of any form of continues.
The story is that the protagonist ( Aarbron) has been kidnapped by an evil wizard and transformed into a man-beast servant to do his bidding. When the protagonist sees his father killed by the evil wizard his memory returns and he sets off on a quest for revenge.
Gameplay is a combination of platform, combat and puzzle, with the main character able to run, jump, punch and kick.
Shadow of the Beast spawned two sequels, Shadow of the Beast II, which was ported to many systems, and Shadow of the Beast 3: Out of the Shadow, which remained an Amiga exclusive though development on a Sega Genesis port was started but not finished. The sequels didn't improve on the criticisms of the original and in some respects were considered even more difficult to complete - as puzzles would not reset, forcing a player who had made a mistake in a puzzle to restart the entire game.
Overview~ (Lynx version)
Long ago, the Beast Lord conquered the world and banished all light. A mysterious child was born into this darkness. The Beast Lord's warrior priests knew of the birth and warned the evil king that his child would someday destroy the Beast Lord and return light to the world. In terror, the Beast Lord ordered the child captured and transformed him into a demon of darkness. But when he reached maturity, the demon learned the truth of his past and set out to destroy the Beast Lord and all his wicked minions. To succeed, the demon must go deep within the Beast Lord's kingdom, into the very shadow of the Beast!
~Passage from the manual.
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