AmigaOverview
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 high quality for the time. The cover art was painted by famous artist Roger Dean. While it 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.
