Is Shadow Of The Beast on the Amiga a game or a tech demo?

I think it’s both! But it was way better at one of those than it was at the other… It also found its way from the more-than-capable Amiga to the less-capable 8-bit machines, during a time when the direction of ports was reversing.

Previously, 8-bit games got jazzed up and pushed out on the 16-bits; later, 16-bit marvels got their wings clipped and were squeezed into the older machines…

So, how did they do? Well, I played 'em all, so you don’t have to…

The Amiga port of Shadow of the Beast

There’s no question, Shadow of the Beast on the Amiga is a technical delight. It looks great, with smooth graphics, eerily designed levels and atmospheric cut-scenes. The audio is even better, with some of the best early-Amiga music, full of pan-pipes and dreamy synth.

But for all it looks and sounds amazing, it’s not a great game.

A side-scrolling “platformer” with confusing level design, lazy placement of monsters, horrendous difficulty and clunky controls, it comes across as frustrating… As much for the missed opportunity as anything.

The C64 port of Shadow of the Beast

The C64 port feels like the worst of a bad bunch, but not by much.

It’s blocky and drab, with indistinct graphics and has the same annoying level design of the Amiga, but manages to compound this by going crazy with extra enemy placement. The result is that it feels too hectic and all over the place.

That said, the music is easily the best of the 8-bit bunch, with a marvellous take on the Amiga theme.

The Amstrad port of Shadow of the Beast

The Amstrad port shares a lot of DNA with the Spectrum port, being developed by the same company.

It’s still the same old clunky Shadow of the Beast, but this time with the added agony of an extremely questionable colour palette choices.

From the moody, earthy hues of the Amiga original to… checks notes green, blue and yellow. It calms down a bit when you’re indoors, but it’s hard to get past that opening vista.

Sound is… okay.

The Spectrum port of Shadow of the Beast

On to the Spectrum and… well, listen: This game is a technical showcase on the Amiga. So it was never going to be massively impressive on our feeble rubber-keyed chum. In fact, it’s a miracle it runs at all.

That said…

If I called out the Amstrad for colour choice, surely the Spectrum should be similarly criticised? Well, sure, but somehow it works here. The monochrome is expected and garish, but the graphics are clear and it controls pretty much okay. 128k sound is good too.

But it’s still Shadow of the Beast, no matter how miraculous the existence of this port is.

So, on the 8-bit micros at least, a narrow Speccy win! But it’s a Phyrric victory at best.

The console ports of Shadow of the Beast

Shadow of the Beast also found its way to those fancy consoles that only the posh kids owned…

The Master System gets an okay port with various QoL improvements (continues) and some gameplay tweaks, which improve it somewhat.

The MegaDrive port is slick and sounds great, but it runs too fast and is hard as balls.

The PCEngine CD version is probably the best of the bunch. Like the MS, it has continues, and the CD music is truly awesome!

Honourable mention to the Atari Lynx, with its unexpected port. Colourful, controls okay… but hey, it’s still Shadow of the Beast.