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Jabberwok
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Joined: 24 Apr 2002
Posts: 532
Location: Quebec, Canada
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 Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2002 1:58 am Post subject: Shadow of the Beast : Quality or eye candy? |
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| Quote: | | Kidnapped as a child by the evil Beast-Mages, you have been transformed into a fearsome creature of fearsome power and strength. In this guise you faithfully serve the Beast and its cohorts for many years as ther warrior-messenger. Until one day you discover an awful secret - the truth about your past... a truth that drives you wild with anger and sends you on a trail of bloody revenge against your master. Now the time has come to enter the shadow of the beast! |
With a storyline like that, what could go wrong? not much thankfully 
I remember oh so well the first time I saw pictures in an amiga magazine " 8 layers of parallax scrolling! WOW! ". Sure, this little jewel has seen many incarnations on different platforms over the years. Some good, some bad. But apart from still being in love with the amiga version, the TurboDuo version is far superior to any versions to date, although it's a little easier but then again maybe it's just me. You know a game is exceptional when the original version, made some 13 years ago still kicks some major bootay  . So how well does the TurboDuo do after 10 years you might ask? Those of you who own it, or have played it before know the answer to this trivial question : it just rules...
Those of you who never played it : unfortunately you are missing one of the milestone games who contributed to get rid of the 2d 'feel' of a 2d game. First time I saw the layers in action I couldn't believe what I was witnessing : eye candy! . You're probably thinking right now, but what about the gameplay? It's all there: level design, bosses, items to collect, enemy patterns ect. But the best aspect of this 'adaptation' is the music : simply brilliant!. It is so clear, this isn't clearly your typical video game tunes : no beeps & bops in here obviously...
So there you have it all : sights, sounds, the works. There is a small point I will scratch before I end this, by today's standards it's a little short. BUT, if you keep in mind that we are dealing with an '89 action/platformer, everything should fall in place .....
Does it show that I love this game? nah....
_________________
If you translate Pole Position in French with babelfish you get 'Position de Polonais'... I think it's hilarious... from a French point of view. |
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Kaminari
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Joined: 19 Apr 2002
Posts: 1432
Location: Paris, France
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| Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2002 2:04 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah, I too think this conversion was the best ever done. Considering it was made by Psygnosis themselves (and not Electronic Arts which was responsible for the Megadrive version), it's not that surprising.
8 layers? Damn, they were far below the truth! The Plains easily display about 15 parallax scrollings 
As for the soundtrack, Tim Wright was the composer of the PC Engine version after David Whittaker left Psygnosis. He perfectly captured the original tunes with an added bit of magnificence, which even today stands the passing of time.
One of those multi-systems conversions that just enlightened the true superiority of the NEC console. (Now let's revive these old flame wars ) |
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Jabberwok
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Joined: 24 Apr 2002
Posts: 532
Location: Quebec, Canada
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| Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2002 11:39 pm Post subject: |
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Great game eh? of course I don't play it every day BUT I have yet to grow tired of it...
| Quote: | | 8 layers? Damn, they were far below the truth! The Plains easily display about 15 parallax scrollings |
Yeah, I remember reading the article at the news stand. Maybe the version reviewed was preliminary? Since I sold all of my amiga stuff ( I know I know ) a while back I just tried it in winuae... im in love again! *place goosebumps here* on modern monitors it looks pretty sharp, & there is definitely more than 8.
The Duo version didn't dethrone the amiga version (even with better music than the original, wich is only natural because of the cd medium), but it comes a close 2nd in my book ...
_________________
If you translate Pole Position in French with babelfish you get 'Position de Polonais'... I think it's hilarious... from a French point of view. |
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ethylene
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Joined: 19 Apr 2002
Posts: 51
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| Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2002 6:20 am Post subject: |
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It's really too bad that Psygnosis/DMA Design didn't convert more of their Amiga games to the TurboGrafx. Shadow of the Beast was an excellent conversion. Lemmings worked surprisingly well, too. I wish they would have continued on and done Awesome, Leander, Killing Game Show, etc. Well, of course, it would have made no business sense.
But they did convert Ballistix. Hmm.
The TurboGrafx was a nice system, unfortunately 90% of the decent games came from Japan. Not that it's a bad thing, but I've always enjoyed the stylistic touch that European programmers tend to have. European humor is much better, too
Good to see some fellow Amiga owners in here! |
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Kaminari
Elder
Joined: 19 Apr 2002
Posts: 1432
Location: Paris, France
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| Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2002 4:06 pm Post subject: |
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| Technically speaking, Ballistix was a Ballistic (not DMA) game converted and distributed on PC Engine by Coconuts Japan. I don't think Psygnosis would have had the guts to convert it themselves |
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