Shadow of the Beast 2: WORST GAME EVER!

[Crush Crawfish]

Well, I recently got the genesis "Game" shadow of the beast 2 for free as part of gamestop's buy two get one free sale. I picked it up, thinking it had a cool name, and knowing absolutely nothing about it. Thank god I didn't pay for it! It seems to consist of an anorexic man in a loincloth, running around, pitifully attempting to slap a bunch of other guys in loincloths, except these guys have clubs. I played for a minute or two, and got the impression that this was some kinda cho aniki game.... Just warning everyone, do not buy this piece of trash unless you are trying to complete a genny collection. Just ranting a bit! LOL

[robotriot]

Heh, yea, I never liked the Amiga original gameplay-wise either, but the graphics were quite good when it was new ... plus the boxcover rules, thanks to Roger Dean ^^

[Graham Mitchell]

The first one isn't all that bad. It's quite hard, but it's not terrible. The sequel I played once on the emulator and yarrrfff.

Did anybody notice that those 16-bit psygnosis games all have this really distinct artistic style? Sort of a gothic/biologically-decorated horror style (even ballistix, the freaking puzzle game had skulls and deformed humanoids everywhere.) Sometimes it's really cool...other times it's completely insane. They did the Bram Stoker's Dracula games (all terrible, even Sega CD) and all the characters are really huge and peculiarly animated.

Psygnosis is a strange company to me because a lot of their PC (and I guess Amiga, although I never played one) games were really cool (Leander was kind of cool, for example. Okay, Microcosm bit...) but their console games were just crud...until Sony bought them (Wipeout, anyone?)

[le geek]

Yeah,
I played Beast 2 on my Amiga when it came out. It was pretty but not as pretty as the first one. They tried to add more puzzle elements to the game with mixed results and it was near impossible without the TEN PINTS cheat. I did beat it though with the cheat, and it had an "awesome" intro animation. Having seen the Genesis version of the first Beast, I imagine the second one is one to avoid like you said.

Psygnosis on the Amiga/Atari ST/PC had a great run of games that didn't translate well on consoles for some reason (Lemmings being at least one exception). I would guess that part of what made the Psygnosis games cool at the time was the excellent graphics and music in the games, which even if translated well got muddy on on a TeeVee versus a nice RGB monitor.

Ben

[Ed Oscuro]

Hmm, Psygnosis, oh how I have a love/hate that brand! The Lost Vikings = classic for the ages [edit - this is true except it is not a Psyg. game, thanks Ben]. There was a really odd game "Apocalypse" which exists in source code form (and a compiled version which works on emulators!) ...it didn't seem much like a game. Imagine Asteroids, but with planets instead of asteroids (like Gradius perhaps). Odd, odd title; apparently it was supposed to get released. I think Psygnosis at the time tried to stick with oldschool gameplay in their action games (puzzlers were good though, as noted!), and as such most of their action games seem quite antiquated.

[Raedon]

Shadow of the Beast is considered one of the hardest platformers ever created.

That being said, Shadow of the Beast was more a technology demo for the Amiga Computer (it really is one of the most impressive 16 bit games out there to look at and HEAR.. period.) It sold more Amiga's then the bouncing checkered ball or Juggler that's for sure. The game is, however, impossible to beat even if you cheat (I have tried many many many times.)

Shadow of the Beast 2 is a GREAT game on the Amiga. Well balanced and just as amazing to watch and hear as the first one only now it had more RPG'ish like events.. well.. maybe more cause and effect type events. (TEN PINTS)

Both these games suck on eveything else they touched so please don't generalize.


Also SotB 2 is solvable without cheating I have seen it done, Anyone who says they have solved SotB 1 is lying.

[BenT]

I didn't know Psygnosis had anything to do with Lost Vikings. That was made by Blizzard, no?

[Daniel Thomas]

I always dug Psygnosis just because everything they made was so damn stylish. Both Shadow of the Beast games seem terribly overrated to me, but that's largely based on the console versions. I'm sure the Amiga versions were pretty good. The games themselves were just too damned hard to be worth my trouble, despite the impressive graphics.

[Vroomfunkel]

How can you possibly say that Pysgnosis console games sucked, when there are such classics as "Wiz & Liz - Frantic Wabbit Wescue" sitting there begging for acknowledgement??

Vroomfunkel

[zmweasel]

Also SotB 2 is solvable without cheating I have seen it done, Anyone who says they have solved SotB 1 is lying.

I "solved" the Amiga version, and I ain't lying. It took me a LONG time, and I "cheated" by writing down the attack patterns of the final area, but I finished that mutha. (Then again, I was writing strategy guides at the time, so it was kinda my "job" to finish games.)

-- Z.

[Ed Oscuro]

I didn't know Psygnosis had anything to do with Lost Vikings. That was made by Blizzard, no?
*is embarrassed*

Gee, I only played the GBA demo at Blizzard's site a few months ago...*shakes head*

[Arqueologia_Digital]

C´mon, shadow of the beast 2 is not the worst game, if you can believe me, look for Cheetahmen 2 (NES), Adventures of Tom Sawyer (NES), Great volley (SMS), etc...