gamarjoba da mivesalmebi ToriJ video
t’amashis mimokhilva. Whew, we have a big one here today. Shadow
of the Beast. And not even the good Shadow of the Beast, we're
playing the Sega Genesis version. The Genesis port was notorious for
being exceptionally bad due to increasing the default 50 Hz refresh
rate to 60, because that was the standard for all Sega Genesis games
in North America. So, the game became more difficult because it was
running 16.7% faster than intended. Blast processing!
Throw your
hands in the air, and wave them like you just don't care!
Like most 8
to 16 bit games, Shadow of the Beast starts right off. No cut-scene,
no text scroll that I know of, just right into the action with a
purple beast in blue underwear. You can punch, you can jump, and
you can perform a flying kick while in the air, and that's it. The
health bar is basically the number twelve that goes down with each
hit you take, and every hit you give back you score points. When
your health goes down to zero you start back at the beginning and
there are no continues. Because we wouldn't want to make the game
fair or anything.
Enemies are
going to be coming at you faster than the speed of light. There will
be nothing one second and then in the next you'll be hit by an
enemy. You need to have the perfect memorization and reflexes to
make it anywhere on this game, which can pretty much be said for
every game in the 16 bit era. Only those games gave you ample time
to react, here it's like the Weeping Angels, if you so much as blink
you're going to find yourself in the middle of the wilderness,
wondering why they didn't just kill you. You can duck, but the
ducking isn't very good.
This is as
far down as you can go. I still got hit by a fireball in this
position. Would it had killed them to allow you to duck a little bit
lower?
Believe it
or not, the game actually does have a story. The purple guy in the
loincloth name is Aarbron. He was abducted at a young age by
the evil beast lord, Maletoth, turning him purple. But one fateful
day, Aarbron remembers that he didn't used to always be purple, and
upon learning that Lord Maletoth executed his own father before his
very eyes, Aarbron sets out to avenge his father's death and slay
the beast lord once and for all! I would be happy to avenge him too,
if I knew where the hell I was supposed to go! Anyone who has played
a lot of 2D side scroller games will know that right is your go to
direction, and left just leads to a dead end. Some games lets you go
left, and this is one of those games. With a little exploring you can
find a well, and your home. The well requires a key to open whereas
your home seems to be filled with monsters trying to kill you! Not
very roomy.
I don't know
about this. The last time I went down the bottom of a well in a game
it went badly.
This is
about as close as the game comes to a cut-scene, an image and then a
text scroll underneath it. This happens with both the well and when
you enter your house. Didn't I already play a game that tried to get
me to read? Funny how the game with less amount of text manages to
be more boring with it than the game that threw it at you around
every corner.
There are a
lot of different enemies throughout the course of the game, and
they'll come at you from either side of the screen. Some times it
won't even be enemies, it will just be rocks, like someone is just
standing off screen throwing rocks at you. We have eye balls that
vanish and then reappear causing damage if you stand too close to
them. You got to get the pattern down exactly to get past them. Take
so much as a wrong turn in this game and you'll find yourself
between a rock and a hard place.
I knew I should have taken that left turn at
Albuquerque.
Where did
that statue come from?! It wasn't there before. Look how big that
enemy is, there's no way you're getting past that thing. You can
punch it, but a lot of good that's going to do you when it can kill
you in one hit. This game doesn't screw around, it knows you want to
win, it knows you actually wants to make progress, and it's going to
take every opportunity it can to give you the middle finger! “Try
to get past this challenge, asshole! You came to the wrong cave!”
I never thought I'd say this, but I think I'd rather play Dark Souls.
Not long
before you meet the skeleton of death you can punch these little
green bugs over and over again with no end in sight unless you punch
them and proceed right until they just vanish. Where were they?
Hanging out with the guys throwing rocks off screen?
For a game
that came out in the early 1990's, the graphics are superb and I love
the artwork. All the enemies are pretty creative and not something
you'll soon forget. Even Aarbron's design is pretty neat if you can
get past the hideous looking loincloth.
I just can't.
The music
is pretty enjoyable to listen to as well. There aren't many tracks in
the game, but it's one of the few times I don't mind listening to
the same song repeatedly, it's actually pretty catchy.
There isn't
much else to say, Shadow of the Beast is a good game that didn't have
much luck being ported to the Sega Genesis. If you want to play it
you're probably better off getting it for the Commodore Amiga, or
finding the European or Japanese version of the Sega Mega Drive. If
you're one of those hardcore gamers who enjoy playing games that are
nearly impossible, then go ahead. Try your luck. Only a few people
who came across this game has managed to complete it.
Merry
Christmas.
Try it
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