Gaming History 101

Editor’s Note: We have a copy of Shadow of the Beast on PS4 and Fred is currently playing through it.  A full review will go live Monday.

The remake of Shadow of the Beast on PS4 has arrived and is out now on PSN – and for those of you tangible collectors, there is a region free, English, disc based version you can find at import retailers. Recently the developers revealed you’ll be able to unlock the original Amiga port during the game. This isn’t an uncommon thing with a lot of these retro revival type games. Other titles in recent history that did this included Splatterhouse and Flashback on Xbox 360 and PS3 (Flashback is also on PC), all of which allowed you to play the original game.  Splatterhouse allowed you to play all three of the original titles in the series making this title highly collectible to this day, especially since it’s cheaper to track down the remake as opposed to owning all of the original titles physically. Let’s also not forget the original game was an arcade and TurboGrafx-16 game with the second two sequels being exclusive to the Mega Drive. It’s somewhat surprising only the first Shadow of the Beast game will be unlocked, unless maybe developer Heavy Spectrum is planning to release the others with sequels to this remake, I guess we will see. All three original Shadow of the Beast games were released on Amiga but the first two games in the series were ported to various consoles.

Very little has been covered on this title since its original reveal over a year ago and then it suddenly was released on the world this week. Originally demoed at EGX 2015 and with only being showed off on a single game unit, I wasn’t particularly impressed with what I’d played then. The game came across as a 2D hack-and-slash with excessive waves of enemies. It seemed to lack the unique exploration and the convoluted puzzles that were present from the original. Of course a lot can change in that tim,e and maybe it has. I don’t doubt this will be more accessible to a modern audience but it just feels a chance was wasted here. Since the remake is coming with the original Amiga port, however, I think I might have to give this one another shot.