Super Shadow of the Beast (Prototype)
Platform: Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Region: Prototype (USA)
Media: Cartridge
Controller: Gamepad
Genre: Adventure, Side-Scrolling
Gametype: Prototype
Release Year: 1992
Developer: Psygnosis
Publisher: IGS
Players: 1
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"Ugh..."

There are no two ways around this fact: This game sucks. Period.

Shadow of the Beast is a platform shooter (more platform than shoot, though) for the SNES released in 1992 by Psygnosis. The Psygnosis name got me to try it, but it didn't keep me around for long.

The title screen is fairly cool. It mixes Gangsta Graffiti style text with some sort of ancient Egyptian... glyphical... things. It looks nice, but it has nothing to do with the game itself, as far as I can see.

See, you're actually a demon. Well, in the continue screen (which you'll see a lot), you look like one. In the gameplay, you look like a bluish gray hunchbacked critter that may or may not be a duck with his bill on backwards.

The game's graphics are excellent. Definitely a cut above, considering that it was only released in 1992. Characters are well animated when they walk around, punch you, kick you, shoot you, kill you, and when you die. However, it seems Psygnosis got a bit lazy, as most of the enemies die simply by falling off of the screen Koopa-style. They also fall off the screen if you dive down a ladder while they're attacking you, which makes for some comical escapades when a half dozen bats rain down every time you go up or down a level in a dungeon.

However, these animations make for a handicap. There's about a half-second delay when you try to turn around before you can start running. Most enemies are just as fast as you (some are faster), so if you have to turn around to get some breathing room, you're already dead. Your jumping power is tantalizingly weak, and usually leaves you a pixel short of where you want to jump to, forcing you instead to spend thirty minutes going in a wide circle and fighting five or six nearly unbeatable bosses in the interim.

Although most enemies die in one shot (be it a punch, a kick, or whatever), some of them are insane. For example, there are lots of bats in trees in the game. The bats sit in trees until you're under them, then all fifty of them fly around in bizarre acrobatic circles. You cannot get past them without getting hit, because they literally come down in waves that leave the only passable gap tantalizingly outside of your (very weak) jumping power.

These bats seem to be physically impervious to all forms of damage. Punch them, they hurt you. Kick them, they hurt you. So you go find your gun - it looks like an interesting crossbreed between an alien death ray and a roll of paper towels - and come back. Lo and behold, you can shoot them all day and only kill a few. Not that your gun can shoot all day. See, there's a number after the picture of the gun on the screen, but that number doesn't change as you fire. When your ammo runs out for no apparent reason, you can't help but ask yourself what that number means. You also can't switch back to your punch attack once you get the gun, so you can't save ammo for real fights.

These bats really got to me. Let me explain the video game monster hierarchy to you here: Demon beats Bat. Even if that demon is a blue demon who thinks he's a duck and the bat is really big (which the bats in this game aren't; they're normal, bite-sized bats), demon always beats bat. The fact that the demon has an alien death ray pretty much seals the deal. That's just the way the world works. In fact, bats are the at the bottom level of the video game food chain, along with rabbits and houseplants.

As you progress through the game, you gain powers by beating strong enemies, then lose and regain them for no apparent reason for the duration. After defeating one boss, I found I could hurl electric death from my hands, and actually kill those stupid bats for a while. However, just as I needed that electric death, I had my gun back for some reason. When it ran out of ammo, I didn't have my electric attack anymore. When I went through a door, I could suddenly shoot little tornado-like objects.

The best part of the game has to be the Continue screen. It emphasizes all the things the game does, right and wrong. Every time you die, you see the most beautifully rendered screen in the game: Your broken demon (you actually look like a demon here) body, with the Shadow of what I suppose is the titular Beast passing over you. I never got to see the Beast, but his Shadow looks somewhat like a pterodactyl-ish dinosaur. For all I know, it could just be one of those invincible bats.

The continue screen also has the string ''CONTINUE: 9'' on it. What does the 9 mean? Nothing. It's not a countdown, because it doesn't count down. It's not how many continues you have, because you actully have around 5.

The game just isn't fun. If you really want to play a demon, pick up a game like Demon Crest. It's actually fun. Shadow of the Beast has great graphics, but gameplay is crippled by controls that feel like you're in full-body cast and downright lousy design. Too many oversights (the non-functional ammo counter, the mysterious 9 on the Continue screen), and too many no-win situations. Nothing in the game can be called interesting or compelling by any measure of the words.

Nothing I can say about this game will adequately capture just how bad this game sucks. I would only recomend you play this game only if you want to fully understand how not fun it is.

To make matters worse, the SNES cartridges just don't make good paperweights or doorstops. Super Shadow of the Beast has no reason for existence.

If you see this game cheap, it costs too much. If you see this game free, it's not worth it. If it's free and comes with candy, use your own judgment, but that better be pretty good candy.

Reviewer's Score: 1/10, Originally Posted: 04/18/04

Reviewer: ArchDuke
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/snes/review/R72116.html
