Short of International Karate +’s ‘trouser-
dropping’ antics, is there an Amiga cheat more
widely circulated than this one? Head right, talk
to the tribe leader, and ask him about ‘Ten pints’.
He’ll activate the infinite health cheat, and you
might – just might – stand half a chance.CLASSIC MOMENT
An animated intro swallows up the entire first
disk; it shows a mysterious winged demon
swoop down onto a hut and snatch away
Aarbron’s sister. With that, you’re dropped
into the badlands of Karamoon, and are left
to figure things out for yourself. The graphics
were stunning for their time.
CLASSIC INTRO
T
his puzzle-platformer was
the ultimate example of style
over substance. (As was its
1989 predecessor, come to
think of it.) It came packaged in a big,
extravagant box adorned with custom
artwork from the fantasy landscape
illustrator, Roger Dean, and it sold itself
on its beautiful graphics, slick scrolling
and haunting soundtrack. But as soon
as the game proper began, things
swiftly turned ugly.
Simply put, this was one of the
toughest games ever committed to
disk. Aarbron, our half-man, half-beast
hero, was also half-dead right out
of the blocks; he entered the world
of Karamoon with only a tiny vial of
health, health the locals would delight
in depleting at an incredible pace. And of
course, you only got one life.
But despite the punishing difficulty,
there was a tremendous sense of
discovery and adventure about Shadow
of the Beast II’s world, as the intrigue
sparked by Dean’s surreal artwork bled
through into the game itself. You might
not always have know what you were
doing, but you knew it was more than
just the luxurious graphics that were
spurring you into doing it.