The Commodore 64 conversion of Shadow of the Beast was developed by DMA Design and published by Ocean Software in 1990. And it’s a reasonably good port of the scrolling fighting game, with decent graphics and atmospheric music.

The full screen parallax scrolling sections (ie. the exteriors) look great, but unfortunately the interiors only use two thirds of the screen (and no parallax), which is a little disappointing. Levels are also broken down into multi-load sections (much more than in the original), and the layouts are also slightly different, but in general the gameplay is the same throughout.

The music – by Sonic Graffiti – is generally excellent. It’s arguably better than David Whittaker‘s original Amiga soundtrack (which I admit I’m not a big fan of).

That said, playing the C64 version of Shadow of the Beast is a bit frustrating, mostly because it seems easier to miss punches and enemies run at you very quickly so the reaction times needed are split-second. The game also seems somewhat sparse at times, and boss battles are trickier and less impressive than in the original. Shadow of the Beast is well-presented, though, and the impressive exterior scenes do elevate it above the norm. It’s a pity that the interior levels don’t use the full screen and aren’t quite as impressive, and the Aarbron sprite is a little plain, but these don’t hurt the game too much.

More: Shadow of the Beast on Wikipedia
More: Shadow of the Beast on CSDb