Shadow of the Beast for the Sega Master System was developed by TecMagik and published by Psygnosis in 1992, and this port has some differences to the Amiga original – arguably to its detriment.

The biggest issue I have with the game is Aarbron‘s punching, which is a fraction too slow, making it easy to miss and lose energy, which can be very frustrating. Many hazards and enemies enter the screen extremely quickly and the only real way to deal with them, without losing precious health, is to know what’s coming up and to react accordingly.

Other differences to the original Shadow of the Beast may also cause frustration. At least to those who know this game well. The level layouts are slightly different, and some of the ‘puzzles’ have been changed. For example: in the opening level you have to find and use a key on the door that says “home” before you can enter it, which is not the case in the original or other ports, and which will probably cause confusion if you’ve played the original. You must also enter your inventory and ‘use’ certain items before they can actually be used in the game, which is different to most other versions.

The graphics are pretty good, but the famous Shadow of the Beast parallax scrolling isn’t included in this port. The boss battles are weak, and you can easily get stuck if you progress too far without finding all the items you need, but that’s the case in all versions of Shadow of the Beast. The music in this port is excellent, though.

Overall, Shadow of the Beast on the Master System is an okay conversion. It’s playable enough, but could’ve been better.

More: Shadow of the Beast on Wikipedia