The Atari Lynx port of Shadow of the Beast was developed by Digital Developments and first published by Psygnosis in 1992. And it is surprisingly good.

The graphics in this Lynx conversion are excellent, especially the parallax scrolling, and there are some significant changes to the gameplay as well.

On the opening exterior level you can no longer one-punch kill the flying creatures and must avoid contact with them entirely. The interior levels also seem to have been altered significantly, with moving platforms and ropes to swing on being two major introductions to the game. The attacking monsters behave differently too. Some now fire projectiles at you which makes the game much more difficult in places.

You must also access your inventory and use items to activate them – even weapon power-ups – which is similar to the Sega Master System version. The location of the gun is different in this version and if you miss it it’ll mean you’ll get stuck later in the game, which I thought was unfair.

Another fairly major change are the boss battles. Bosses look different (arguably even better than in the original), and some also act differently, so new strategies are required to beat them.

The jetpack level is missing from this port, but all the other levels are present and correct, some with enhancements, so it’s give and take on that front.

Overall, while the Atari Lynx version of Shadow of the Beast looks great, sounds great, and plays great, it is a damn hard game and requires incredibly precise jump, duck, kick and punch timings to survive the onslaught of enemies and hazards.

More: Shadow of the Beast on Wikipedia
More: Shadow of the Beast (Atari Lynx) on YouTube