shadow of the beast

ah, nostaligia and the internet are a dangerous cocktail. i was remembering a game from my amiga days -- shadow of the beast. this was perhaps one of the hardest games of all time, but was revolutionary for its time, with an outstanding soundtrack, and really slick parallax scrolling. the gist of the game is pretty brutal:

"The game's story is about a man named Aarbron who was kidnapped as a child and corrupted through magic into a monstrous warrior-servant for the evil beast lord Maletoth. The creature's memory of his human life returns when he watches a man which he later recognizes as his father, being executed. This prompts him to seek revenge."

i remember being crap at this game, and i certainly never completed it. i remember a certain someone i know (i'll mention no names here to save any embarrassment) being terrified of the harrowing death scene. it was long and drawn out -- first the beast crumbles to bones and dust with an agonising cry, then you are treated to several minutes of morose music playing while the scene pans over some surreal landscape where we see the shattered body of the beast.

here is some trivia from wikipedia:

The Sega Genesis port is considered to be one of the hardest videogames of all time. Some believe it is impossible to play without cheating but others have completed the game without such methods. Gamers struggled to finish it after its release, but due to the incredibly high difficulty level very few achieved this goal until Sega revealed the invincibility cheat in January 1992.

Graphics from Shadow of the Beast and Shadow of the Beast II were each incorporated in two special levels in the original Lemmings game, titled respectively "A Beast of a Level" and "A BeastII of a Level".