Lionheart
| Developer: Thalion | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Thalion | Sound: |
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| Year: 1993 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Action-platformer | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
7/10 | |
A nasty, ugly sorcerer stole a sacred crystal and turned the hero’s sweet, beautiful girlfriend into stone. Enter Valdyn, a lion-man as flexible as a frozen log.
Oh wow, that’s beautiful… And everything’s been said.
Apologies for the jaded tone, but after Shadow of the Beast, Unreal, Wrath of the Demon, Leander, and a few others, I’m finding it harder and harder to enjoy a game purely for its scenery. So I stand by it: they just didn’t know how to make hack and slash games on the Amiga.
This time, it’s all about helping Valdyn, the muscular lion-log-man, who reminds me of Courtemanche as a weightlifter, get through fantastical levels by swinging his sword around. The controls are stiff, and the gameplay mechanics are outdated (apart from the usual spikes and a few moving platforms, don’t expect anything sophisticated). So yes, it’s beautiful (special mention to the final boss, when he transforms), but sluggish, and lacking originality. To top it off: no passwords, no save game. The two-button joystick is supported, c’est déjà ça…
Shortly after, one of my favorite games on the Super Nintendo would come out: Actraiser 2, maybe not the best example of “fluid” controls, but to me, it shows the superiority of the console in this genre, both in terms of gameplay enjoyment and technical execution. See, Amiga player, what a real hack and slash looks like!
And to end on a note of good faith, if Lionheart had been in my floppy disk drawer when I was younger, my review would’ve likely been very different.
When life gives you no thrush, you eat a blackbird!
Note: Not common for the time: two endings, depending on whether you manage or fail to rescue your damsel.
Its arcade ancestor is called Rastan Saga (1987).
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