Search String

Lionheart Amiga 1993 Thalion Software


Lionheart Amiga 1993



Thalion Software of Germany released Lionheart for the Amiga in 1993. Lionheart is a hack and slash swords and sorcery platform game notable for its precise controls, pixel art and 8-layer parallax scrolling.

Lionheart was designed by Erik Simon, written by Jurie Horneman and programmed by Erwin Kloibhofer and Michael Bittner. Lionheart graphics were drawn and animated by Henk Nieborg. Lionheart audio was composed by Matthias Steinwachs.

In assuming the role of Valdyn the object of Lionheart is to recover the ancient Lionheart jewel that was stolen by the evil wizard, Norka. In addition, Valdyn can save Ilene from petrification by recovering an amulet. 

Lionheart consists of 14 levels of platforming action. The main levels consists of swamp, city, volcanic wasteland, airship and citadel. There are two auto-scrolling segments. In the first, Valdyn is mounted upon a bipedal dinosaur as he begins his assault on the Norka airship. In the second, Valdyn is mounted upon a fire-breathing dragon as he approaches the flying citadel of Norka. In these two segments Valdyn can dismount at key moments.

Lionheart levels are not timed, and no score is kept. Players explore the levels and battle Norka's forces in search of the exit or end-of-level boss, of which there are five. In addition, Lionheat culminates in a two-phase final boss battle. 

During exploration the player collects crystals and finds secrets, potion-phials, 1-ups and sword upgrades. For every 100 crystals collected a heart is added to Valdyn's health.

Level layout, encounter design and itemization differ with the difficulty setting chosen, thereby increasing the longevity of Lionheart ("three games in one"). Level hazards include spikes, rising water, lava, projectiles, intermittent platforms, magical beams, swinging ball and chain, falling objects, lava fountains etc.

At the end of the day the prime virtues of Lionheart are not its audiovisuals and presentation, but rather the precision and variation of its controls.

Valdyn can move left and right, crouch, jump diagonally upward, grip and hang on ledges and vines, vault up onto ledges and vines and move hand-over-hand while hanging on vines. He can also swing some platforms with his weight and slide down slopes.

A balancing animation indicates that Valdyn is standing right on the edge of a ledge or precipice. Valdyn cannot swim because he is feline in nature; he must keep his head above water.

Valdyn's sword is upgradeable in three tiers, the third of which is enflamed. The upgrades relate only to damage, not to reach or attack rate. Valdyn can thrust his sword horizontally as well as diagonally upwards and directly downwards. Valdyn can also jump-attack, sweep-kick and execute a 180° spinning strike. Valdyn can swing his sword while gripping vines and ledges. 

Lionheart features a 280x208 active drawspace. Via copper and raster effects Lionheart effectively displays over 600 on-screen colors. Lionheart is not an AGA game, but it looks like one.

Lionheart requires an Amiga with 512K of RAM, was distributed on 4x 3.5" 880kB DD diskettes and installs to hard disk drive via hd-install.

Criticism of Lionheart


  • No timing of levels or scoring kept (lack of competition).
  • Valdyn's sprite design and movements are "wimpy", not warrior-like.
  • Valdyn's weapon is too small and doesn't swing in big, wide arcs.
  • Valdyn's attacks lack impact and satisfying on-impact sounds.
  • "Cat people": Reminds me of ThunderCats of 1985, not Robert E. Howard's Conan of 1932.
  • Scene composition is too samey: too lush and rich, not raw and gritty.
  • The story is generic and the writing is not noteworthy.
  • The graphics are technically well-drawn and smoothly-animated but lack artistic flair.
  • The music is not memorable and the sound effects lack punch.
  • If not installed to HDD diskettes need to be swapped often; sometimes, just before bosses.

Lionheart is still a great game. 8 out of 10 is a high score for my commentary, but that score is based mostly on Lionheart's complex and accurate control system that facilitates good gameplay, not its audiovisuals, story or presentation.

On a technical level Lionheart is of the highest order, but its design and execution lacks flair and boldness. As such, it's just not "The Lion" of a game that it could have been. Lionheart could have been a medieval-fantasy Turrican with melee mechanics, but it wasn't.

Lionheart came out eight years after the Amiga 1000 was released. 1993 was the tail-end of the Amiga's life-cycle as a computer game machine. Thus, Lionheart is awarded technical points on an absolute not relative level. Controls and gameplay aside, Shadow of the Beast of 1989-92 and Unreal of 1990 were technically more impressive relative to their release dates. And their art and music is simply better -- objectively better. Lionheart is a much better game than both of those but it lacks their flair and impact. In addition, Gods of 1990 is a better platform game than Lionheart even though Gods does not take advantage of the Amiga's exclusive hardware capacities and Lionheart exhibits Amiga hardware mastery.

Indexes:


Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)