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
  • Valdyn's sprite design and movements are "wimpy"
  • "Cat people"
  • Reminds me of ThunderCats of 1985, not Robert E. Howard's Conan of 1932
  • Scene composition is too samey
  • The story is generic and the writing is not noteworthy
  • The graphics are technically well-drawn and -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 good game. I give it 8/10. But that score is based mostly on its control system, which is superior to most other games of its kind on the Amiga.

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