Lionheart:the most wronged Amiga game ever

[CCCP alert]

Originally Posted by mc68060

True but I think Lionheart doesn't look very OCSish due to clever use of palettes and the copper. If you compare it to Aladdin, for example, which is an AGA game and has 64 colors but still I think Lionheart looks better and it's not even AGA.

Shadow of the Beast 1 intro/above ground start level is even more amazing, I just meant if people had just bought an A1200 they might want an actual 256 colour game for their machine. Beast 1 starting level and Lionheart are graphically more impressive than pretty much every '256' colour game I agree.

Like I said it doesn't really explain the problem as loads of 1993 OCS games sold much better anyway.

[paul1981]

Originally Posted by CCCP alert

Shadow of the Beast 1 intro/above ground start level is even more amazing, I just meant if people had just bought an A1200 they might want an actual 256 colour game for their machine. Beast 1 starting level and Lionheart are graphically more impressive than pretty much every '256' colour game I agree.

Like I said it doesn't really explain the problem as loads of 1993 OCS games sold much better anyway.

Maybe the magazine review scores were too low. If they were closer to 100%, then maybe there'd have been more sales. I think it deserves close to 100%.

[Megalomaniac]

It averaged 87% according to LemonAmiga - even Amiga Action's 82% review had some pretty enthusiastic text (https://amr.abime.net/review_49474). The month it charted at number 22 in the UK it was behind B-17 Flying Fortress and Premier Manager, which both averaged 80%ish according to Lemon, and AV-8B Harrier Assault which averaged 57% - all already on sale for a few months longer.

Sadly, much as we may have played them then, and much as we adore them now, non-consolesque action games just weren't what Amiga owners were actually buying in 1993 - nothing else in this (mid-year) monthly chart fits that definition, except maybe Sleepwalker which was for charity (https://archive.org/details/AmigaFor...e/n23/mode/2up)

[sokolovic]

UK magazine seems to had a little tendency to underscore non UK games. That's the only explaination I have for Lionheart or Mr Nutz UK magazines reviews scores while James Pond 3 which an absolut scandal on the Amiga was praised.

[lmimmfn]

I remember back in the day, I read reviews of Lionheart and it looked good but for me it was just another platformer.
Generally unless there was a coverdisc demo I wouldn't be interested in another platformer, did any mag have a coverdisc demo,

[TCD]

Originally Posted by lmimmfn

did any mag have a coverdisc demo,

Yep, The One November 1992: https://amr.abime.net/issue_333_coverdisks

[dreadnought]

Originally Posted by sokolovic

UK magazine seems to had a little tendency to underscore non UK games. That's the only explaination I have for Lionheart or Mr Nutz UK magazines reviews scores while James Pond 3 which an absolut scandal on the Amiga was praised.

There's a much simpler explanation: these games are in no way 10/10s, and the mostly over 80% scores for Lionheart are actually pretty fair.


Of course, the hardcore fans of this game (well, any game) will settle for nothing less then a perfect score but this really does not reflect the reality. Lionheart is technically a marvel but when it comes to gameplay it's merely solid - really nothing special, with some awkward design decisions thrown into the mix (still much better than the 1st Beast though).


This is why people have generally-positive-but-also-mixed opinions on it, not only now but also in 2004 - just look at the first page of this thread. So, I'm not sure why anyway would say this game was "wronged", when nobody really did that (even OP changed the wording in a later post).

[CCCP alert]

Could it be a distribution problem?

OutRun (8bit formats) only sold so well despite being basically a cack-handed rush job because that little pipskweek who owned US Gold made sure there was 200,000 copies all across the country in retail outlets. It was a record breaking strategy but US Gold were part of Centresoft's origins and they were part of the first wholesale distributors of computers games, possibly with the original Imagine IIRC.

If it's not on the shelves to buy then people can't buy it. I can't imagine it's the 'arcade difficulty' style of gameplay that held it back.

[Megalomaniac]

I doubt it was down to distribution - A320 Airbus reached number 2 in the Amiga Format chart a year earlier, with presumably the same distribution. Blue Byte, Grandslam, Krisalis and Domark all had games above Lionheart in that month's chart, and they weren't big companies. OutRun (and Turtles / WWF / C64 Afterburner / Amiga Chase HQ etc) sold at Christmases despite being poor because they were the big-name conversions and licenses that kids asked their parents for, without necessarily waiting for or noticing reviews. I still think Lionheart just wasn't the style of game that was wanted by people who were buying (as opposed to merely playing) Amiga games by then. Hence an A320 Airbus 2 but no Lionheart 2. As for the review scores, at least Amiga Power only gave James Pond 3 46% (and Amiga Format preferred Mr Nutz as well).

[TCD]

Originally Posted by sokolovic

UK magazine seems to had a little tendency to underscore non UK games. That's the only explaination I have for Lionheart or Mr Nutz UK magazines reviews scores while James Pond 3 which an absolut scandal on the Amiga was praised.

CU Amiga and The One gave James Pond 3 90+% ratings, but otherwise James Pond 3 got lower scores than Lionheart in the UK.