Shadow of the Beast, PS4 review: One for the gamers seeking nostalgia

If you owned an Amiga in the early Nineties, the original Shadow of the Beast was the game you showed off to envious friends.

With incredible prog-rock style graphics and parallax scrolling, it was the pinnacle of 16-bit style. It was also brutally hard, and frankly, not much fun, so you'd gawp at it for a bit, then get back to your Pogs or Top Trumps. The 2016 iteration looks to pay homage to past versions and improve for a modern audience.

A bloody and brutal side-scrolling brawler, Shadow of the Beast has surprisingly deep combat mechanics, with a host of special moves and combos available.

It's also possible to simply button mash your way to the end with no finesse, but doing so will only give you half the experience, and you'll miss out on all the unlocks for additional content, which are tied to point bonuses and multipliers.

The game is just as much of a looker as the original was. It nails that Yes cover art aesthetic, creating an alien world that is both beautiful and truly foreign. It's this that will keep you pushing on to the end more than anything else, as you’ll want to see what weirdness lies ahead.

This is a slight game on the surface, with a playthrough taking around three hours on normal difficulty. Perfecting your runs will take much longer, especially if you want to unlock everything. For most people, though, one playthrough will probably be enough to satisfy.

Shadow of the Beast is a game that will more than please fans of the original, and mechanically it’s much more enjoyable this time around. Newcomers won’t be quite as taken, but it’s still a decent experience for fans of the genre. The original game is also included, this time round with the option of unlimited lives, giving mediocre gamers everywhere the chance to finally get beyond the first level.