Lionheart was meant to be a goodbye. Thalion, the small developer in Gütersloh that had grown out of the Atari ST demo scene, wanted to get out of action games altogether, Amiga Joker reported in January 1993, so its programmers “pulled out all the stops of their ability one more time” for a farewell (in translation). The result was a hack-and-slash platform game for the Amiga that switched graphics modes in the middle of play, filled the screen with layers of scrolling scenery, and looked, to Amiga Power, as if it “visually knocks hell out of any console or Amiga game”. The British magazines then argued in print over whether one of them had reviewed it before it was finished.
Fast facts
- Developer and publisher: Thalion, Gütersloh, Germany.
- Released: early 1993, for Amiga machines with 1MB of memory, on four disks, at £25.99.
- Programming: Erwin Kloibhofer and Michael Bittner. Graphics: Henk Nieborg. Design: Erik Simon. Music and effects: Mathias Steinwachs.
- Size: 14 levels across eight worlds, by Amiga Joker’s count, plus a harder “Lionhard” setting.
- Amiga Power: 88% (Mark Ramshaw, February 1993).
Valdyn and the stolen relic
The hero is Valdyn, whom Amiga Joker described as half human and half big cat. The Lionheart of the title is a relic, “a symbol of mystical power” in The One’s words, stolen from the king by an enemy called Norka. The king needs it back to show to his people, and he gives Valdyn a further reason to go: his beloved Ilene has been turned to stone, and the only cure lies in Norka’s castle. CU Amiga noted that the relic shares Valdyn’s own nickname. Finishing the game without the cure, The One warned, brings “a successful, yet depressing end-of-game animation” in which Valdyn wins but faces the rest of his life without her.
Valdyn runs, jumps, swings on vines, slides down slopes, climbs ledges, kicks and slashes in every direction with his sword. Amiga Joker listed the settings he fights through: caves, jungles, towers, volcanoes and a castle in the sky at the end. Amiga Power described levels “above and underground, then a bit of beastie-riding and some dragon flying”, with platforms “which bounce, spin and cause all sorts of mischief”. There is no time limit, so a player can work through each area at their own pace, and Amiga Format praised a second difficulty setting, “Lionhard”, which rearranges the levels so that “it’s a bit like having another game running alongside the original”.
Pushing the Amiga
Thalion had been talking up the game for months. The One reported in October 1992 that the company was “proudly proclaiming it to be the most technically-advanced console-style Amiga game the machine has ever seen”, promising the biggest sprites yet seen in an Amiga game. The reviews largely agreed. Amiga Joker explained that the game switched between the Amiga’s Extra Half-Brite mode and other graphics modes as it played, added extra explosion effects for machines with an accelerator card, and could be installed on a hard disk. Mark Ramshaw of Amiga Power listed “a couple of hundred colours on screen, parallax on practically every single line of the screen, and some of the best character animation this side of Prince Of Persia”. Amiga Format counted “over 600 different colours” on the main screen of an A600, and was impressed by a sampled soundtrack that changed with the player’s position in a level.
The gameplay drew more measured praise. Ramshaw thought it “might be a tad basic” in the long run, with “a scarcity of monsters to bash in some places”, but still “the best platform hack-and-slash around”. Amiga Format’s Andy Nuttall found it “pretty much derivative of every other fantasy/scrolling platformer/beat-em-up” but done “so nicely that it’s difficult to fault it”. The One called it “without a doubt, the finest example of its kind”, while warning of “truly frustratingly tough parts”, the Ark level above all.
Two reviewers made the same complaint about the hero’s run. Ramshaw wrote that “he minces his run”, and Amiga Format agreed that “when a game pits a large Conan the Barbarian-style man against some horribly vicious enemies, you expect him to run boldly and confidently.”
Changed after the review
Amiga Power reviewed Lionheart in its February 1993 issue, ahead of the game’s release. A month later it reported that the game “was about to go into duplication” when Thalion, “on hearing our (very few) criticisms, decided to make some last minute changes”: difficulty settings that changed the number of monsters, a whole new level, and a “more dynamic look” for the hero’s run, with extra frames of animation.
A rival took the chance to needle it. The One’s gossip column in March 1993 complained that another magazine had “rated a version of Lionheart which, in many respects, is quite different from the game that will eventually appear for sale”. Amiga Power answered a reader’s letter about it in May. “None of the changes which were made to Lionheart make the game different in any meaningful way,” it replied, “and Thalion themselves are quite clearly happy that our review is a fair representation of the game — they’re currently using a quote from Mark in their advertising for it.” Thalion’s advertisements that spring did carry Ramshaw’s words: “Visually & technically Lionheart leaves all other Amiga and console platform games behind.” Nearly two years later Amiga Power was still citing the episode as proof that publishers listened to it.
Afterwards
In Germany the farewell did not quite work as a send-off. Amiga Joker had suggested that if the game, which Thalion released without copy protection, sold well, the company might reconsider leaving the genre. Erik Simon told The One in July 1993 that action games such as Lionheart had sold well in Germany only for a short time. At the end of 1993 most of Thalion’s development team left for Blue Byte, and in May 1994 Amiga Joker reported that a CD conversion of Lionheart was being made in England. By the middle of 1994 Thalion was bankrupt. Kloibhofer and Nieborg, who had met at demo parties and come to Thalion with an unreleased platform game of their own, went on to make The Misadventures of Flink with Psygnosis.
Sources
- The One issue 49, October 1992: Lionheart preview (“unpretentious hack and slash”; Thalion’s claims for the game). Issue 50, November 1992: coverdisk demo.
- Amiga Joker, December 1992: subscription offer with a playable demo of Thalion’s “Abschieds-Spiel” (farewell game). January 1993, p. 16: review (C. Borgmeier; Thalion’s withdrawal from action games; Valdyn; Extra Half-Brite and other modes; accelerator-card effects; hard-disk installation; 14 levels in eight worlds; no time limit and no copy protection). Quotations translated.
- Amiga Power issue 22, February 1993: review by Mark Ramshaw (credits, £25.99, release at the end of January; 88% per the magazine’s buyers’ guide). Issue 23, March 1993: “Lionheart delayed” news item; buyers’ guide. Issue 25, May 1993: letters page, the reply on the review. Issue 45, January 1995: the changes to the hero cited in an editorial aside.
- The One issue 54, March 1993, p. 59: review (Valdyn, Norka, Ilene; £25.99, 1Mb, four disks; the ending; the Ark level). Same issue: “Blitter End” gossip column on the rival review; Thalion advertisement.
- CU Amiga, March 1993: Thalion advertisement quoting Mark Ramshaw. April 1993: review (the relic and Valdyn’s nickname).
- Amiga Format issue 45, April 1993: review by Andy Nuttall (Valdyn, Ilene, over 600 colours, the sampled soundtrack, the “Lionhard” level, the run and the low kick).
- The One issue 58, July 1993, pp. 24–25: interview with Erik Simon (action games in Germany).
- Amiga Joker, May 1994, p. 14: CD conversions being made in England. December 1994, pp. 72–73: Erwin Kloibhofer on meeting Henk Nieborg and joining Thalion. Quotations translated.