Lionheart

About Lionheart

Lionheart (1993) is Thalion Software's lavish Amiga action-platformer in which the outlaw swordsman Valdyn sets out to recover the Cat People's holy relic from the evil Norka.

Lionheart in Depth

Valdyn, an outlaw swordsman called Lionheart, is arrested while gambling and summoned by the King of the Cat People. The Lionheart, the holiest relic of their religion, has been stolen by thieves sent by the evil Norka, and unless the King displays it at the coming Showing Festival he must abdicate in favour of his arch-chancellor Nargle. On the same night, Valdyn's beloved Ilene was turned to stone by a rare poison found only in Norka's country. Declared destined to reclaim the jewel, Valdyn is given a flying dragon, but a flying ship abducts him on the way and he must continue on foot.

Across 14 levels of monsters and hazards such as water, chasms, lava and fireballs, Valdyn runs, jumps, crouches, swings and climbs, gaining speed downhill to leap further, while slides and ropes can only be taken one way. Combat is central, with high, middle and reverse strikes, a low kick, a jump strike and a downward strike. He starts with four health points, three lives and two continues; hidden Energy Drinks restore health and Life Spheres add lives, while every hundred Energy Crystals unlocks an extra health point, up to eight, and stronger swords cut down tough foes faster. Harder difficulty levels change and greatly expand the stages. GamesMaster called it "a technical marvel which looks, sounds and plays like a dream".

Making Lionheart

After finishing Ghost Battle, Austrian programmer Erwin Kloibhofer and Dutch artist Henk Nieborg were hired in-house by Thalion, where producer Eric Simon "had bigger plans for us". Fans of Japanese action games, they wanted to make "a really outstanding action game for the Amiga", the kind they would buy on a console, and before joining Nieborg had already drawn a tileset and designed Valdyn on his Amiga 500. Thalion self-published it in 1993. GamesMaster praised the varied, useful moves, comparing them to a fighting game, and its "astounding" graphics, saying Thalion had "squeezed all the graphic power out of the Amiga", while The One called it "the finest example of its kind" for introducing some originality.