There are some games that simply could only be created on and for the Amiga. Agony is one of them. Basically a standard side-scrolling shooter, it dazzled with an unusual setting (what other game lets you play as an owl?) and superb graphics. Especially the level loading screens are among the finest ever created for this platform.
Agony was published by Psygnosis, famous for the Lemmings series, but it is not a UK game. Psygnosis contributed only the box art and the title, end, and loading music. It was developed by the Belgian company Art & Magic S.A. Programmer was Yves Grolet, the graphic artists Franck Sauer (he created the beautiful level loading screens) and Marc Albinet, the game music was composed by Jeroen Tel, who had previously worked on Hawkeye.
Bird Protagonists
In 1990 there was a
French shooter for the Amiga, ported to
the Atari ST, by the name of
Sophelie.
It may have been the first time a bird was used as player avatar
in a horizontal shoot-'em-up, otherwise Sophelie is not very
remarkable, it has none of the poetry of Agony. The screenshot
at the left was taken from the ST version, on the Amiga the sky
is a much nicer gradient.
Three years after Agony, E. Ettore Annunziata designed Kolibri for Novotrade. Here, too, you play as a bird, and the title screens are rather similar, but otherwise Kolibri is far more realistic, not a fantasy shooter.
Two classic games have the protagonist turn into a bird in the ending: Loom and Terranigma.
Reviews and Links
- This game, after all, revels in its unearthly beauty,
David Sears thinks, and thus will never bore you:
Not only does this game glow, but it doesn't miss any opportunity to show off how gorgeous graphics on the Amiga can be. Alestes, an apprentice sorcerer and sometime owl, flaps by in mystic shades of blue and gray. The hordes of baleful demons summoned by rival apprentice Mentor exhibit detailed shading, though they're not animated as well as Alestes. Some flap leather wings while others glide past inertly, dropping deadly glow bombs of enchantment. Mentor's tour appears three-dimensional, courtesy of the seamless parallax scrolling. The forests full of swaying trees, rotting corpses of dragons, and fantasy-novel naturalistic scenery all vie for your attention, and you'll hope to survive long enough just to see everything. Fortunately, this bewitching diversion isn't that hard to complete. Just learn the behavior of your myriad foes and stay out of their way. Unlike some of the more difficult Psygnosis offerings, this one doesn't move too fast, so hard work will see you through to the end in short order.
- A nice attempt and a decent game, Chris Vella admits,
but somehow something is missing:
It feels different then most shooting games but there are some very nice touches, but I feel just too relaxed playing. It doesn't give you the much needed adrenaline rush that a game of this type should give you. The great graphics and animations do help a bit but the sound is way too annoying. The lastabilty is also in question. I found the first couple levels a little too easy and the last ones a little too hard. You will neither love nor hate this game, it's just a average shoot'em up with nice graphics.
- WHDLoad
