Finally, Crash editor Richard sighed when reviewing the Spectrum version of this game (in issue 81, October 1990; he gave it 87%), Dinamic has got it right:
Games from this Spanish software house are always good looking but usually impossible to play! But here's Satan and it's really playable (thank heavens!): classic platform action as you control the hero leaping around the depths of the underworld, and there's plenty of action to keep you playing—monsters wielding axes, flying spooks and a whole host of demonic opponents line the treacherous route. The scrolling scenery on each level makes up a huge map, one that'll keep cartographers up late at night! Plentiful and well designed graphics abound, occasionally so much that it's difficult to tell exactly what's going on! You'll be grabbed with addiction as soon as play begins, there's so much in it—but don't get over exited as a wrong move could prove fatal. So, there you have it: playable, addictive, good looking and plenty of it, it'll bring out the devil in you!!
In Sinclair User 104, Chris Jenkins commented Swords and
Sorcery Spanish style should sell like hot paella and chips
and gave it 83%. Jonathan in Your Sinclair 58 remains a bit more
cautious and got a bit sarcastic about how similar Satan was to
Black Tiger,
a 1987 Capcom arcade machine
that had only recently been ported to a number of home platforms.
Indeed, the reception of Satan depended very much on the previous
reception of the Black Tiger port on any given platform. The ZX port
had been good, and Satan was recieved well on this platform. The
C64 and Amiga ports had been bad, and
Zzap sighed that surely Dinamic could've been 'inspired' by a
better coin-op
, giving it an overall of 43%—Hell on Earth.
