The Legend of Galahad Longplay (Mega Drive/Genesis) [60 FPS]

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Developed by Travellers Tales/Psygnosis and published by Electronic Arts in 1992

The Legend of Galahad is a Mega Drive port of Leander, originally released for the Commodore Amiga home computer in 1991. The gameplay is practically identical, although there are a number of cosmetic differences between the games.

The first thing that strikes you is the difference in colour palette, which is more vivid than the Amiga version. There is also an added layer of parallax scrolling in the background that is simply absent from the Amiga version.

The main character has acquired a cape and, while nicely animated, it's obvious that the artists simply stuck it on to the original sprite. Parts of the character's arms are obscured and the cape stays motionless whilst attacking.

The armour power scheme has been reworked so that it no longer changes colour when damaged. Instead, a more conventional hit bar is present in the top left of the screen to tell the player how many more hits they can take. This change improves playability as the player no longer has to memorise armour colours and how many hits they have left, although it's definitely not as cool as the original mechanic.

Matt Furniss was responsible for the Mega Drive version's music and effects. Given the Amiga's sound capabilities and the fact that Matthew Simmonds/Tim Wright scored the original music, this would seem to be a daunting task.

The music in the first act is a straight copy of the Amiga version and, while perfectly acceptable, the lack of the Amiga's high quality digital samples makes Galahad sound inferior. However, the music in acts two and three appear to be original compositions and sound great; act three in particular makes use of some great sounding metallic chimes and gives the game it's own identity.

As a conversion, The Legend of Galahad is very polished and plays well. I don't understand why they felt the need to change the game's Japanese-themed design to Medieval Europe, especially given that the title screen clearly shows the character in his original Japanese-style armour, but I suppose EA felt it was necessary in order to appeal to the markets in which the game was to be sold.
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