Stormlord

Stormlord is a 1989 platformer from the British studio Hewson Consultants, in which the player, as the titular warrior, tries to free seven enchanted fairies scattered across a magical yet dangerous world full of monsters, chasms, and elaborate traps. The gameplay is built on precise jumping between platforms and collecting keys and magical items needed to progress to the next levels, and the game doesn't go easy on difficulty, requiring patient memorization of enemy placement and attack timing. For freeing each fairy, the player also receives a temporary reward in the form of a nude figure appearing on screen, a deliberately provocative move on release that helped Hewson Consultants grab the attention of the press of the time.

On the Atari ST, the game stood out especially for its detailed, colorful graphics and smooth screen scrolling, which, combined with the atmospheric music, created the somber, fairy-tale atmosphere of an enchanted forest. The visual style, with dark forests, caves, and ancient castles, was among the best that could be seen on both 8-bit and 16-bit platforms at the time of release, and it contributed to Hewson Consultants' reputation as a studio with unusually high graphical ambitions for its titles. The soundtrack works with darker tones that nicely complement the gloomy setting of the individual levels, and together with the slower, deliberate pace of play, it creates a fairy-tale atmosphere that was unusually believable for its time.

Stormlord also gained attention thanks to its controversial box art featuring a partially nude fairy, which brought it media attention in some countries that went beyond its gameplay alone. As a platformer, though, it held its own primarily through quality level design and well-balanced difficulty, which made it a popular challenge for more experienced Atari ST players of the time, and it is still remembered today as one of Hewson's most visually striking titles on the platform, even though its reputation now also carries the label of that controversial cover illustration.

Why play it: For more experienced platformer fans who appreciate quality level design and well-balanced difficulty in one of Hewson's most visually striking titles on the Atari ST.