Leander

Leander is Travellers Tales first published game, and is one of the many graphically and musically splendid titles in the Psygnosis pantheon. Graphically, it ranks along Shadow of the Beast as one of the best examples of the Amiga's hardware prowess.

The game concerns Leander, captain of the guards, setting off to rescue Princess Lucanna from Thanatos, master of all evil. The result is a platform game spread across 3 worlds, each with 6 levels and a boss. In each level, you have to find a teleport key, and then take it to the teleport, with the final level of each area requiring you to fight a boss. There is an in-game shop, where you can buy more powerful swords. The three most powerful swords can be "powered up" by holding down the fire button.

You can find power-ups by breaking open chests. Be careful, though; if you don't pick up a power-up, it turns into a skull symbol. Collecting this summons Thanatos himself. It starts raining, all other enemies disappear, and the ethereal presence of Thanatos arrives, swirling around you. He can only be defeated by firing rune bombs at him, or by succumbing to his superior powers and politely dieing.

Graphically, the game is excellent, with parallax scrolling achieved through horizontally recycled sprites, and a well-animated main character. The music is a treat, mostly medieval-style tunes. The loading tune is a wonderful composition by Tim Wright, a slow melody on a harp which builds up over several minutes. This gentle melody can be contrasted with the title-music by Matthew Simmonds, which is an action-packed horn and (oddly) distorted guitar led piece which synchronises perfectly with the animated battle scene depicted in the opening titles.

The somewhat out-of-place Japanese text on the front of the box reads ライオン·マンと獣が力比べをしています (raion-man to kemono ga chikara kurabe o shite imasu), which translates as "The Lion-Man and beast compare strength". As Leander is Greek for "Lion-Man", this is quite apt.

Development team

 * Programming : Jon Burton
 * DMA Design (disk access routines)
 * Chris Wylie (compression code)
 * Lee Wright (sound effects replayer)


 * Graphics : Andy Ingram
 * Simon James (additional creature designs)


 * Music : Tim Wright
 * Matthew Simmonds (title screen music)


 * Level design : Gra Watkinson and Andy Ingram

Dragons
Dragons are a regular occurrence in Leander's travels.

Game/Simmonds_Matthew/Leander.lha
Download archive


 * Updates : Wednesday 24 January 2001 (Kyzer): Added to collection
 * Monday 20 May 2002 (XtC): Renamed file prefix.

Game/Wright_Tim/Leander.lha
Download archive

Also included are the original MODs direct from the composer, including one that was unused.


 * Updates : Wednesday 24 January 2001 (Kyzer): Added to collection
 * Sunday 19 May 2002 (XtC): Removed Lee Wright from the credits.
 * Friday 11 October 2002 (XtC): Added tunes from Composer.