The Games We Never Talk About: Soldier Of Light / Xain’d Sleena

I keep hearing people saying that I should not revisit some of the old games that I kept raving about, yes I know, some games haven’t aged well indeed and most of the ones that I personally think haven’t aged too well is down to the controls and general gameplay mechanics, never because of the sound or graphics, today we will look at yet another long-forgotten game, namely Soldier Of Light. Yup! Welcome back to The Games We Never Talk About (but should).

Soldier Of Light is one of those games that I first played on the C64 and then on the Arcade and eventually on the Amiga, the reason why I played it last on the Amiga was because of some of the reviews at launch (most likely a review in the Swedish mag DatorMagaZin (DMZ) ) which made me wait a few years before I finally dared to take a chance on it.

The Commodore 64 version had something that I can’t seem to put my finger on and I really enjoyed that game back in the day but when I try it today I just downright don’t like it, everything feels so floaty and tacky, even the music won’t “click” but yes the shoot ’em up section is still quite OK and I guess this was one of the reasons why I liked the game so much back in the day (the mix of genres).

The Amiga version of Soldier of Light definitely looks better than the C64 port — as expected — but let’s be honest, it’s far from impressive by Amiga standards of the time. Visually, it’s serviceable, but certainly not a showcase title for the platform. What does stand out, however, is the music. From a surprisingly catchy loading tune to a solid reinterpretation of the original arcade soundtrack, the audio is where the Amiga version truly shines, at least at first.

Unfortunately, things take a turn for the worse from there.

While the game features both in-game music and sound effects, they’re implemented in a rather bizarre way. Every time you fire your weapon, which happens constantly in this run-and-gun shooter, it cuts into the music channels. The result is a choppy, often grating audio experience that quickly becomes more irritating than enjoyable.

The controls in the Amiga version leave a lot to be desired. They feel clunky and unrefined, which makes the already confusing weapon system, a problem across all three versions of the game, even harder to deal with.

But the real low point has to be the horizontal shoot-’em-up sections, reminiscent of R-Type or similar classics. Sadly, on the Amiga, these segments are borderline unplayable — at least on my CD32 equipped with a TF330 card. Everything moves far too quickly, making it nearly impossible to react in time. Even with unlimited lives enabled, I lost count after burning through 30 of them trying to push forward. Eventually, frustration won out and I switched the game off entirely.

I used to beat this game fairly easily back in the day — both on the Amiga and C64 — but in hindsight, I probably only ever played it on an Amiga 500. I’m starting to suspect the timing and speed may have been quite different on that hardware compared to modern setups. Then again, maybe I’m just worse at games now than I’d like to admit…

One more thing worth noting: the Amiga port (and likely the C64 version as well) is a heavily cut-down version of the original arcade game. Why they scaled it back so drastically is anyone’s guess, but with only three levels and a few brief shoot-’em-up sections between them, it certainly doesn’t feel like a full experience. It’s even more surprising when you realise the game lets you choose which level to start from right at the beginning via a simple map screen — not exactly the structure of a sprawling arcade adventure.

The original Amiga release of Soldier of Light is quite hard to come by these days — especially the cardboard fold-out edition, which is a real rarity. Even the later RAD budget re-release isn’t something you see often. Personally, I’ve never come across either version in shops, whether here or in the UK.

That said, the front cover of the original box is a real eye-catcher. It’s bold, stylish, and easily one of the more striking designs from that era.

My Spanish is horrible (and non-existent) but it is always fun to buy games in other countries too, especially so when on vacation… damn, I miss the old days when they sold Amiga games in normal shops.

In-game is luckily in English, though.

A pretty decent screenshot is actually used twice in the same box (now that’s a first for an Amiga game…or?)

Here you can see the cardboard box thingy folded out, the third pocket was most likely used for 5″ floppy disks…

12th of March 1991 – Disc Center…
You’ve got to love finding these little clues inside game boxes — they give you a glimpse into when and where a game was originally purchased. That said, I’ve actually been logging every game I’ve bought, along with the purchase date and store, for as long as I can remember.

And yes… that list is absolutely massive. Roar has even seen it with his own eyes!

Here you can see the Floppy disk and the front of the game box, lame sticker on the disk and on top of all, it ain’t even aligned 😛

It says 1986 on the Floppy, but the game was released in 198,8 and this exact copy was bought in March 1991.

The Verdict…

Soldier of Light used to be one of my favourite childhood memories — but sadly, it’s not anymore. I really want to like it. The catchy music and nostalgic charm are still there, but I just can’t bring myself to tackle those brutal shoot-’em-up sections again.

This game had so much potential. It could have been great, maybe even a classic. Instead, what we got feels unfinished — a half-hearted effort with an amazing box design being its strongest selling point.

If you loved Soldier of Light back in the day, my one piece of advice is: don’t revisit it now. Sometimes, it’s better to keep those memories intact.

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