It was released for a wide range of platforms including the Amiga, Genesis, MSDOS, Lynx, Amstrad, C64, SNES TG16. A later version with improved graphics and sounds was released for the FM-Towns Marty under the title "Shadow Of The Beast Complete".
Like many Psygnosis games, SotB received much praise for its high-quality graphics and music (composed by David Whittaker) and much criticism for its poor gameplay.