Switchblade II

Switchblade II is a 1991 side-scrolling action-platform run and gun video game originally developed and published by Gremlin Graphics in Europe for the Amiga home computers.

Upon its original release on the Amiga, Switchblade II garnered very positive reception from critics who praised multiple aspects of the title such as the visuals, sound effects and gameplay.

Spread across the levels are portals that lead into a shop where items and weapons can be bought including a knife, homing missiles, laser beam, flamethrower and shurikens, in addition to ammunition for each of them.

In some stages, levels are interconnected with a network of subterranean bases, where unexplored areas of the screen are obscured from view until the player's character enters them as with the first game.

In the original Amiga and Atari ST versions, the game is set several centuries after the last of the Blade Knights, Hiro, defeated the evil Havok and saved the land of Cyberworld from his influence.

[7] Switchblade II first began its development process on the Amiga in August 1990 and it was solely written by programmer George Allan over the course of six to eight months, who previously worked on Venus The Flytrap alongside artist Paul Gregory at Gremlin Graphics.

[12] Allan said that they planned on using the system's EHB Mode early in development for backgrounds and sprites, while the project as a whole bears resemblance to Japanese-developed titles from the era due to Gregory's fascination with the art style.

[22][23] Between 2016 and 2017, former programmer Christian Harvey recounted about the development process of the conversion for the system at Unseen64, stating that the port was completed under a whole year and based upon the original Amiga version.

Amiga version screenshot
Switchblade II was first developed for the Amiga hardware over the course of 6-8 months.