The Legendary Axe II (PCE, 1990)
Graphics-7 Sound-8.5 Control-7.5 Challenge-7.5 Story-5
Level Design-7 Frustration-7/8* Fun-7 Originality-5
Overall Score-7
*Final boss
+
Decent weapon variety (sword, sickle and chain, axe, )
Upgradeable weapons (up to level 5 - increases range and sometimes changes the swing arc) and life bar (pick up the star icons, up to 10 HP). Weapons revert to level 1 and you lose 1 HP with each death though
Smart bombs (put in an inventory and triggered manually)
Some large and detailed sprites
Pretty good variety
Pretty fast movement
Very good mid-air control
Satisfying sfx and pretty impressive music
Some interesting level design and enemies (the giant skeletons breaking through the background wall, horizontally moving platforms also affect your forward momentum, the giant ostrich monsters - can follow you by jumping between platforms)
Some good bosses (ball and chain-wielding dwarf w/ two phases - the ball comes alive after taking him out, ) and the ones after the first two are all decent
Not much slowdown despite multiple large sprites on screen at times
+/-
Mid-level checkpoints
No save feature
Rastan/Castlevania-inspired gameplay (no wall jumping or multiple sub weapons though)
Can't attack straight upwards (only diagonally upwards) - the upgraded sword does make you swing over your head
Can't attack downwards but you can jump on most enemies to kill them (works just like in early Super Mario, can even bounce on the little worm projectiles)
Can't move while crouching
No blocking or dodging
Pretty easy to upgrade to max weapon level
Randomly dropped items - means beating tougher enemies isn't neccesarily worth it
Forgiving knockback when hitting enemies
Kind of unforgiving hit detection on the little shockwave coming from the upgraded sword - it's still generally the best weapon because of the wide overhead swinging arc and how quickly you can spam the attack
Enemy drops don't fall down to the ground - sometimes good in that they don't fall into hazards though
A few alternate paths through levels
Somewhat maze-like final level
Pretty easy first phase of the final boss
Can skip the mini-boss before the final boss
No dialogue during cutscenes and they use in-game graphics
-
No charge attacks or alternate ways to attack with a weapon
Some control issues (the huge recoil when hitting certain enemies which also makes you unable to attack again for about a second - makes the second form of the final boss much harder, no weapon inventory (the axe's range is ironically pretty bad and it can't be thrown but it is the strongest weapon, the chain and sickle weapon isn't good enough for the later levels - slower attack speed and harder to hit with), pressing select+start resets the game - since start activates smart bombs and select pauses it's fairly easy to do by accident, unskippable score countdown after each level)
Falling down in level 6 (you never regain control in mid-air after taking a hit so you'll fall all the way down, a couple of dead ends here too)
Some trial & error (the power ups aren't explained in-game nor in the manual, some enemy placements, boss patterns)
Most bosses go down too quickly with a fully upgraded weapon - on the other hand, you don't restart far enough away to recover your weapon strength after dying. Could've made you lose about 3 weapon levels rather than all of them
Mostly stupid looking bosses, Kind of silly looking player avatar
Somewhat drawn out and repetitive level 4 (vertical scrolling level)
No attack combos
Funny ending
No hidden items?
No difficulty options
Kind of generic and incoherent art style
Level Design-7 Frustration-7/8* Fun-7 Originality-5
Overall Score-7
*Final boss
+
Decent weapon variety (sword, sickle and chain, axe, )
Upgradeable weapons (up to level 5 - increases range and sometimes changes the swing arc) and life bar (pick up the star icons, up to 10 HP). Weapons revert to level 1 and you lose 1 HP with each death though
Smart bombs (put in an inventory and triggered manually)
Some large and detailed sprites
Pretty good variety
Pretty fast movement
Very good mid-air control
Satisfying sfx and pretty impressive music
Some interesting level design and enemies (the giant skeletons breaking through the background wall, horizontally moving platforms also affect your forward momentum, the giant ostrich monsters - can follow you by jumping between platforms)
Some good bosses (ball and chain-wielding dwarf w/ two phases - the ball comes alive after taking him out, ) and the ones after the first two are all decent
Not much slowdown despite multiple large sprites on screen at times
+/-
Mid-level checkpoints
No save feature
Rastan/Castlevania-inspired gameplay (no wall jumping or multiple sub weapons though)
Can't attack straight upwards (only diagonally upwards) - the upgraded sword does make you swing over your head
Can't attack downwards but you can jump on most enemies to kill them (works just like in early Super Mario, can even bounce on the little worm projectiles)
Can't move while crouching
No blocking or dodging
Pretty easy to upgrade to max weapon level
Randomly dropped items - means beating tougher enemies isn't neccesarily worth it
Forgiving knockback when hitting enemies
Kind of unforgiving hit detection on the little shockwave coming from the upgraded sword - it's still generally the best weapon because of the wide overhead swinging arc and how quickly you can spam the attack
Enemy drops don't fall down to the ground - sometimes good in that they don't fall into hazards though
A few alternate paths through levels
Somewhat maze-like final level
Pretty easy first phase of the final boss
Can skip the mini-boss before the final boss
No dialogue during cutscenes and they use in-game graphics
-
No charge attacks or alternate ways to attack with a weapon
Some control issues (the huge recoil when hitting certain enemies which also makes you unable to attack again for about a second - makes the second form of the final boss much harder, no weapon inventory (the axe's range is ironically pretty bad and it can't be thrown but it is the strongest weapon, the chain and sickle weapon isn't good enough for the later levels - slower attack speed and harder to hit with), pressing select+start resets the game - since start activates smart bombs and select pauses it's fairly easy to do by accident, unskippable score countdown after each level)
Falling down in level 6 (you never regain control in mid-air after taking a hit so you'll fall all the way down, a couple of dead ends here too)
Some trial & error (the power ups aren't explained in-game nor in the manual, some enemy placements, boss patterns)
Most bosses go down too quickly with a fully upgraded weapon - on the other hand, you don't restart far enough away to recover your weapon strength after dying. Could've made you lose about 3 weapon levels rather than all of them
Mostly stupid looking bosses, Kind of silly looking player avatar
Somewhat drawn out and repetitive level 4 (vertical scrolling level)
No attack combos
Funny ending
No hidden items?
No difficulty options
Kind of generic and incoherent art style