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Super Nintendo - Axelay Review |
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Axelay is a space shooter by Konami which was brought over from the arcade I believe. Gameplay: 7/10 Each level begins with you choosing your craft lay-out. After that you enter level and play the game depending on the previous level you'll play the game from a top down scrolling shooter or a side scroller shooter. If the last level was one, then the current level will be the other. The controls respond well and it's a simple matter of using the shoulder buttons to switch between weapons and the firing buttons to fire your chosen weapon or rockets. Speaking of weapons, this game relies fairly heavily on choosing the right weapons at the right time. You initially start off with only three weapons. A powerful fireball weapon, the weak but useful vulcan cannon weapon which starts off firing from behind and then comes forward the longer you hold your weapon and finally powerful rockets which are slow but extremely powerful and explode. As you go on you get more and more weapons to choose from such as bombs which are fast and powerful but which are dropped behind you only. A good thing about the game is rather than exploding into a fiery ball when you get hit, you only lose your currently selected weapon. Of course, if you crash into obstacles or other enemies you'll get blown to bits straight away. There are a few problems with the gameplay however. First off, there is no suggested weapons loadout. This usually isn't a problem although at times I felt that having a different loaduout would have been better. Secondly, you're a little large for manuevering around the objects that they have on screen at times which act as terrain. It's somewhat unforgiving in the sense that you get blown up for not managing to manuevere around a rock for example. Thirdly, there are no power-ups or repairs in the game itself meaning the only way to get a weapon back is to be blown up. Graphics: 5/5 The graphics in this game are great. In the top down scroller levels you get multiple layers and the graphics are drawn in such a way to make the game look 3D. In the side scroller levels, its not as great but the enemy designs there are probably better Sound and Music: 5/5 The sound and music are not only unintrusive both actually quite good and well suited to the game. Game design: 4/5 The game's weapons are fairly useful usually and each has its own uses so you won't really find redundant weapons in the weapon choices you have. As mentioned earlier, learning what weapons are good for what situations is essential to play it well. Unfortunately, the game remains somewhat difficult especially at the last level but also when you have to manuever around obstacles but those are the only real problems. Longevity: 3.5/5 The game being fairly difficult will probably last you a fair bit and you'll probably want to return to play it somemore because it looks good. It may frustrate some of the more casual players at the later levels however. For: Good graphics, good sound, balanced weapons. Against: Can't repair or change weapon during levels, maybe a bit too hard later on. |
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Game: Axelay Genre: Action Produced by: Konami Year: 1992 Platform: Super Nintendo Runs on: Snes9X, ZSnes Scoring Summary Gameplay: 7/10 Graphics: 5/5 Sound and Music: 5/5 Game design: 4/5 Longevity: 3.5/5 Total: 24.5/30 Rating: 82% Silver Award -Reviewed by Barnabas |