An unknown alien race came to this planet and promptly laid waste to it. The remaining defense force has been sent out to try and defeat them. One lucky person gets to fly the latest line of defense ships made: the AX-77 Axelay. However, these ships are still in the prototype stage, and as such, only one exists.
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I'm trying to like this one but i just don't. The things i like are the music and presentation but the gameplay feels slow and unresponsive. It probably does not help that i suck at this game and i am playing on a PAL system, not sure. Just try it and see if you like it.
The most notable thing about Axelay in my opinion is how "proto-Treasure" it is, as in the company behind beloved games such as Gunstar Heroes, Alien Soldier, and Ikaruga. It's already known that much of the team behind this game would immediately clean house at Konami and move over to Treasure after completing its development, but even without this knowledge it's hard to shake the feel of Treasure's design philosophy off of Axelay. It's in the incredible art direction, the rocky surfaces in stage 3 and their cybernetic underbellies, the jittery stop-motion movement of the stage 2 boss, all the insane technical feats on display, and so on and so forth. It really sits right at home with Treasure's next few years of work down the line, and in my head I sometimes consider it an honorary member of the Treasure catalog. I might actually prefer it over Radiant Silvergun, their next shmup to be released.
Not quite my favorite shmup on the SNES, but it's very close, only being beaten out so far by R-Type III and maybe Space Megaforce. It's worth a look for any fans of the genre and any fans of Treasure's output. It's ruthlessly difficult though, perhaps even moreso than R-Type III, so it'd be best to stay on your toes if you give it a shot.
Not quite my favorite shmup on the SNES, but it's very close, only being beaten out so far by R-Type III and maybe Space Megaforce. It's worth a look for any fans of the genre and any fans of Treasure's output. It's ruthlessly difficult though, perhaps even moreso than R-Type III, so it'd be best to stay on your toes if you give it a shot.
I was far too uncharitable to this in the past, this is excellent. 10/10 level and boss design, a robust and intricate weapons system, a staggering sense of awe and power, and immaculate programming in the performance, visual tricks and object physics. Definitely the best SNES shmup.
But I really, REALLY dislike that extra loops don't carry over the weapons you earn from the stages, that's so stupid, that's so so so so so so so stupid, how, why, what's the point
But I really, REALLY dislike that extra loops don't carry over the weapons you earn from the stages, that's so stupid, that's so so so so so so so stupid, how, why, what's the point
A very memorable shoot em up in the vein of Gradius but featuring twists on the design, with excellent Mode 7 effects the level is constantly changing around you. The plot is something or other about aliens blowing up planets for fun, you're the only survivor so take it upon yourself to shoot the hell out of all and sundry. Very tough.
Another game I spent an afternoon on during college. I don't have a ton of shmup experience but this one was pretty alright I thought.
Mostly enjoyable with a few caveats. I love how the six stages (mostly) take you across locations you don't always see in shmups and the fire golem boss is rather memorable. I can also appreciate how, unlike most Konami shmups, you don't just lose everything on death.
That being said...it's rather difficult to determine whether or not something is an insta-kill or not. In this game, you can generally take a hit and just lose one of your firing options. At least, that applies to most projectiles with surfaces always resulting in insta-death. However, some things such as little chunks of rocks or a tiny fireball spewing out of a pipe in the fire stage will result in death no matter what. You're not going to know until if/when it happens, and that's sort of bad design.
Speaking of design, I felt the game provides a tough-but-fair challenge up until stage six when forgiving the above (which is easy enough to do considering most shmups just kill you in one hit regardless, plus it's plenty generous with extends on normal). Stage six, however, is just bullshit central with a bunch of traps that you simply need to have prior knowledge of before you can adequately route. This stage was almost enough to make me drop the game entirely after beating it, but I did manage to get a 1CC after a few attempts.
Overall I definitely had more fun with it than Gradius and Life Force, but as far as SNES shmups go, Space Megaforce still has yet to be beat.
That being said...it's rather difficult to determine whether or not something is an insta-kill or not. In this game, you can generally take a hit and just lose one of your firing options. At least, that applies to most projectiles with surfaces always resulting in insta-death. However, some things such as little chunks of rocks or a tiny fireball spewing out of a pipe in the fire stage will result in death no matter what. You're not going to know until if/when it happens, and that's sort of bad design.
Speaking of design, I felt the game provides a tough-but-fair challenge up until stage six when forgiving the above (which is easy enough to do considering most shmups just kill you in one hit regardless, plus it's plenty generous with extends on normal). Stage six, however, is just bullshit central with a bunch of traps that you simply need to have prior knowledge of before you can adequately route. This stage was almost enough to make me drop the game entirely after beating it, but I did manage to get a 1CC after a few attempts.
Overall I definitely had more fun with it than Gradius and Life Force, but as far as SNES shmups go, Space Megaforce still has yet to be beat.