I started playing Konami's SNES shmup Axelay because, quoting Wikipedia here, "Axelay was developed by most of the same team that would later go on to form Treasure, the creators of Gunstar Heroes." However, looking at the credits of both games on MobyGames, that doesn't really appear to be the case, only sharing "König" Kazuhiko Ishida, who is credited as "Support Programmer" here on Axelay, and "Treasure Logo Programmer" on Gunstar Heroes. I was fascinated by this false lineage, but, truly, this game shares more of a team with the best SNES Castlevania game, Super Castlevania IV, Contra III, and Snatcher.

Axelay has six stages, alternating between vertical and horizontal scrolling levels, like Konami's earlier shooter Salamander. The first level takes place high over the clouds, the second through a space station, the third over a city scape, the 4th through a canyon where you can also fly underwater, the 5th is a lava level that culminates in a giant lava mecha fight, and the 6th is a space level. The levels make heavy use of SNES's Mode 7 scrolling effect, and I love the shimmery look of it. My favorite level for its presentation was the 3rd, a city scape level with these floating bar obstacles that connect as you fly through them. I thought these bars were interesting obstacles, and found this section evocative. What exactly are these bars supposed to be? They felt like some kind of anti-ship defense for the city. Each level has its own flavor and interesting mechanics. For example, in the 4th level, there are glob aliens that will latch onto your ship and constantly drags you down, changing how the ship handles, but not outright damaging you.

This is the first shooter of the classic era I've played all the way through. While it doesn't exactly feel like a pre-Treasure Treasure game, I had a good time with it. (Also, as to pre-Treasure Treasure games, check out this web page I found researching this.)

If I can keep the motivation for it for about a month. I thought of clearing out some games I've had some interest thinking they'll be amazing. The first one that came to mind was Axelay. I never really heard too much about this one which surprises me because it's Konami, is it obscure? Probably not.

This is a horizontal and vertical shmup that changes depending if it's an odd or even numbered level. You're given three different weapons letting you possibly take up to 4 hits before dying but there are exceptions. You also gain more weapons each time you beat a level.

The weapons are pretty cool and I like how they feel like they have their advantages and disadvantages in a horizontal and vertical space. The vertical levels also have this very cool look to them that I can't really describe. I think it's mode 7 but whatever it is, it certainly is unique.

That said I won't lie the first level gives a bad first impression. I tried playing this game months ago and was turned off from it thanks to the first level but thankfully it gets better afterwards. While the game isn't anything outstanding for shmup standards, the level design can be pretty well polished and mostly fair though it can have some moments that can be annoying.

The game isn't too long surprisingly, only going for 6 stages, kind of wish it went for one more stage. The game also has bosses and they can be pretty fun. I like the one where it zaps you messing with which weapon you're using for as long as you're caught in it. Rather creative for a shmup boss.

The music in this game is awesome, some really good stuff in here for the Konami usual. The presentation is also solid too with one of the most memorable parts being this big fire boss you face in one of the vertical stages. It's really cool. Don't really have any complaints in this department.

This is one of the better shmups on the console you can find and is a much improvement from Gradius III which suffered a lot from slow down. This game runs a lot better than that early game. If you've never played it before then give it a try though try to at least get past stage 1 as it does get better!

Also Konami, why does the Konami code not work in this? I feel let down, well at least it doesn't kill you like in Gradius III and Pop'n Twinbee.

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.

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.

Vertical and horizontal shoot em up with heavy use of Mode 7 and 3D like effects made for interesting and eye catching levels. Great soundtrack and boss design. No powerups, instead having three different weapons with more choices for each of the three slots being unlocked as you play and being able to take what you feel is more useful for a particular stage. Getting hit destroys equipped weapons until a death respawns you with all of them back again removing any issues many shooters have with getting stuck by being drastically underpowered.

Probably one of the better SNES shmups I've encountered. It's difficult but also strangely lenient – you can take up to three extra hits per life at the cost of losing one of your ship's weapons (losing a weapon at the wrong time basically means a guaranteed life loss though).
Unlike its contemporaries with origins in the arcade, Axelay seems more designed for you to be able to reasonably 1cc after you have a good amount of memorization down. Of course it's still a shmup from the 90's, so there are plenty of times the game will choose to take cheap shots at you.
I don't think the visuals particularly stand out, but they look nice, and the OST is pretty phenomenal too. It's worth giving a try on that basis alone.