Axiom Verge doesn’t do much to differentiate itself from being a straight-up Metroid homage, but that just means its a solid game. The soundtrack is thumping, some of the pixel art is good (especially for backgrounds and on larger scales), and the requisite interaction between items and the map is interesting enough. Enemy variety and behavior is a bit lacking. For all the weapons to be found, few are particularly effective. That’s also down to everything being a bit of a bullet sponge.

Come to think of it, that sponginess and the problem of having interesting bit ineffective weapons are linked together. If it didn’t take so many shots to down everything, maybe I would have been able to experiment with more of the inventory. Alternately, enemies could have different kinds of armor and types that would require the player to experiment. Here’s hoping for more thoughtful enemy design in the sequel.