

That said, Battle Axe costs $29.99/€26.99 at the time of release, which puts it in the “overpriced” category since players can easily romp through the entire game 10 times a day, be it solo or with a friend (and having tons of fun whilst doing so!)Īt the end of each stage, players of course encounter the video game trope of large bosses. In this day and age, with a never-before-seen amount of all sorts of entertainment becoming available on a daily basis, we here at Yestermade believe short games are a good thing. Players also collect gems and coins which are used as resources to shop at Ælfwyn the Merchant who conveniently appears between stages.īattle Axe is a dense experience that is surprisingly tight. Pick-ups are plentily available as players traverse around levels, although the variation during gameplay is limited to a health potion, a bomb, and a spell that megablasts the player’s immediate area. Regardless of whom of the trio of warriors Battle Axe is used, players are likely to rely almost exclusively on ranged attacks as they blast their way through Mercia and Etheldred’s hoards of golem-like creatures, goblins, and skeletons.

On the surface, there seems to be plenty of diversity in players’ moves, although the moment-to-moment action can quickly become a bit repetitive. Rooney makes use of cannonballs for both melee encounters and ranged damage, and features a powerful dash that can wipe multiple enemies in a single charge.
Battle axe designs zip#
“Nieborg has not held back on the pixels, and almost every enemy and foe killed explodes in a satisfyingly violent manner.”įae wields twin blades, flings deadly daggers from distance, and can zip in and around arenas at speed, whilst Iolo can teleport, fire off powerful blue energy balls, and use his longbeard for close-combat attacks. Split over four refreshingly compact levels, blasting through Battle Axe with a friend takes less than an hour! Also, each player character has unique abilities - a weapon attack, a ranged projectile attack, and a special move. After selection, retro fans will find themselves in the land of Mercia, in either single or co-op mode, to rescue captured locals who have been robbed away by the evil sorceress, Etheldred, and her army of (mostly undead) evildoers. 9, Magic Sword, the first MegaMan title, and many more, can now add Battle Axe to her roster - the combined talent of Nieborg’s pixel art and Matsumae’s music is craftsmanship on steroids the genuine retro vibe Battle Axe conveys is more grounded than most other games inspired by the past.īattle Axe’s immediate title screen presents players with the choice of three warriors - Fae the Elf, Iolo the Druid, and Rooney the Marauder. Working alongside equally established Manami Matsumae, a female piano composer who has created music for Mighty No. ApLegendary super-pixeler Henk Nieborg’s retro-romp Battle Axe takes inspiration from arcade classics like Gauntlet and 1992’s The Chaos Engine, but perhaps even more so from Commodore 64’s Druid - a long-forgotten top-down brawler that introduced co-op to early home computer user Nieborg is a legend amongst pixel artists, having single-handedly created all of the art for several classic titles like Psygnosis’ Lemmings-platformer The Adventures of Lomaxfor PlayStation 1.
