For those of you who missed last week’s coverage. Kongregate and Scion are hosting a new developer contest. Tutorials on basic AS2 and AS3 programming have been provided, as well as a toolkit containing various image and sound assets. For more information, click here.

Entries will be accepted until November 28th. For each week of November I will post my top picks. These are not in any specific order. It is just a list of entries that I think are worth paying some attention to throughout their development for the duration of the contest; especially for readers who have yet to cast any votes. For a list of all entries, click here.

Pink Jean-Luc Adventure

+Kill, pick, bridge, grab, jump multitask fun
+32bit sprite graphics

-extremely repetitive music
-difficulty remains constant, needs to increase over time
-not enough sound effects

Shoofender!

+Great flash remake of the original defender
+Best theme song ever
+Fantastic custom sound effects
+Amusing animated stick figures

-No achievements

Save Planet Puggolon

+Awesome custom music that sets the tone of the game
+Nice custom artwork
+Challenging
+Good variation in enemies and bosses

-No easy mode for less skilled players

G-Virus: Episode 1

+Custom Art and sound
+Level up by collecting remnants of enemies

-no indicator of what level (xp-based) player is
-leveling up isn’t too significant in this episode because it is so short

Honorable Mentions

Flash Beryllium

Sub-Atomic War

What would you do with a million bucks? What’s that? You don’t have a million bucks? Well, if you have $9.99 you can grab Space Trader through Steam and then work your way up from being $1.5mil in debt to buying and selling a million dollars worth of bananabis and organs on the black market. Not interested in the black market? Maybe you would like to act as a bounty hunter instead, “taking care of” good-for-nothing criminals. Or you could be a hard and honest worker and act as an intersteller version of UPS. The choice of yours.

What is Space Trader?

In Space Trader: Merchant Marine by HermitWorks Entertainment and Meridian 4, players have the option of two single-player modes, Campaign or Challenges. There is also multiplayer which will be covered later.

Campaign is the story mode where players assume the role of a person who has just acquired their trading license. The player begins the game in search of a way to acquire a ship. As the story progresses, more planets can be visited and the missions increase in difficulty. To complete the chapter the player must earn an amount of money in a set time limit (based on interplanetary travel, not actual playing time.) The story isn’t very complex, but it provides players with some direction and a purpose for accomplishing their goals.

Challenge mode is similar to campaign except that it lacks the story element. There is still an amount of money that must be earned in a set time limit, there just seems to be less distraction and a greater emphasis on the buying/selling (trading) element of the game.

The game is played through the first-person perspective and is broken down into three tasks: Bounty hunting, collecting stash, and trading.

Bounty hunting is the action segment of the game. NPCs, such as bartenders, will offer rewards for your combat skills. The combat scenarios have an arcade feel to them similar to an early version of Unreal Tournament. These scenarios vary in length from 3-10 minutes depending on your skill and focus on the task at hand. There are several enemies that can be shot down for cash and items but there is always a target foe that must be defeated to claim the reward. The controls are the standard of what you would expect for an FPS and these missions are fun to play.

Collecting stash is an integral part of the game if you want to succeed in Space Trader. On each planet there are over at least a dozen bundles of stash, which are boxes levitating in the air. These boxes contain items and you will need the extra source of income if you plan to succeed in the game. Making your way through either mode is unlikely without collecting stash. Don’t worry though, you will want to because as you collect each piece of stash the very rewarding “CHING” cash register sound is made; the perfect sound effect for a collectible item.

The last portion of the gameplay is the trading. This is where the core of the gameplay is. Since the whole purpose of the game is to make as much money as possible, you MUST buy and sell. The game description tries to make it seem complex by showing you a graph next to the inventory items and throwing in percentages, but it is actually simple. Buy items that are in a vendors inventory that have a star, sell items that are in your inventory with a star. So the trading piece of the game isn’t extremely exciting and can feel like a chore at times, but once you’ve made a few trades you should have it figured out. Buy the items with the greatest possible return and you will be all set.

The multiplayer mode allows you to play through the Challenge modes with friends. It’s great if you have a friend or two you would like to play with. Don’t count on just joining a random match. Perhaps you could set a match up with someone via forums but this isn’t the type of game where you can find a “quick-match”.

Review

The FPS action portion of the game is enjoyable and there are a bunch of maps to play as the story unfolds. The trading gets tedious once you’ve got the hang of it. Collecting stash can be fun the first few times you visit a planet but eventually once you know where all the spawn points is the fun is gone.

The lack of a manual save function is disappointing. Progress is saved automatically only after travel. This means if players need to stop the game they must either travel and forfeit all the current earning potential on the planet being visited or leave their system on and waste electricity.

Another feature that has been left out that could be handy is a map with a destination point for objectives (outside of combat). Some of the NPCs for various required missions are not easy to locate. If players don’t have the patience to search for these NPCs the lack of a map could really ruin the experience leaving most of the game unexplored.

Since trading is such an important aspect of the game the developers made it extremely simple to jump from one vendor to the next via a panel on the left side of the screen. This feature pretty much saves the game. Without out…”shudder”.

The interface is attractive in shape, color, and alpha but doesn’t take advantage of high resolution monitors. The interface bars shown above should shrink as resolution is increased but instead they take up the same amount of screen real estate. Note that the interface (aside from the top panel) is only visible while engaged with an NPC but it is still cluttered.

The graphics remind me of a first-gen Xbox title, which is good in consideration of the price and performance requirements, listed here. The environments are polished enough to create an atmosphere for the player to feel a part of. The character models are amusing, but some are reused too many times.

The electronica-style music works very well with the space theme. As mentioned earlier, the sound effects make collecting stash a very rewarding experience.

Conclusion

For the price, Space Traders is a great way to spend a rainy weekend. In fact, I strongly suggest that the next time it rains on the weekend you check out this game. Write that down. Don’t forget. This isn’t the type of game that I would rush to tell friends about, but it’s a good experience while it lasts.

Bubble Bobble is a zany little game from the people who brought Space Invaders to the world. The basic story is simple: Bub and Bob are twin Bubble Dragons who are on a quest to rescue their girlfriends from the Cave of Monsters. Or, to be precise, the one hundred Caves of Monsters. Not only that, but the only weapon our heroes have is the ability to blow bubbles. Sound good so far? No, I didn’t think so either…

The good thing about games like this is that storyline doesn’t matter one bit. As long as it plays well, who cares what it’s about? Bubble Bobble is easy to pick up and start playing as the controls are so simple (the NES only had 2 buttons after all…), but difficult to put down after you’ve got the hang of it. The goal of each level is to defeat all the monsters, and this is done by firing bubbles at them to trap them inside, then bursting the bubbles with the spines on your back, or just by jumping on them. If you trap an enemy in a bubble and he escapes before you can pop it, he turns into an angry enemy, who will chase you a lot more frantically than before. A bit like the angry zombies in Resident Evil that you forgot to cremate, only cute, not scary. If an enemy makes contact with you, you lose a life. Lose all your lives and its game over I’m afraid.

This could be the cutest game ever made. It had two cute dinosaur things way before Yoshi burst onto the scene in Super Mario World. Even the monsters are cute in this game. And the music… possibly the most cutesy soundtrack ever created for a game. It is very irritating, and there is a risk you may never get it out of your head, but it goes so well with the game that it can’t really be criticised.

The opening screen sets the tone of the game nicely: “NOW IT IS THE BEGINNING OF A FANTASTIC STORY! LET US MAKE A JOURNEY TO THE CAVE OF MONSTERS! GOOD LUCK!” In other words, it’s not going to make a lot of sense, but it’s going to be fantastic, and you’ll need some luck. A lot of luck in fact, as there are one hundred levels/caves in the game. The game employs some classic gaming traits here, such as each level being totally contained in one screen (similar to Donkey Kong for example), and the bottom of the screen connecting to the top of the screen (by this I mean that if a character drops through a hole at the bottom of the screen, they will come back into the screen through a gap at the top. Once you get used to this technique it will free up more ways of escaping hairy situations).

So you’re probably thinking one hundred levels is a bit excessive, right? Nobody’s going to have the skill or patience to finish this game, right? Wrong. You’re more likely to finish this game than most other NES games, as it employs a password system which allows you to come back whenever you want and pick up from where you last died. All you need is a pen and pad handy when you play! The days of playing an old console game non-stop for three days as it could only be finished in one sitting are long gone - welcome to the 90’s my friend!

The game is a lot of fun to play on your own, but - as with most two-player games - it is best enjoyed with a friend. The co-op mode gives your campaign some extra bubble power and should increase your chances of rescuing those girlfriends. I’ve never played the game all the way through, but if I was successful in the quest, the first thing I’d do is ask those girls what the hell they were thinking wandering around in a cave called “The Cave of Monsters” in the first place. They had better be really hot or something, otherwise Bub and Bob might not always be there for them when they decide to go for a ramble in “The Forest of Zombies” or “The Tower of Cannibals”.

This is a game I enjoy playing, but always end up getting a little bit bored of after a while. For this reason the password system is brilliant - you can enjoy your bubble-blowing in small doses and not have to keep repeating the same levels. Bub and Bob make appearances in other games like Bust A Move (another game featuring bubbles, so I don’t think they had a choice in the matter - they are THE bubble guys), but the original Bubble Bobble is a classic example of traditional videogaming, and I’d recommend that everyone should give it a try. It should especially appeal to women and children as it is super-cute. Even the way Bub and Bob wag their dragon tails is cute! The game can be downloaded from Virtual Console, in case you don’t happen to hoard 25-year old consoles like myself…

Duels, by Challenge Games, may be the ultimate time sink for most casual browser based game players.  This strategic RPG offers a lot of content, with great presentation, and a broad player base to boot.  Duels is a game in which the player duels other players and NPCs in order to get better equipment, higher levels, and general bragging rights about who is best of the best.

In this post World of Warcraft era, Challenge Games seeks to bring an MMO feel to their game complete with character classes, skill trees, and equipment.  Numerous quests, player actions, and an avatar based chat system contribute to making the game stand head and shoulders above most browser based games today.

Make no mistake, however.  This game is all about one versus one combat, pure and simple.  The quests are simply about defeating certain NPCs, one by one.  Game play is extremely easy to get into, and the game tends to suck you into it right from the start.

From the very beginning, you’re able to graphically select your avatar from a number of different colors and styles (another nod to MMOs).  This character will be how other players will see you throughout the game; however, your appearance will change as you wear the different armor and weapons you’ll come across during the game.  It’s very refreshing to see such graphical detail from a browser game.

As you first start out, you’re immediately given a quest.  From there, your quests progress onward and involve learning the dueling system, the equipment system, and eventually the skills and actions systems.  Almost every aspect of this game is easy to comprehend, although mastering these aspects is another story entirely.

Gaining levels gives you more points to “spend” in the loadouts screen.  Each item that can be bought has a Power Rating associated with it.  This power rating cannot exceed your total power.  So, as you gain levels, your total power increases and you’re able to wear better items.  With each level, you’re able to spend skill points that contribute to a number of different things.  The skill system is very diverse and clearly thought out.  Each skill provides a specific boost to certain aspects of your character.

Combat, in the early levels, is pretty straightforward and mostly centered around how well your character is equipped.  In the later levels, however, you’ll acquire actions to play during combat.  Actions are like a set of special attacks or defenses you can perform as each turn progresses.  This makes the combat much more about planning your strategy than about arming your character with all the most expensive weapons.  Although, toward the end of the level progression, it comes down to gaining the best equipment slightly more than having the right set of actions for the circumstances.  Combat is completely centered around planning your strategy and you’re unable to affect anything during the actual duel.  I would’ve liked to see more interactivity during combat, but Duels is about planning and not action-oriented game play.

Gaining equipment comes from fighting duels and gaining tokens which are, in turn, used to purchase packs.  Each pack contains a certain quality of item as well as different scrolls.  Scrolls can do a variety of things, including inflicting damage on the opposing player to healing or buffing your own character.  At the early levels, these can be invaluable in swaying the flow of battle in your favor.

Challenge Games offers membership packages which compliment players with more packs and the ability to share items between each of their characters.  They also offer straight buyouts in which players can purchase tokens or packs directly. All of these have obvious advantages, but that does not mean that the free-to-play player is unable to get to the higher levels.

Events such as tournaments and ladders make the competition even more fierce, since winning an event or gaining a high stature in a ladder can lead to large token rewards.  The system even keeps track of your win-loss record and allows you to scout other players to learn their most used strategies and abilities.

For a browser based RPG, Duels is a refreshing step in the right direction.  From the graphical content and the MMO style equipment system, it’s easy to see why Duels is often referred to as the ultimate time killer.  The interface is easy to understand and the combat is deep enough to provoke enough tactical thinking from most casual gamers.  All in all, Duels will steal quite a few hours away from anyone.  Challenge Games has committed itself to providing quite a bit of content, and they tend to provide updates every week.  If you’re a casual gamer, you owe it to yourself to take Duels for a spin.

Remember the first video game character who really got under your skin? For some of you it may have been that dam dog from Duck Hunt. If you’re a younger gamer, maybe you weren’t really irritated by a game until the end of Portal when you learned the truth about the cake.

The point is, we’ve pretty much all been annoyed by a gaming character at one point or another. So, in the spirit of getting things off our chests, CG is counting down our top 10 most annoying video game characters of all time. Of course this is the sort of list that will vary greatly from person to person, so feel free to rant and rave in the comments section.

Let’s have at it.

10. Sagat (Street Fighter 2)

Sagat was a cool enough character, but his fighting style seemed to consist of something along the lines of; tiger uppercut, tiger uppercut, step back, jab, tiger uppercut, repeat. Occasionally he would throw in a tiger knee or something, but for the most part, it was all tiger uppercuts. Add in the very poor voice sampling tech at the time (especially on the Genesis) and Sagat could get very irritating, very fast.

9. Raiden (MGS2)

Maybe if Raiden wasn’t trying to fill the shoes of Solid Snake, the cigar chewin’, slightly perverted, badass protagonist of most Metal Gear games, people wouldn’t have been so hard on him. Unfortunately for Raiden, he was. It didn’t help that players actually got to play as Snake for a while before taking control of Raiden in MGS2. As it stands, his whiny, “I’m all emo and I don’t like to be controlled” antics mostly just got on everyone’s nerves.

This is a guy who could kill you six times before you hit the ground and all he wants to do is bitch and moan. Goddammit Raiden, just do your job for once.

8. Princess Peach (Mario series)

Next time this chick gets kidnapped Mario should probably just let Bowser keep her ungrateful ass. What’d she ever do for Mario? Baked him a cake, that’s what. You just know she’s not putting out.

In her defense, she looks kind of hot in the Mario Strikers games, but Peach is generally far to pedestrian looking for a girl who’s so high maintenance. And how the hell does she always manage to bake a cake while being held captive in Bowser’s dungeon?

7. Zach (Dead or Alive series)

When this guy’s not trimming his green mohawk or some such nonsense he likes to beat up girls and run around in a friggin’ skin tight, silver onesie. Oh and he named his private island “Zack Island”. As if.

6. Tails (Sonic series)

This weirdo showed up somewhere between Sonic 1 & 2 and basically started following Sonic around against his will. Sonic eventually just accepted his presence.

Truth be told, Tails is a lot less annoying than some of the more recent additions to the Sonic universe (anyone after Knuckles, really), but he still gets on our nerves. Why? He started the whole trend of adding pointless characters to Sonic games rather than focusing on gameplay improvements, thereby ruining the series. He’s sort of like the Jar Jar Binks of video games.

Thanks Tails, you little mutant freak. Thanks a lot.

5. Superfly Johnson (Daikatana)

Remember this game? Probably not. One of it’s main selling points were the a.i. controlled teammates who would accompany you through the whole game. If one of them died, the mission was a failure and you had to start over. This was revolutionary stuff 10 years ago. Unfortunately your teammates were as dumb as toast. When they weren’t busy wandering off a cliff, walking, face first, into a wall or just standing in a crowded hallway so you couldn’t get by they would mostly just walk off directly into enemy fire, getting themselves killed.

Watching out for these guys was an exercise in absolute frustration. Superfly only managed to edge out Daikatana’s other a.i. protagonist, Mikiko Ebihara, by a few points because of his ridiculous name. Superfly Johnson indeed .

4. Tingle (Zelda series)

Tingle’s a creepy little bugger. He can be found prancing about in the woods in a few classic Zelda games, selling his “wares” in exchange for precious rupees. I think Nintendo were going for a sort of whimsical wood nymph kind of look with Tingle, but ultimately he just creeps people out and gets on their nerves.

He ended up gaining a small degree of popularity in Japan where, let’s face it, the weirder, the better, but he was almost universally hated everywhere else. I mean look at this guy. Is it so hard to figure out why people hate him?

Oh and get this; his first solo game for DS was called Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland. Riiiiight.

3. Pikachu (Pokemon)

“Pika! Pika!” Jesus, shut up. Anyone else want to snap this guy’s neck?

2. Mario (Every game ever)

I liked Mario well enough in the old days. He was a hardcore, mushroom poppin’, bad guy stomping tough guy who breaks bricks with his head and always gets the girl (or at least her cake) in the end. So why is he annoying? Well at some point Nintendo decided to give him a voice.

I would have loved to have been there when the casting director told Charles Martinet (voice of Mario) during that first recording session, ” Hey Charles, I love the work you’re doing here, but is there any way you can make Mario sound more like my little sister?”

Why, oh why does THE iconic figure in the history of gaming, a figure more recognizable than even Pacman have a voice that reminds us of an 8 year old girl? I’ll never understand it.

1. Slippy the Toad (Starfox)

Slippy the toad is perpetually in trouble in the Starfox games and he’s always quick to let you know over the radio that he’s got someone on his tail.

On those rare occasions when he actually does his job and shoots down a bad guy he’ll hop on the radio and enthusiastically let you know in that grating voice of his “I got one, I got one!!!”. We know Slippy. The rest of us got several already. Do you hear us bragging about it? This is why Falco and Fox get all the chicks.

Dragon Tavern, by Trident Games, takes a straightforward approach to the casual dungeon crawl.  The game, like any RPG, is all about killing monsters to level your character.  However, the approach is geared toward the total casual gamer and I found the simple, direct combat somewhat refreshing.

Combat in Dungeon Crawl is strictly about percentages.  For instance, you’ve got a base 70% chance to kill a monster and, depending on your skills, character, and equipment, this percentile can go up or down.  Then the engine makes a simple dice roll and if you roll lower than the ending percentile, you kill the monster.  It’s a very simple system, yet makes the game run quickly and efficiently.

Being devoid of storyline, the game is all about killing.  The main thing you’ll be focusing on is which skills to invest your skill points into.  In Dragon Tavern, each character and monster is governed by the “TOAD” system, meaning Tactics, Organization, Attack, and Defense.  It basically works like a rock-paper-scissors aspect in combat.  Certain Tactics are strong against other Tactics, and some, of course, are weaker.  Each stat (Tactics, Organization, Attack, Defense) is matched up against the monsters’ stats, and then adds or subtracts from the ending chance of success.  Therefore, if you’ve got a character who is strong against melee fighting, he would get a bonus to his chance of success if he were facing a melee monster as opposed to if he were facing a monster with magical qualities in their “TOAD”.

Also, there are a number of skills in which you are able to invest.  Some skills offer a bonus to victory if you’re facing monsters with certain attributes in their “TOAD”.  Other skills offer straight bonuses to your chance of victory versus all TOADs.  Like many RPGs, how you distribute your skill points plays a big role in how successful your adventuring career will be.

Equipment is also handled simplistically in Dragon Tavern.  You’ll need to upgrade your equipment often so that you can stay competitive against the monsters you’ll be facing.  If you’re facing a high level opponent and still using very low level equipment, you’ll take a subtraction in your chance of victory.  Inventory and equipment is handled very simply as well.  For instance, after you slaughtered a bunch of monsters, you can return to the Tavern and the system automatically sells all the loot you’ve acquired while on your adventure as well as healing you to full life.  I found this quite nice since I didn’t have to worry about selling items manually or constantly watching my health points.

Having a simple, straightforward approach to inventory and combat is refreshing for me, but this endless dungeon crawl might turn some gamers off.  There’s no storyline in Dragon Tavern and no quest system at all.  It’s purely about slaying monsters to get more experience.  Being able to automatically sell all the useless loot to the tavern is all well and good, but I feel like having an inventory system and acquiring better arms and armor from monsters would bring more people to play this game.  On more than one occasion I found myself completely uncaring of which loot dropped since I was only going to be selling it when I got back to the Tavern anyway.

There are sub-locations you can visit in each zone, which hold different types of boss monsters.  These boss monsters usually hold a lower chance of success for you, and often have more than one hit point (meaning that you’ll need to succeed against them more than once).  Boss monsters, however, often drop much more valuable loot and give a significant amount of experience upon defeat.

One of the bigger draws to the game is the competition groups.  In these, you can see how your character stacks up against everyone else.  Trident Games has implemented many different groups you can join, ranging from the country in which you live to the social network site that you’re on (Myspace or Facebook).  Also, upon reaching level 20, you will unlock the ability to make a hardcore character which gains twice the amount of available actions per day at the cost of only being allowed to die once.  For me, this was where I found the most fun since the competition groups tend to thin out due to characters dying off.

Dragon Tavern is the perfect dungeon crawl for the lunchtime adventurer.  The combat and inventory system is simple and direct which is both a good and a bad thing.  Trident Games does offer certain bonuses which are purchasable through the site, though the bonuses don’t make the game unbalanced or unfair.  Also, they’re fairly cheap, which is refreshing.  While not for everyone, Dragon Tavern does call back to the old dungeon crawlers and should rightfully appeal to most casual gamers.

Today’s flash spotlight is Mytheria, a flash Sci-Fi card based game. Mytheria plays similar to CCG such as Magic: The Gathering, although fortunately it’s nowhere near as complex. As per most card games you collect cards, build decks and try to trash your opponent.

Mytheria stands out among the flash card games simply because of the amount of polish. The graphics are great, the card/battle system is well thought out and Mytheria just plays well.

That’s not the say the game is perfect. There are a lot of ‘Double U T Eff’  moments where you can’t tell what happened. This could be alleviated with a log of events but sadly there isn’t one currently. Also, the AI isn’t the smartest, and the speed of the game is a bit slow. You can change the turn delay speed but it has to be changed manually in each match. Lastly the difficulty ramps up a bit too fast.

With all those issues aside, Mytheria is great game to spend a couple of hours with and is definitely worth checking out.

Play it here

Still can’t find a reason to get excited about Dice’s first person shooter/parkour simulator, Mirror’s Edge? We may have found just the thing to convince you, once and for all, of this game’s awesomeness.

Brad Borne of Borne Games has created an amazing 2d flash version of Edge with the full co-operation of EA. For the moment, Edge 2d is in beta and there’s only one level available. Fortunately, for a game in beta, it’s remarkably smooth and bug free and it’s loads of fun. The most fun I’ve had with a flash game in ages, in fact.

Whether you’re a fan of the full game who’s looking for a fun way to pass some time at work or you’re still on the fence about Mirror’s Edge you should definitely check out Edge 2d.

Play It Here

It has been a bit of a rough week for Casualty Gamer, first we lost our coverage of DLC games and now our forums have vanished! But don’t despair it’s for the greater good.

Since the forums have been pretty deadish anyway I decided its best to share the forums between our sites in hope of getting more activity, also instead of tying it to a single domain we thought it best to register a standalone domain for it, hence gamerloft.net was born.

Also on a side note, Casualty Gamer is going through a bit of story quiet patch at the moment, and it’ll probably continue through until the weekend, but don’t worry CG will be hitting back hard soon.

Golden Axe is a game I’ve played on and off since childhood but never managed to complete. I’ve come oh-so-close on many occasions, but never quite finished the job. This is possibly the main reason I continue to play the game, as some of the gameplay elements leave a lot to be desired…

The game is based in a classic fantasy world of barbarians, fire breathing beasts and magic-wielding elves. The three main characters are a dwarf, a barbarian and a totally stunning Amazonian chick. I’m not kidding guys; check out the box art if you’re not convinced. It’s a shame the Megadrive’s graphics couldn’t back up the hefty promises made on the cover. Anyway… the first thing I love about the game is the care taken with the story and characters. Who couldn’t love a dwarf named Gilius Thunderhead? And the barbarian is named Ax Battler! That was a bit unfair of his parents if you ask me - I mean he was never going to become an accountant with that name. Talk about being typecast from birth. The Amazon is called Tyris Flare, which is still good, but a bit plain compared to the guys.

The story of the game involves the evil Death Adder, who has kidnapped the King and his daughter, as well as the Golden Axe of the title. Each player has their own incredibly unique and personal reasons for going after Death Adder. As the demo interlude screens explain: “Ax Battler - His mother was killed by Death Adder” “Tyris Flare - Her mother and father were killed by Death Adder” “Gilius Thunderhead - His brother was killed by Death Adder”. So basically everyone’s lost someone and its revenge time. As the first level begins a text box also explains that “My good friend Alex was also killed in the battle”. I have no idea who is narrating the story, but it’s the same no matter which character you play with. I also have no idea who Alex was (I don’t think he’s mentioned again in the game…), but he was obviously important enough to all three warriors to merit a namecheck in the story.

Although the characters have near-identical back stories, they do have differing abilities in combat. All of the warriors can use magic to attack all opponents on screen at once, but Tyris has the most powerful magic attack. Gilius has the longest range with his weapon, and Ax Battler is a good all-rounder. Ax and Tyris both use swords (although Ax’s is longer), and Gilius uses a silver axe. It is my theory that the Golden Axe in question is extra motivation for Gilius, as he would get a decent blade upgrade if successful in his quest.

Kick the annoying elves and steal their magic

The game’s graphics and sounds are nothing to get excited about. The characters are fairly well drawn, with limited animations, and the backgrounds serve their purpose in showing a fairly typical fantasy world. There are some amusing death screams for both the male and female enemies, and the music is quite unique, if a little irritating after a while.

As the game begins, you will quickly get used to the controls. One button to attack, one to jump and one for magic. It’s simple, and it utilises all of the Megadrive controller’s buttons. Characters can also perform dashing attacks by double tapping the D-pad, and throws during close combat. One of the things that made Golden Axe stand out from the other side-scrolling beat ‘em ups of the time was the ability to ride various beasts and use their attacks against opponents. The first one you’ll encounter is a strange-looking lizard-type thing with a beak that uses its tail to swipe nearby baddies. However, the Mercedes of the fantasy-beast-transportation methods is easily the fire-breathing dragon, of which there are two types. The first just breaths a blast of fire and has a short range. The best one breathes fireballs which will go all the way across the screen if no one gets in its way. So you want to keep this guy. The only problem is everyone will be attempting to kick you off the beast because they want it for themselves, so chances are you won’t be riding for too long…

In order to use magic, you must first fill up your magic bar. This is done by collecting bottles of magic, which are carried by annoying little elves which pop up from time to time. Sega did the right thing by making these guys annoying, as it motivates the player to attack them to get the magic. It certainly makes me smile every time I see one of these guys get booted in the ass.

The game itself is pretty challenging. The enemies range from barbarians with clubs to skeletons with swords, with knights and big bald guys with hammers thrown in as bosses. Individually they are simple to defeat, but when you’re surrounded by three or so, it can become incredibly frustrating as you are attacked from behind while half way through a move on another opponent. And if a skeleton has you cornered and starts battering you every time you get up, you can basically kiss goodbye to that life, which will probably have you screaming at the TV in rage (or is that just me?) The main bosses aren’t too tough though, they can usually be defeated by just repeatedly performing a running or jumping attack on them. Even Death Adder can be taken down this way.

Another annoying aspect of the gameplay involves jumping over gaps in the ground. This would be a lot easier with more responsive controls, and often you’ll find yourself shouting at the game as your character loses another life because he or she should have been a pixel closer to the edge when he or she leapt. Luckily there are only a couple of jumps like this in the game, and the more cunning warriors out there will manoeuvre their enemies near to the gaps and make them fall in. The AI in this game isn’t too smart and some enemies will voluntarily walk into bottomless pits (which should hopefully relieve some of your frustration with the more irritating glitches of the game).

Careful

Where this game really wins points however, is in two-player mode. The game is so much more enjoyable when played with a friend in co-op mode. You can help the other out when he gets double teamed by skeletons, just be careful not to batter your buddy by accident. It will happen though, and you will turn on each other many times as a result… which is a shame, because as I’ve always said, teamwork makes dreams work.

When you finally defeat Death Adder, the King and his daughter will be lowered to the ground by ropes, in a rather amusing fashion. Job done, you’d be reasonable in thinking. WRONG. After saying thanks, the King says he thinks Death Adder was taking orders from someone else and asks if you’ll go through the big door and continue fighting. Without even giving the player a “no thanks” option, your character accepts the challenge and continues. Personally I like to turn the console off after the King and Princess are rescued, as you’ve pretty much achieved your goal by then. Death Adder’s dead and the royal family are fine. You don’t need a Golden Axe; you’ve got a silver one (or even a nice sword if you’re one of the other characters). Let’s just leave the big door closed and go home.

Okay, so you have to go through the door if you want the Golden Axe. And the shallow, materialistic part of me wants it. However, this is where I get tantalisingly close to the end of the game and fail. Skeleton attacks and clumsy jumps have worn me down by this point and I don’t last too long after I walk through the door. But don’t worry, I’ll continue returning to this game until I get that axe, if only so Alex can rest in peace.

I really like this game. I find it very challenging, and kind of unique with its fantasy, magic and beast-riding themes. The game is still available in shops, as part of the Sega Megadrive Collection on the PSP and PS2, and can also be downloaded on Virtual Console. I think its well worth a go, and if you like it you can’t go wrong with the two sequels either. They are pretty much the same but with better graphics, new characters etc… but why mess with a winning formula??