Anyone who was around in the 1980’s will remember all the classic games of the time that we couldn’t wait to get home to play, R-type, Sonic the Hedgehog and of course Golden Axe. All of these games have been remade at some point and now it is the turn of Golden Axe to return to the fray, this time on the PS3 and Xbox 360.
If there was one game that I always used to enjoy playing with my friends it was Golden Axe, it was a bit like a Medieval Street of Rage, swapping broken bottles for sword and axe, oh and it was good, very good. Unfortunately however the same cannot be said for the latest remake, Golden Axe: Beast Rider is to be frank, a game that should never have been made.
The premise of the game is to rebuild the Golden Axe to help you in your quest for vengeance against the armies of the Death Adder who have massacred everyone in the land. This will result in you pounding your way through level after level of enemy until either a) you fall asleep with boredom or b) you come to your senses and turn the game off before it puts you off gaming forever.
Now there have been plenty of games before which rely on killing hordes of enemies as the main draw, but at least these games bring something interesting to the party, Beast Rider on the other hand brings nothing but a weak combat system and poor graphics and to be honest that is me being kind. Combat is assigned to two buttons, one for a weak attack and the other for a more powerful attack, pressing both together will enable you to kick opponents. Dodging and parrying is pulled off by pressing one of the two shoulder buttons, when enemies attack they will glow a certain colour, so pressing the corresponding shoulder button and then quickly attacking will cause you to dodge/parry and then counter attack and this usually causes more damage. Unfortunately due to a delay in the animations when parrying you will usually end up flat on your behind, meaning that you are probably best just attacking and getting through the fight that way.
Another way to defeat enemies is by using magic, this allows you to use one of two spells to cast at the enemy providing you have enough mana, one spell throws a fireball at the enemies while the other will cause a flame to erupt around you and cause them to fall to the floor while remaining on fire.
The levels don’t really improve as the game goes on, you will find yourself going through various environments which don’t really offer much to look at, and these are all filled with practically the same enemies you have defeated in the previous levels give or take a few differences, to be honest if you manage to play this game for more than a few hours then you really are doing well.
The game isn’t called beast rider for no reason as throughout the levels you will come across the Mirigore and Kromath, these beasts allow you to ride them and they have special attacks such as trample and fire breathing, they also come in useful for knocking down gates, however the frustrating part comes when your beast gets killed and you have to run all the way back again to where you summoned it from just so that you can get another beast and open a gate.
Once you complete a level you will be ranked on how you do and assigned a letter, you are then able to play through any level you want to again in order to improve your rank, although why you would want to is beyond me. Completing levels also unlocks the arena battle mode, this sees you fight against wave after wave of different enemies in order to obtain glory and if that sounds exciting to you then, well what can I say.
Even writing about Golden Axe: Beast Rider is depressing me, the sooner I get this game out of my head the better, and all I can say to those nostalgic fans out there who want a taste of the new Golden Axe is, keep those good memories of yesteryears game in your head and avoid this game at all costs.
Our Rating for Golden Axe: Beast Rider
1.0
Story Practically none existent.
3.0
Lastability You wont want to play this for too long.
3.0
Playability Not very enjoyable at all.
3.5
Originality No real story and nothing new elsewhere in the game.
4.9
Graphics Last gen graphics for a last gen game.
4.0
Sound Just as good as the rest of the game, in other words not very.
2.9
Overall Probably one of the worst games to hit the Xbox 360 and PS3 yet, not the remake that everyone was hoping for.
Did you use your "wotta" gamercard when playing the game for review? You have one achievement for the game. As someone who played the game I got a lot of achievements just playing the game through once... "Brutal Boost" "Forge the Axe" and "Abrax Master" are fairly simple to unlock and basically happen automatically if you try to beat the game once. I got the "Gnome Intimidator" achievement - your only achievement - on level 2.
I am only commenting for one reason: to accuse you of not playing this game thoroughly, wotta. If you’re going to give a game an abysmal score like 2.9 I assume you have very good reason, as do other people out there who rely on your site for buying decisions. If you’re unwilling to play a game through to the end than why am I going to read your site over one that will? At least on those sites I know the reviewer has the integrity to do the job we assume them to be doing.
Accuse me of what you will, of being a shill for SEGA or a diehard fanboy or whatever. I still call out this review as an example of game journalism at its worst.
80 days ago
New to the site, first time poster:
This review is completely suspect based on your gamercard status, Wotta.
http://live.xbox.com/en-US/profile/profile.aspx?pp=0&GamerTag=wotta
Did you use your "wotta" gamercard when playing the game for review? You have one achievement for the game. As someone who played the game I got a lot of achievements just playing the game through once... "Brutal Boost" "Forge the Axe" and "Abrax Master" are fairly simple to unlock and basically happen automatically if you try to beat the game once. I got the "Gnome Intimidator" achievement - your only achievement - on level 2.
I am only commenting for one reason: to accuse you of not playing this game thoroughly, wotta. If you’re going to give a game an abysmal score like 2.9 I assume you have very good reason, as do other people out there who rely on your site for buying decisions. If you’re unwilling to play a game through to the end than why am I going to read your site over one that will? At least on those sites I know the reviewer has the integrity to do the job we assume them to be doing.
Accuse me of what you will, of being a shill for SEGA or a diehard fanboy or whatever. I still call out this review as an example of game journalism at its worst.