Axelay - SNES
The screenshots of this game got my nob well hard back in the day, one similar to that featured above in particular, and I was really excited for it's release. It looked really fucking cool, and I grabbed it the second it was out. However, I remember very little about it after that, barely a sliver, other than folk in our gaming circles talking it up and me hardly ever playing it. Soon after it was gone from my collection to never be seen again. Let's see why.
Well if ever the term "mixed bag" defined a game, this is it. For every plus, the game seems to carry a negative. This is immediately apparent with it's alternative "top down" style in the first stage, which relies hugely on MODE 7. Presentation is in general excellent.....IF you can get past the weird as fuck stretchyness which comes with said MODE 7. For every awesomely drawn section and sprite, things also look flat, deformed, and out of place, and whilst half of you is thinking "wow", the other half is thinking "ugggh, that looks weird".
And this extends to the game in general. See it relies heavily on selecting the right weapon for the right job, and that has both it's pros and cons. On one hand it makes it a tad more "strategic" and adds a bit of depth & replay value, but on the other it also adds a level of trial and error which doesn't really sit great in a SHMUP, as there's already enough on with learning enemy & level patterns etc. For example, a big part of the fun I had with the early game was down to it's multi-directional "bendy" laser. It's quite a vital weapon to getting through certain sections, and the way they implement this to move with the length of the button press was quite novel, useful and fun all round. But then when I take a hit and I have to drop back on to a set of missile's, things become awkward and annoying at the drop of a hat. Normal shooters have the promise pf powers ups arriving to give you hope you can survive to pull yourself out the slump, but not Axelay. The only way you get that weapon back here it to die. From fun to frustrating in seconds. And, as there are no powers ups, speed ups, shields or extra lives throughout the stages too, it fails to satisfy on that front as well, as there's very rarely any feeling of reward for surviving a section either.
But most annoyingly for me, rarely do you feel like a bad motherfucker. I'm all about the kill, yet this is geared up to make you feel good in other ways. Instead of being satisfied you annihilated a wave of enemies, you feel glad that picked the right weapons & employed the right strategy so that you got through, which is a bit limp to me. The main weapon is also weedy as hell, and most other weapons feel like that anyway for that matter, even if they're suited to the situation. Quite often I'd attack an enemy from the second it entered the screen to the second it left, and if that was with the standard weapon it wouldn't touch them. Very unsatisfying, and a big part of how much you enjoy this game will stem from how much survival as opposed to destruction satisfies you. Personally I want to kill & destroy, and left most sessions with my kill-instinct still hungry.
And between different level types, new weapon types each level, different enemy types, different level hazards etc. the game probably throws too much at you at once, and personally I struggled to get into much of a rhythm with it too. The more you play, the less this becomes an issue obviously because you learn what works, but I just found myself thinking "I'm learning the game, it's getting easier, but where's that feeling of payoff, and where's my buzz?"
Axelay's a clever shooter with a lot of unique elements and more of a thinking man's SHMUP than for rush junkies like me. Some elements are really welcome & fresh, others drag the whole thing down. As a whole package it left me feeling as puzzled and unsatisfied as it did refreshed. If you're the type of person who likes to work towards a grade A in an exam, and gets a buzz out of that then this may be for you. If, like me, however you want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women you're gonna be disappointed here.