Legendary Axe II 1990 By: NEC

Overview:

"The Legendary Axe II" is the follow-up to the one of the greatest horizontal scrollers of all time. So it's a sequel, kind of, but no, not really. While "The Legendary Axe II" adopts many of the same gaming aspects of the original, it lacks the nuance and difficulty that made "The Legendary Axe" a superstar. The fact that "The Legendary Axe II" doesn't quite stack up to the original should not deter gamers from playing it. "The Legendary Axe II" features some of the best graphics available on the TG-16 system, and stays true to the simplicity that made the series so approachable in the first place. "The Legendary Axe II" succeeds in creating a very ominous tone in comparison to the previous entry, accomplished with frightening enemies, desolate level backgrounds, and a chilling soundtrack.

The change in weapon systems, and the diminished difficulty (I completed the game in under 45 minutes) caused me to question the veracity of "The Legendary Axe II's" claim of being an authentic sequel (these aspects are what made the first entry so original). I wasn't even aware of this game's existence before discovering it on Console Classix, but I was glad that I did as it is a fun and addictive game.

The player controls Prince Sirius (seriously) as he fights through shrines, caves and dungeons in his quest to defeat the evil Prince Zach and his demented followers.

Directions:

"The Legendary Axe II" is a horizontal side-scrolling platform slasher. As Prince Sirius, the player must hack and slash their way through seven stages that look as though they were ripped out of the "Game of Thrones" universe. The player has a finite amount of time to complete a stage. Prince Sirius begins the game with three lives. When Prince Sirius' life gauge has been drained completely, he will expire and restart at the beginning of the stage. The life gauge is illustrated at the top left side of the screen. The life gauge's maximum can be extended by obtaining items. When all of Prince Sirius' lives have been exhausted, the player will be given the option to continue. Using a continue will restart the adventure at the beginning of the level that the continue was used. The player may continue up to three times. Once all three continues have been used, the game is over, and the player must restart.

"The Legendary Axe II's" weapon system is completely different than the original. In "The Legendary Axe II", the player increases weapon power by picking up weapon power-ups. There are three different weapons that Prince Sirius can wield, an axe, a sword, and a sickle and chain. Regardless of what weapon Prince Sirius is currently wielding, any of the weapon power-ups will raise the damage of his attack. The strength of the weapon is illustrated in segmented bars in the upper right side of the screen, ranging from one to five bars. Prince Sirius can also utilize bombs that decimate everything on the screen. Bombs can be dropped by fallen enemies.