It is, however, far gorier than the original games ever were. Despite this low quality, the game struggles to keep up 60 frames per second. The backgrounds not only lack detail, but repeat themselves over and over. The environments look good from a distance, but the level design is dull. The character models are alright, but Tyris’ running animation is a bit off. While Beast Rider has some excellent concept artwork, very little of it transfers well into the actual game. And while it’s fun to run around and stampede over enemies, trying to control them in close quarters combat is incredibly awkward. The problem is, all of the cool attacks drain the beasts’ health, so you really can’t use them too often. One can, for example, breathe fire, while others can turn invisible. There are only five types, although each has special powers. Some beasts are found being ridden by enemies, and others spawn at summon points, which can be revisited at any time. Sadly, the famous bird beast Chicken Leg is missing, and its supposed equivalent looks almost nothing like it. These include dragons and other steeds similar to the Bizarrians from the arcade game. The window for blocking is also way too short, making it hard to execute effectively, particularly when your view is hindered by other enemies.Īs the title suggests, a big focus is placed on the variety of beasts you can ride. However, it can also be chaotic, especially when you’re stuck in a huge crowd. This allows for a strong defensive game, one that’s actually rather fun when it works.
After defending against an attack, you can counterattack with a powerful blow. Green attacks can be either parried or blocked. Orange attacks can be parried with L1/LB, while blue attacks can be blocked with R1/RB. Most enemy attacks give off a faint glow. The only decent aspect of the combat is the block/parry system. You also unlock various costumes for Tyris, including the classic red/white bikini get-up. However, your weapon can only be switched between the levels. In addition to Death Adder’s weapon, dubbed the “Death Reaver”, you can also obtain the Golden Axe itself in the later stages of the game. These are unlocked by finding “tribute” throughout the stages. There are approximately a dozen weapons, each of which acts the same way but has different properties.
The strikes lack impact, and everything just feels flimsy. The fighting is fairly simple: in addition to weak and strong attacks, there is a “knock back” attack executed by pressing both buttons. Tyris simply chooses a nearby enemy and attempts to follow it, although even this is clumsily implemented. This is a problem because there’s no ability to lock on to foes. But unlike conceptually similar titles such as Devil May Cry and God of War, which use fixed camera angles, Beast Rider primarily relies on a user-controlled camera, which never quite feels right. As expected, the side-scrolling viewpoint has been replaced with fully 3D action, putting it more in line with contemporary games. The game is divided into several chapters, most of which are subdivided into several “challenges”, which act as checkpoints. But outside of these references, and some vague attempts to weave together the storylines of the previous games – the main goal is to assemble the broken Golden Axe – the connections to the older games are fairly sparse. The classic “coin insert” sound effect even shows up. Enemies also turn stone grey after being slain, although they disappear shortly thereafter.
The gnomes also appear in certain areas, giving up magic and meat when attacked, but also poison in later segments. Death Adder is the penultimate foe, and many of the enemies are similar to the old games. Other elements from the 16-bit games are also present. Gilius Thunderhead (whose best line of dialogue is: “By my balls, girl, I thought you were dead!”) and Ax Battler (officially named “Tarik”, perhaps in a nod to the Master System conversion) are only present in cutscenes. The second biggest disappointment is that only Tyris Flare is available as a playable character, though the others take part in the story. The biggest disappointment is a complete lack of cooperative play. Golden Axe: Beast Rider is a sub-par hack-and-slash sharing only the most basic of elements with its predecessors. Their track record was not great, given that they created the ghastly-but-bestselling Iron Man movie tie-in game, and fans panicked that yet another Western developer would screw up a classic Japanese franchise.Īs it turns out, their fears were not unfounded. In 2008 Sega resurrected the Golden Axe license for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, giving it to developer Secret Level.
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