Axelay Review (Super Nintendo, 1992)

The shooter genre absolutely exploded with the emergence of 16-bit consoles. Unfortunately the Super Nintendo had a rough go at it in the beginning. Due to technical limitations a lot of these games had slowdown on the platform, and generally didn’t play as well as their Sega Genesis counterparts. Developers eventually found workarounds but it was pretty rough in the beginning. One of the first standout shmups on the platform was Axelay. Developer Konami took advantage of the console’s strengths with this one and it looks amazing. With that said the approach they took is a bit unorthodox. Today I’ve decided to go back and give Axelay another look. Is it still worth playing today? Let’s find out.

Axelay takes place in a futuristic world on the brink of destruction at the hands of an alien force called the Armada of Destruction. Original, eh? You play as a lone pilot who commands the last working ship on the human side. It’s up to you to single handedly destroy the armada and save the solar system from sure destruction. The story is highly derivative but I wouldn’t expect anything else from a shmup released in this time. What’s nice is the fact that you get some story exposition both in the beginning and end of the game. These sequences use still images and text to tell the story and despite some clunky translations they are really nice. We’re not playing a shmup for it’s plot though.

Shooters from this era generally fit under two categories; side view and top down. Axelay takes a slightly different approach. Stages are divided and make use of both perspectives. It’s kind of like Life Force on the NES in this regard. The interesting part is that the top down perspective is more of a behind your ship view. The backgrounds and enemies are all rendered using the mode 7 graphics engine of the SNES. Unfortunately this means that everything is flat. You view the action from a viewpoint that’s a hybrid of behind the ship and top down. The camera is a bit zoomed out but because everything is flat it displays the action in more of a forward viewpoint. It’s a little strange and takes some getting used to. I was able to acclimate pretty quickly and actually liked this.

The other perspective is two dimensional using a side view perspective. There aren’t really any bells or whistles to this. It’s just pure classic shmup action. The different views in separate stages ensures that Axelay never overstays its welcome. Moving between stages is refreshing because of how different the two modes are from one another. It was one of my favorite things about Life Force, and that remains true in Axelay. With that said I did have moments during the 3D segments where I felt light motion sickness. The screen actually moves left and right to a degree with your ship. It makes things more difficult to track. You can also move forward and backwards, and with all the shots coming your way it’s pretty easy to get over stimulated.

Another unique aspect of Axelay is the weapon system. There are no power-ups in this game. Instead you are given the option to equip three different weapons at the start of each level. These include forward shots, spread shots, and bombs. During gameplay you can cycle between your three choices using the shoulder buttons. Essentially this lets you always pick the weapon best suited for each different obstacle and enemy. More of these are unlocked at the completion of each level. The total number of weapons is nine with three belonging to each basic category. It’s a great idea that’s vaguely similar to Mega Man. I like the weapon mechanics and think the system fits Axelay super well.

Axelay isn’t one of those simple one hit and you die shooters. You also don’t have a life bar. Basically each of the three weapons you have equipped function as shields too. When you’re hit by an enemy attack you lose the ability to use the arm you have equipped. When you run out of weapons to cycle through your ship will blow up when you’re hit next. Of course if you touch an obstacle such as a wall or barrier you instantly lose a life. This system is really interesting and unique when compared to other shmups at the time. It changed the way I played to a small degree. In the more difficult areas I tended to use weapons I cared about less so that it wouldn’t be so devastating to lose them.

The level designs are also pretty good. You can’t see very far in front of you during the top down sections but I never felt like a more distant view would have helped. Stages are designed with this limitation in mind. The game starts off simple with few moving parts and less enemies. As you progress though things ramp up. You’ll have barriers you need to destroy, enemy cannons in the terrain, and more. I found the section with shifting gravity to be really unique. One of my favorite segments is a side view area where blobs cling to your ship making it heavier. The boss characters are also really neat. These have specific hit boxes that are often small and difficult to hit requiring specific strategies. This aspect is one thing that elevates it to one of the best Super Nintendo games of all time in my opinion.

I do have a few minor complaints though. For one thing Axelay is really hard. It’s more difficult than your standard shmup from this era. The side view areas in particular are very unforgiving. You’ll be dodging screens full of bullets while managing lots of environmental hazards. One area of the game has walls that close at specific points, but they don’t re-open. They’re also indestructible. This means you pretty much have to know when they’re coming so you can get past them in time. I also found there were often too many enemies to contend with given the rate of fire of your ship. You’ll have to let some of them live to see another day or else risk losing one of your precious weapons. Normally I don’t like simply avoiding foes in this type of game but found it was absolutely necessary in the later areas in Axelay.

At least when you die you’re thrown right back in where you left off, and with all of your weapons. That is provided you have enough lives. You can continue using credits, but these run out pretty quickly. In the options menu you can alter the speed and difficulty. I’m stubborn so I don’t like playing these titles at a lower setting than normal. I can’t even begin to imagine what hard mode is like. Konami was always a glutton for serving out punishment back in these days. Axelay is the perfect example of just how much they wanted their fans to fail.

Unfortunately the biggest issue here is that there’s no multiplayer mode. It’s a crying shame. They were able to implement this mode in Life Force so I see now reason why they passed it up in Axelay. I imagine this may have had to do with the skewed perspective in the top down areas. Things can already be difficult to see and I imagine a second player would only exascerbate things. The lack of multiplayer makes this one feel like it’s lacking content. Axelay is a decent length for its time but after some practice I was able to clear normal mode in around thirty minutes. For a full priced video game in that day and age I would have been rather disappointed.

Axelay looks phenomenal by 16-bit standards. It’s one of the most technically impressive shmups of its time. The use of the mode-7 graphics engine ensures that everything runs smoothly. The faux 3D view is convincing. It’s also a very colorful game. The scenery is beautiful in every stage even the side view ones. While the game does suffer from some slowdown and flickering sprites it’s not nearly as bad in other shmups for the platform. I never really minded it here. The flat terrain and enemies takes some getting used to and looks kind of cheap, but eventually it grew on me. That kind of comes with the territory for a mode-7 based game to be honest. The soundtrack is also very well done. Konami was well known for it’s music, and Axelay might just be one of their best efforts in this regard.