Legendary Axe II
System: TG-16
Release Date: October 1990
Developer: Atlus/Red Company
Publisher: NEC
Genre: Action
Take part in a plot of Fratricide in Legendary Axe II! This is supposed to be a sequel to the original Legendary Axe, but the localizers couldn’t have cared less on linking the two titles. You are Prince Sirius and your brother Prince Zach used the powers of evil to take over the kingdom after the death of the king and queen. With evil continuing to seep in from all over, it’s up to you to fight through 7 levels to the royal palace and stop your brother by any means necessary.
We’re treated to another action platformer, where Sirius can jump with Button I and attack with Button II. This is a really straightforward title. For most of the game, there isn’t much variety in enemies. They just run on screen and you need to kill them before they can attack you. Some of them go down in one shot, while others take multiple swipes. Luckily, you can power up your weapon by collecting one of three icons. You start with a sword, which gives you a good arc of attacking range from above you to the ground. The sickle and chain gives you some more range, but is more targeted in attack direction. The Legendary Axe is extra powerful, but isn’t quite as wide reaching as the sword.
Enemies drop your weapon upgrades and can help you out by dropping other powerups. The most useful are single health point restoring half moons. Those, alongside Magic Bombs, are the most prevalent items dropped. More rarely you can find items that restore your entire health bar, grant you an increase to your maximum health bar, and give you extra lives. Enemies don’t seem to respawn and held the same items between lives, leading me to believe that enemies have the same items in each playthrough.
Most enemies were simple to get through, but there were some that I really didn’t like. Some of these goobers would throw out magic bombs that you need to hit or run off screen before it explodes or else you get hurt. I also really hated the boss of level 6 that shows up as a regular enemy in the final level. The skeleton that deflects your attacks is annoying, as well. Some levels are mazelike, requiring you to find the correct path to the boss. The last level is a particularly difficult maze that took me many tries and lives to get to the end. Others have you going vertically and navigating falling floors and falling, a lot.
Bosses are most easily beaten by rushing them and not really playing defense. As long as you have a lot of health, you should be able to put them away before they can end you. Except for the guy with the ball and chain. Once you kill him, you need to take the bouncing ball out, too! When I got to the final boss, I used the Run Button to throw all ten of my magic bombs before hacking away to finish him off.
Graphics: 2.5
Sprites and backgrounds don’t look bad, but Sirius does look quite… muddy.
Sound: 2.5
I didn’t love the music and sound effects, but I didn’t have a problem with them.
Gameplay: 3.0
The game plays smoothly. It’s not deep, but it’s solid.
Difficulty: 2.5
Levels are mostly straightforward and fair. The maze levels are more annoying, though.
Fun Factor: 3.0
I liked my playthrough. It wasn’t my favorite game, but it’s one of the better TurboGrafx-16 games I’ve played.
Overall Rating: 2.7
Legendary Axe II earns a B-. The original may have scored better based on when it came out, but I think this is a better game. Give it a shot!