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Emerald Rocker wrote:
Also worth noting is that the story revolves around a "damsel in distress", which offends me.

This is one of the common tropes of video games, movies, comic books, everything. I'm not sure why you would be genuinely offended by it. If there was a game about cops rescuing sex slaves would you be as offended by that?

There are moments of cheapness scattered about. For example, the Punjabbi (shield-bearing, spear-wielding giants). Their thrown spears can be ducked, but if they decide to poke their pointy sticks at you... SORRY! You get hit and lose a lot of life! The fight against two of them, while exciting, isn't even remotely fair -- as you're trying to recharge your Axe Gauge to get a second hit against the behemoth on the right, the guy from the left will creep right up on your ass. And then you're screwed! It's a situation where the only consistent way to win... is to try again and hope that this time, the terrible twins won't crowd you to death. They should have given Gogan the ability to perform evasive rolls.

The trick is to get both of them on the right side, usually one hangs towards the center of the screen and the other on the far side. When one comes at you hit it with as much of a charge as you can. Are you likely to take some unnecessary damage. Sure, but that's the status quo for platform action games from the late 80s.

Holding the game back further is its simplistic level structure. Most of the stages are more straightforward and more easily managed than what you'd find in Ninja Gaiden or the Mega Man games. The instruction manual proudly proclaims "find keys to open secret areas!" There's exactly one key in the game -- it's a one-shot secret in the third level. That's a nice inclusion, but when a game already has several foibles, it needs more coolness than such a minimal "secret" to establish itself as worthwhile amongst the hundreds of platformers available today.

I'll agree it hasn't aged well but putting its release in 1989 in the US into context. Only Ninja Gaiden 1 was available in the US. Castlevania III hadn't come out yet. For the type of game it was, it was among the best in the time it was released.

Between being "offended" by rescuing someone and hating on Blazing Lazers, this is clearly a troll.

Emerald Rocker wrote:Haha, I admit the line about being offended was a joke.

That was obvious, just some good-natured ribbing.

There's not really a dispute about the substance of what you said: lack of secrets, straightforward platforming on the easy side (at least the first couple of zones, it did pick up further on in the game), annoying bounce backs, but I still find the game full of charm and like it. I like the artwork, and a tromp through it is fun rather than difficult, not unlike Sonic, if a comparison can be made. The music is great, and the platforming isn't so hard like the end of Ninja Gaiden nor is it so easy that you won't die attempting them.

Hm, now I want to play some Legendary Axe.