REAL GAMES - AXELAY

What the hell?  Two really good games in a row?  My luck must be changing!

Axelay is an aerial shooter made by Konami.  The word Konami is generally synonymous with the word awesome, and this game is no exception.  Axelay is what the aerial shooter genre should strive to be.  It's difficult to explain why this game is so amazing without going into further detail, so lets get this review going.

The game starts with a cut scene very reminiscent of the movie Independence Day.  The only real difference is, this planet didn't have Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum to save the day.  So, it went boom.  In fact, the entire solar system's defenses have been destroyed, except for one ship.  The Axelay.  One badass intro for one badass game.

In a world without Will Smith, we would probably lose to the aliens.  But at least we wouldn't have to hear about how his daughter whips her hair back and forth.

Control wise is a little different than the traditional aerial shooter.  Instead of just shooting and dodging, Axelay has a variety of weapons to choose from, and each of them have different forms of attacks.  Holding the button down will shoot in a straight line, but letting go will perform an arc of fire around you.  Experiment with each gun to learn new tricks, as it will be vital to pass just the first stage.

The music for this game is top notch.  If you like listening to game soundtracks, I would definitely suggest checking out Axelay.  Every stage offers very motivating and heavy tunes to jam out to while you are blowing shit up.

Every explosion needs an awesome soundtrack.  I personally blow shit up to Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain.  Something about that song makes me want to put on the spandex and dance around as buildings around me explode.  Don't judge me.

Graphics are superb as well.  Everything from the cut scenes and the parallax scrolling backgrounds to the Axelay sprite itself is done with great detail and excellent colors.  The boss designs are very complex, and the Axelay's weapons are very flashy as well.  Very impressive.

The gameplay in Axelay is extremely difficult.  Unlike most aerial shooters that require you to dodge only enemies and bullets, Axelay throws in stage elements as well.  For example,  a huge chunk of debris is falling towards you that you can not dodge, so you blow it up.  Then you have to dodge the tiny chunks of debris that result from the explosion...or you can blow them up as well.  Meanwhile, enemies are shooting lasers at you and leaving nasty traps for you to blow up on.  All of this happens in a matter of seconds, and only your fast reflexes can save your ass.

Axelay is absolutely amazing.  From start to finish, this game offers only fun.  5 Axelay ships out of 5.  I honestly doubt that any other aerial shooter for the Super Nintendo will even come close to comparing to this masterpiece.