A Fun and Well-Made Game That Still Manages to Feel Lazy.
If there could be a monarchy of relaxed, dull Shoot em' Ups that mocks the old 'save our planet' action-packed ventures through space, Axelay would be its king; beyond maybe the first three levels, Axelay is slow. There's absolutely no sense of urgency or even a sense of adrenaline during combat, the gameplay never really kicks in the dire pace or sense of an epic battle ahead at every turn... your ship is just kinda there amidst the action. Oh sure you occasionally have to dodge a few backgrounds and there's at least one high-speed scrolling space scene that lasts two minutes, but even that eases into an even slower scrolling space station level! Axelay just plods along, almost blatantly showing off everything it can.
This almost seems intended for Axelay though because the graphics are undeniably fantastic. From the parallax scrolling to the Mode 7 effects, Axelay focuses on detail with a fine tooth comb; if looks could kill, Axelay would be on the FBI's most wanted list! Objects in the distance actually have certain atmospheric effects like there's actually some distance between you and the objects and some the bosses make TV static effects when you hurt them (so what we're fighting electricity?). The foreground enemies and bosses are truly stellar and show just as much attention to detail in every movement and attack they make. If anything, the foreground objects in the vertical scrolling look too much like 2D objects being rolled over a printing press. Still, Axelay's got the looks and rich color palette to be a visual contender on the SNES.
Even the weapons look cool in this one! Because this is a Konami Shooter, a major emphasis must be put on the variety of weapons the title ship* gets to use. You get two types of standard attacks including a nifty Vulcan that fires in a circle, three types of stronger attacks including a multi-directional laser beam (what I call the Love Laser) and three types of missile upgrades which are your bog standard missile upgrades.
What got to me about Axelay is how its own subtle and sweet innovation actually deterred the action. This is pretty common in video games, but I wasn't expecting it in a game with such good ideas. It was a marvelous idea to have the Player ship be able to take damage from enemy shots without dying on the first hit, but it was a pretty stupid idea to have the ship die instantaneously once it comes into physical contact with anything that isn't a bullet. At first this made sense, but what doesn't make sense is how this also applies to alien life forms you encounter in the fourth stage who aren't even traveling that fast; I'm pretty sure if my space-ship - designed to take the pressures of space and enemy bullets - could survive crashing into an alien insect the size of a baby elephant traveling at the speed of one. This also applies to streams of fire in stage 5 which is sort of like having a spaceship that explodes if it grazes water; I mean lava I could get, but fire?? Wasn't my ship engulfed in fire once it entered this planet's atmosphere? Yeah, yeah, I realize most Shmups have your ship get hurt by fire, but in those Shmups, the ship only had one hit! I just don't see how you can have a ship that can take a homing missile to its hull, but touching a dinky metal drone, alien insect, fire or a wall can destroy it completely.
Not having any Checkpoints was also an excellent idea, but having to start an entire level over again while dealing with only three lives per play gets a little aggravating after awhile. And no, the Options give you no choice: choosing the difficulty of the game only increases or decreases Lives and Continues. The ability to change the firing button's response and brightness are certainly advanced options to meddle with, but Axelay doesn't have the options that really matter like individual control over Lives, Continues, Extend Bonuses or even a Sound Test/BGM mode.
Not that the Soundtrack was entirely stellar. Oh don't get me wrong, it sounds really awesome in select areas and it gives the game its own personality, but when it isn't that it's unremarkable. The only time the soundtrack ever really pulled me in was in the first four levels; Everything else was just either too harmless like in the last level or irritatingly kooky like the first stage boss or stage 5. I appreciate a Shmup having individual boss themes, but the only ones in Axelay that were really energetic, threatening or even catchy were the boss fights with the giant ED-209 drone and the giant mechanical witch's hat!
The main score tries to go for something really triumphant or fantastic, but sometime after Stage 4 the soundtrack just losses its energy and mixes in with the sound effects. Speaking of which, the sound effects are pretty good, but then there's the fact that 90% of the enemy explosions don't sound like explosions at all. Shooting enemy vehicles just makes a tiny pop or wiggle or something. I actually heard the sound effects in stereo and it sounded more like an alien trying to talk. The Hell? Since when was I fighting bioships? Are we fighting bioships?? Seriously, what the Hell are we fighting in this game besides generic aliens?
The plot is so overdone and pointless that I wish it involved human space colonies... yes, it's that bad. Axelay takes place in a galaxy similar to ours (but not) where the planets that are inhabited by people who look human (but really aren't) are attacked by a huge alien armada until only the planet Corliss, a terrestrial planet that looks like Earth (but isn't), is left and it's up to you to save that planet and the colonists around it from the invaders who are intent on draining the planets in the Illis System of their resources... for no reason whatsoever. Yes, that's basically it: Earth is being invaded by aliens, it's up to you to save it, the only difference is it's not really Earth. Normally I'd just brush over this kinda thing, but seeing how Corliss actually has buildings, settings and inventions almost carbon copy from Earth just makes me wonder. Seriously, in level 3 the cities you fly over has football fields, a ferris wheel and ****ing Tokyo Tower!! $30 says the Statue of Liberty is submerged on a beach head somewhere on this planet. Then of course, that city is located in a huge canyon, so maybe it takes place on Earth as seen by Akira Toriyama comic... Could you imagine of the Darius series was this lazy?
I guess I'd still recommend Axelay, though; it's a pretty good game, but depending on how good it is should be entirely subjective. From my personal subjective opinion, I felt it was pretty good for occasional play-throughs and it certainly looked great, but that doesn't mean I'm going to hold it up on a golden pillar and call it the Shmup to end all Shmups; with a plot that took about three seconds to write, inappropriate sound effects library, mixed combat signals and an awesome score that drones on halfway through, Axelay is a good game but not OMG stellar. On a final note I have to say the promise of an Axelay 2 should be fulfilled because any game that ends with a 'Look for game title 2' or 'To Be Continued...' when such a sequel doesn't exist instantly deserves to be criticized.
*: Great, first I never found out what a Verytex was, now I have to find out what the Hell's an Axelay!!