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Among the best SNES shooters out there

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: April 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Gradius III was.... meh. Lots of slowdown and uninspired graphics and level design. Konami officially redeemed themselves in 1992 with Axelay, one of the best 3 shoot-'em-ups (along with R-Type III and Space Megaforce) on the Super NES.
The game has six levels and is a combination of vertical scrolling (Galaga) as well as horizontal (R-Type). As in Gradius you pick weapons before each stage, but you don't have to power up to use them. You get three weapons, a Pod, a Side, and a Bay. You are given an arsenal that grows as you complete stages and may choose 1 per slot. Pod weapons generally fire straight, side weapons often can rotate and strike in a full 360 degrees, and Bay weapons use the default gun but give you new missiles, which may be fired along with the gun. Each hit by enemy ammunition costs your current weapon but would destroy you if you had already lost all 3. Collisions instantly destroy you.
Axelay is much more pleasing to the eye than Gradius, with large, detailed sprites and neat Mode-7 pseudo-3D effects in the vertical levels. The sound is also much better than Gradius, and more varied than R-Type III.

All in all, this is one game no SNES fan should be without.

DAMN HARD TO CONQUER, BUT DAMN GOOD 9 OUT OF 10

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 23, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Axelay is one of the best space shooters ever created, which is no surprise considering the publisher of the game; Konami; also crafted the exceptional Gradius and Cybernator. And like the latter games mentioned, it is one helluva difficult game to beat, and chances are you will never beat it.
WHAT THE GAME IS: A space shooter similar to Gradius, but it has no upgrades system. A mysterious alien force is eradicating the Illis Solar System, and solar system's fleet of ships is depleting, that's where you come in. With your ship called Axelay you must stop this force from destroying the solar system.
GRAPHICS: The graphics are better than Gradius III's, rather pretty, rather detailed, awesome ship and boss designs, cool level designs, and nice explosion effects, so this game is loaded with graphical juicyness.
MUSIC: It's good most of the time and manages to set the mood, but in some areas it's not that great. But that rarely occurs, so the music is good most of the time.
SOUND: Shooting, explosions, what did you expect?
GAMEPLAY: The controls are very finely tuned and work very nicely and fluidly, though I did notice some instances where I could not get my ship to go up in time to avoid an obstacle, so I did die a few times because the speed wasn't quite fast enough. This game is a one-hit-you're-dead game; like many of it's fellow shooters. However, this game is quite a lot of fun, even if you never beat it, but not as good as Gradius.
OVERALL: Axelay is a highly polished space shooter that will make a standout title in your Super Nintendo collection if you purchase this wonderful game, along with Starfox, Hyperzone, Cybernator, R-Type, and Gradius III to add to your SNES collection because they are well-worth the investment. Just don't buy Vortex, it will only give you pain.
THE GOOD: Highly polished shooter gameplay, good graphics, good music, and lots of challenge.
THE BAD: Challenge will be too much for some, the game isn't as good as Gradius III.

cool game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

great snes shooter. konami made awesome snes games.

Review Page: 1 

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