Golden Axe: Beast Rider

Posted 4 years ago By - Nelson Hum

Golden Axe: Beast Rider is a game that never should have been made. We’ve all been guilty of this: we think of a game from the 8-bit or 16-bit era, play it, and then realize it wasn’t as fun as it use to be. Not that the original Golden Axe games were the best thing since sliced bread but Golden Axe: Beast Rider has us the unique ability of making a previous generation title better in comparison. Get ready to have your hack n’ slash reunion shattered.

Gameplay

No longer a side-scroller, Beast Rider takes things into the 3-D realm as a third person hacker. Think God of War but without the quality. The main failing of the game is the absolutely horrid camera. Enemies attack you off screen, the camera obscures your view, and your character Tyris CANNOT RUN IN STRAIGHT LINE. Not that she was quaffing too much mead or anything but the camera’s seemingly abandonment of spatial geometry makes something as simple as running in a straight line more impossible than getting Tom Cruise to take a Paxil.

However, once you get past the asinine camera, you’re left with the gameplay, which is not terribly impressive. You get your standard weak, strong, and kick attacks but the combos are dialed in and lack variety. The repetitive gameplay isn’t exactly invigorated by what is suppose to be the most attractive part of the game: riding beasts! In the original games, the beasts allowed you to power through enemies with tail whips, fireballs, and fire breath. Sure, it was a little overpowered but it was always fun to completely whip butt. Things take a horrible turn in Beast Rider, as the riding of your four-legged friend is practically borked. The beast controls as clumsily as Tyris, the melee attacks are difficult to hit with, and the special abilities that could be liberally abused in the original series actually take hit points away from the beast. Tbeasts don’t have extra defense to begin with so your bond with Mr. Clawster is painfully short-lived.


The game features a block/parry system that is color-coordinated with the enemy attacks. It’s a pretty simple system to learn but the thing falls apart like Chinese democracy once you have several enemies attacking you at the same time (some off screen no less). A lack of targeting doesn’t help either so you basically end up being swarmed by enemies and button mashing from one opponent to the next, hoping to interrupt their attacks. There are magical fire attacks that you can level in the game but they’re pretty run of the mill (projectile, personal area-of-effect, etc.)

One of the most glaring omissions in the game is the lack of any co-op play. Sure, the dwarf shows up as well as other familiar faces (like the gnomes who give out potions - have fun hitting them with your wonky camera and controls) but you fly solo the entire time. It’s such a wasted opportunity as Golden Axe was always much more fun with a friend at your side.


Graphics and Sound

The graphics are solid but nothing spectacular as nothing about it screams next-gen. In fact, the game looks like a very polished PS2 title. In a strange decision, the game features very little in-game music at all – just your standard monster growls and protagonist grunts. Everything seems very underdeveloped and rushed.



Value

Well, the game is pretty much a stinker so there’s not much value in playing the game again. There is a battle arena mode that that puts you through a gauntlet of enemies in order to unlock secret items but that is about as ho-hum as the game. Overall, there is nothing much to go back for.


Conclusion

The original Golden Axe series probably sits as a nice warm and fuzzy memory in nostalgic mind but Beast Rider takes that lovely image and gives us a bastardized version of the game. Beast Rider makes all the right attempts to become relevant again (3-D, bloody combat) but stumbles so badly on the fundamentals that you wished the game was axed from development to begin with.

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