Golden Axe: Beast Rider – 360 – Review

Anyone who grew
up haunting their local arcades in the Golden Age of video games will remember
two warriors and a dwarf take on an army of angry barbarians as well as
monstrous beasts that make up the fantasy hack-and-slash action game. Golden
Axe was one of those fun games you can play with two other players. It was
good enough that there was even a sequel. Now Sega has resurrected Golden Axe
with Golden Axe: Beast Rider for the Xbox 360. This would have been
great news, especially to a fan like me, but what we have here is a
disappointing hack-and-slash action game with not much to offer.

Instead of
bringing back the trio of heroes from the original, Beast Rider focuses
its attention on the group’s only female warrior named Tyris Flare. Tyris is not
only an Axirian but also a formidable warrior who arrives on time to see her
sisters performing an ancient ceremony in honor of the last Titan that just so
happens to be a dragon. During the ceremony, however, the barbarian army of the
evil Death Adder attacks and slaughters the Axirian sisters but also captures
the Titan. It is up to Tyris, the last of the sisterhood, to rescue the Titan
and put a stop to the Death Adder that threatens the land.

Armed with a
sword and a very limited number of moves, Tyris embarks on a rather lengthy
adventure that takes the warrior through dangerous terrain. Like the original
you’ll be slicing through enemies, unleashing a special attack and you’ll even
get to ride on a beast. This time around, however, Tyris is able to block and
parry and perform counter attacks. She even learns magical spells that offer
more firepower when she really needs it the most.

The minute you
start the game’s opening level, however, you’ll see most of everything you can
look forward to in terms of combat. Tyris can parry and evade depending on a
color-coded attack on your enemy’s part. Your enemies’ weapons will either flash
blue for when you need to deflect a blow or orange when you need to evade a blow
all of which is done with the RB and LB buttons. Blocking and evading
successfully gives you an advantage by performing counter attacks that dish out
more damage. The problem is that these moves are repeated throughout the game
offering you very little in terms of variety in the combat department. Even when
the enemies change you’ll still dismember the bad guy the same way.

Death Adder’s
loyal men and monsters do change along the way and the bigger enemies do provide
something of a challenge despite the fact that if you know how to defeat them
the first time they’re not so much fun to take down all over again. In fact,
there are times when the enemies allow you to kill them. The enemies can be a
bit on the dumb side, oftentimes waiting for you to attack first. The various
levels don’t even allow you the freedom to move beyond the designated path.
Bringing back the beasts you can ride is a nice nod to the arcade original but
they move quite sluggishly and its easy to be knocked off your beast … thus
leading you to kill your beast when the enemy uses them against you.

Tyris does get
some help from magic spells that allows her to shoot dragon fire at her enemy or
you can cast a spell that protects her with a ring of fire. The best spell,
though, summons the legendary Golden Axe that can be used for a limited time.
This weapon can be thrown at enemies as well as trigger door-opening levers.
These things, however, just don’t make up for the poor level design and boring
combat that make the single-player story mode so dull. It’s also very hard to
die seeing as there are health items everywhere and the game even brings back
the annoying gnomes you can whack with your sword for health and mana (for your
magical attacks) items.

While this is
the story of one character, it’s hard not to imagine a Golden Axe game
without multiplayer co-op. The characters from the arcade classic do pop up in
the story so it would have made sense to include them as sidekicks in a
multiplayer co-op mode or maybe even an extra game mode. Speaking of extra game
modes, Beast Rider has two of them. Challenge Mode has you going through
any of the levels you unlock while playing the game’s main mode. Since you are
given a score throughout the story mode, you can beat your previous score in
Challenge Mode to earn items you might have missed the first time around. Then
there’s Trails of Tyris where you take on an endless stream of enemies in
various arena settings.

Visually,
Beast Rider doesn’t look like it belongs on the Xbox 360. Sure, the
character models aren’t bad to look at despite the fact that Tyris doesn’t show
many facial expressions during cut scenes or in the middle of a battle. The
surroundings just don’t look as good as they should on a next-generation system
and they tend to have a dull, washed out appearance that quite disappointing.
Still, the visual effects aren’t too bad and the monsters in the game do look
good enough. The sound includes a passable soundtrack that fits the fantasy
theme nicely and the sound effects might not be detailed but they’re good
enough. While a lot of the lines are on the cheesy side, the voice acting is
handled well enough.

In the end,
there’s very little to like about Golden Axe: Beast Rider for the Xbox
360. It’s a repetitive hack-and-slash action game that just isn’t diverse or
inspiring enough to be a fun romp even for fans of the classic arcade game.
There are just a slew of problems that plague this game but there’s no excuse
for unexciting battles and a by-the-numbers approach to level design. Sorry,
Sega, but this is one Golden Axe game we will be skipping altogether.

Review Scoring Details for Golden Axe: Beast Rider

Gameplay: 4.0
Tyris is on a quest
to avenge the sisterhood with her blade but, unfortunately, the combat in the
game makes this adventure quite boring and really repetitive even with the
beasts. The level design is also uninventive and the game lacks the co-op
goodness of the arcade original.

Graphics: 5.0
The game’s visuals
are a mixed bag with the character models slightly better than the dull
backgrounds and flat landscapes. Even the visual effects and cinematic cut
scenes lack that next-generation look.

Sound: 4.5
The music isn’t
spectacular but it does the fantasy theme justice. There are also decent sound
effects and the voice acting isn’t bad despite the weak dialogue.

Difficulty: Medium
You’ll occasionally
encounter big brutes that swing powerful weapons or magic users but it’s nothing
a little mindless swinging of your blade can’t remedy. There isn’t much here in
terms of a real challenge and the only way you’ll die in the game is if you
ignore the block and evade buttons.

Concept: 4.0
There’s Challenge
Mode and Trails of Tyris to look forward to when you finish the game but these
are minor bonuses most gamers will skip altogether. My biggest complaint,
however, is the fact that there’s no co-op multiplayer. This just doesn’t feel
like a Golden Axe because of it.

Overall: 4.0
Poorly conceived and
quite dull in nearly every way, Golden Axe: Beast Rider is one of those
missed opportunities that could have brought the series to a new generation of
gamers. Instead it takes a linear route that makes this a game even Golden
Axe fans will certainly want to avoid.