Axys : The Last Battle

Copyright : Amstar | Reviewed by : Malc Jennings

Released in 1990 this is one of the recent shoot-em-ups for the Amstrad CPC, it tries to imitate the Amiga classic, Xenon by The Bitmap Brothers in just about every way possible but we?ll talk more on that in the review below. The idea is simple, fly your spaceship and blow everything to bits.

Graphics

Axys is certainly not a bad looking game, it features some great looking level designs, a fair amount of detail and attention paid to the graphics and enemies that blow you to bits and a decent amount of colour. It?s not without drawbacks though, anyone that has played Xenon on the Amiga will no doubt recognise the game style and appearance, pretty obvious that one game has used the same ideas from the other. It?s not quite as good as Xenon in terms of appearance or performance, the bugs in the game can only be witnessed first hand but the collision detection is just one thing that is overly protective and will remove your full energy bars within 20 seconds of gameplay.

Sound

Sound is reasonable, some nice introduction music is featured on the two title screens it shows you (the first is a rotating block with Axys written in it and the second is a nice looking still image) but the game itself is pretty silent, a nasty mistake that won?t go down very well with the shoot-em-up fans out there.

Gameplay

Gameplay is again reasonable, if you?re a die hard shoot-em-up fan then you?ll love this title as it certainly is a challenge. The collision detection we mentioned earlier does cause a few problems and you?ll soon be on your second then third lives before you complete the first wave, as we say though - the most die hard might just be able to get through it.
Controls are easy enough, the game isn?t overly bad looking, bugs are annoying but few and far between (unlike some others) and if you like your shoot-em-ups it?s a challenge for you. Those who have a bad temper on the other hand might want to stay clear from this one if you value the life of your CPC keyboard and the joystick plugged into it.
It?s not an award winner but then again we?re not so keen on top-down shooters and not a massive fan of Xenon on the Amiga either. Try it for yourselves if you don?t want to take our word for it and feel free to send us your review.