Yes, it’s advantageous to use them when they’re available, but since one spend so much of each level without them, losing whatever beast the game decides to toss out means little. How many of us remember try desperately to keep that dragon from being hit by those annoying skeletons in order to use it against the level boss? Losing the animal meant that one had to face the rest of Death Adder’s minions on foot and without any tactical advantage.īeast Rider, on the other hand, sprinkles a mixture of five creatures and uses them to seemingly no meaningful end. The original Golden Axe made great use of these creatures by making them easy to use and strategically important. As suggested, Beast Rider concentrates on claiming any of the mighty steeds that appear in each level and using them against their former masters. Let’s start with the dynamic so readily touted in the game’s name itself. A combination of bland level design, poor camera work, and repetitive gameplay leave little to enjoy, and even as a rental, Beast Rider still leaves one wondering what happened. What happened during development is unknown, but the resulting game has little to love. Hints of this were seen in tiny bits, such as the fact that Tyris Flare would be the game’s protagonist, and that those wretched little gnomes would once again taunt us with their wares. To their credit, the developers at Secret Level seem to have a genuine love for everything Golden Axe, as they fondly reminisced in the initial developer trailer that appeared on Game Trailers before the game launched. It might seem like much to ask for, but Sega somehow managed to find a way to make it happen for Panzer Dragoon Orta on the original Xbox, a game which turned out brilliantly. It was that Sega chose a studio which had already stumbled with another classic franchise, coupled with the glaring lack of anyone from the original game being involved. It wasn’t the fact that Sega had chosen a western studio to develop the new game, as in all fairness, many previous games in the franchise, such as Golden Axe III and The Duel, were developed in Japan and weren’t exactly stellar. Anyone who has played either of those two titles knows that they’re not exactly the pedigree to assure that justice would be done to the mighty Golden Axe. The first signs of trouble came when it was announced that the game would be developed by Secret Level, of Iron Man and Final Fight Streetwise fame. Sounds great, right? Yes, well, one had to hang up one’s expectations at this point, as it was all downhill from there. As Gilius pursues the dragon’s captors, Tyris must avenge her tribe’s slaughter and reassemble the parts of the shattered Golden Axe to use against Death Adder’s approaching hoards. The story featured Tyris Flare and Gilius Thunderhead (whom you can’t use) fighting Death Adder’s attempts to capture and manipulate the Dragon Titan. What we got was… decidedly less than that. Sega-16 was always hot on the trail of any news regarding Beast Rider’s impending release, and needless to say, we were hoping for something great. Unfortunately, perceptions began to sour as soon as the first press release made the Internet rounds, and despite the unflinching optimism of many diehard loyalists (toss me in there if you’d like), what finally made its way onto store shelves bears little to no resemblance to anything that ever made Golden Axe such a classic. A new, quality game would go a long way towards bringing Sega back to the front of gamers’ minds, as well as help continue to move the software giant’s back catalogue into the modern era. Here, it seemed, was the perfect chance for Sega to not only revitalize an excellent property from its glory days, but to also extend an olive branch to longtime devotees by finally giving them something they’d long looked forward to. When Sega announced that it was bringing back the Golden Axe franchise with a new installment on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, fans were hoping that the company would make amends for never releasing the arcade hit Revenge of Death Adder on any home console. Genre: Hack-‘n-Slash Developer: Secret Level Publisher: Sega Players: 1 Released: 10/14/08
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