Battle Axe
And other weapons to grind
Gauntlet meets Golden Axe’ is such a no-brainer pitch, it’s a wonder nobody thought of mashing those two arcade classics together before now. Three distinct playable heroes? Check.1 The ability to upgrade your skills while sat around a campfire? You bet. The only element Henk Nieborg’s Battle Axe really lacks is that feeling of being unable to press on after being bled of your last coin. With such deceitful enemy placement and sparse health drops like this, however, we’re grateful.
Harsh difficulty aside, Battle Axe certainly makes an impression as a not-so-subtle homage to the 16-bit actioners of old. The fantasy art style is bright and pixel perfect, Manami Matsumae’s2 chiptune soundtrack appropriately heroic, and the distinct abilities of Fae the Elf, Iolo the Druid, and Rooney the Marauder makes this a top-down hack-and-slasher worthy of repeat runs. The characters handle more stiffly than most players might be used to, but mechanical choices like this better convince you that this is a lost ’90s gem recently unearthed.
It’s a shame Battle Axe is so punishing at the start, because later stages like the Dragon’s Keep and Lava Mines ooze style and are a visual feast. Luckily, learning the layout and best approach for each becomes gets easier the more runs you attempt, as Battle Axe sidelines its more procedural antics for the totally separate Infinite mode. Here you must navigate an ever-changing maze of rooms not knowing what power-ups or monsters lie ahead, and seeing how long you can hold out is a genuine challenge.
It often leans harder into its retro inspirations than is perhaps completely necessary, but Battle
Axe is still a fitting tribute to the golden era of coin-operated arcade romps.
Aaron Potter