A LEGENDARY SEQUEL?

IGNORE THE NAME, THE TRUE SEQUEL IS ELSEWHERE

Is Legendary Axe II the sequel to The Legendary Axe? The English name claims it to be, and the two share programmer Mamoru Shiratani, but is it really? We posit that contrary to evidence the two games are not related, and the true sequel by Tokuhiro Takemori is The Astyanax in arcades. In Japan the original was Makyou Densetsu (Demon Realm Legend) and the PC Engine sequel Ankoku Densetsu (Dark Legend), with adverts for Ankoku clearly stating it was the follow-up. It had some good ideas: enemies break apart in different ways depending on how you attack them, a screen-clearing sub-weapon, stomp attacks, etc. The US localisation dropped ‘The’ and added Roman numerals. American critics weren’t fooled though and criticised the dissimilarity, both in looks and mechanically. It could be the sequel to Rastan, Rygar, or innumerable other games. We feel the true sequel is The Astyanax. Not just ‘spiritually’ either. Playing it for a few minutes reveals the two are near identical – the physics, locations, enemies, axe-swing animation, deflecting projectiles, statues holding power-ups, charging attack gauge, everything is overwhelmingly alike. Critics did not miss this fact either! Ignore the NES ‘port’ of The Astyanax, it is to the arcade game what Legendary Axe II is to The Legendary Axe.