Every now and then my nostalgia will get the better of me.
I saw this cartridge at a used game store and could have sworn it was a game from my
childhood and one I really enjoyed.
I get it home turn it on only to discover nothing at all that was familiar to me.
But that didn’t stop me from giving it a go, this is Astyanax for the Nintendo Entertainment
System.
Released in 1990, Astyanax is a side-scrolling platformer published by Jaleco and was originally
an arcade game that got ported to the NES.
The general concept and gameplay remained mostly the same but the story and graphics
were completely different.
You are Astyanax, a name from Greek Mythology...
I think, a 16 year old high school kid that is sent to another world to save the Princess
Rosebud, from the evil wizard Blackhorn and his assistant Skeletore....
Your helper is a fairy named Cutie who gives you a magical axe called “Bash” and you
must face Blackhorn’s minions and save the day.
Gameplay in Astyanax is a typical platformer, jumping and swinging your axe at foes.
You also get three spells, fire, lightning and time-stop spell that you can use against
baddies.
They’re pretty useful, but you are limited in their use based on the gauge at the bottom
of the screen.
Also down there is your life meter as well as a power meter.
This is kind of a unique feature for the game.
Usually button mashing is your best bet in a game like this, but actually letting your
power bar fill up will let Astyanax hit a lot harder.
You may not notice at first, but as you progress your power limit will be increased.
Graphically, Astyanax is fairly impressive.
The story is told via cut scenes a la Ninja Gaiden, and the sprites look pretty decent.
Astyanax is quite a large sprite though, bigger than most games.
This can make for some awkward movements and difficult hit detection at times.
Levels are not only horizontal but sometimes vertical traveling either up or down.
Monsters come in a variety of styles from fly across the screen type, to pop out the
ground, to skeletons shooting you and this Metroid looking guy that will chase you and
drop projectiles till you finally take him out.
Levels consist of mini-bosses and arch-bosses, it’s an inconsistent mix of 1 or the other,
both, or none at all sometimes.
This was kind of rough though because sometimes you face a miniboss, which isn't too tough,
but if you use too much magic or take too many hits and the end bosses will be that
much tougher.
Overall the difficulty is a well balanced in my opinion.
Dying sends you all the way back to the beginning of a stage, getting a gameover is not that
detrimental since you have infinite continues.
Which is pretty much the way to get through Astyanax, learn the enemy movement patterns
and start progress much easier.
The hardest parts of probably the stiff movements and jumps and of course getting knocked into
pits....
Researching this game a bit I found there to be quite a difference of options on it.
Most seemed to either love it or hate it.
So let me know what you think down below, did you have Astyanax back in the day?
Enjoy it?
Want to throw your controller across the room anytime you played it?
Or if you never played it, share a time your nostalgia tricked you and you got a game you
remember as great but ended up not being worth the $1.75 you spent on it.