#43 - Astyanax

Oh yeah, clutching the dragon's arm ought to hold him off.



Brother gonna mess that chameleon up.

Isn't it always the way? You're a freshman in high school with aspirations of football greatness and sleeping with all of the pretty cheerleaders, when suddenly you're whisked away to a  strange land to save a princess who's been haunting your dreams?! I know it happened to me at least twice in high school, which is really what makes Astyanax so relatable. Seriously though, this game is a woefully mediocre send-up of Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania.

According to the introductory cinema scenes (thanks Ninja Gaiden!), his name is Astyanax, which he thinks is "Greek or something." Either the boy is a dullard or his parents were negligent (or both): "Astyanax" means "high king of the city" and was a character featured prominently in Greek mythology (several different myths surround him, hence why I'm not expanding on this). Such information has no real merit to the game, though. Astyanax is your typical armored beefcake who likes to SMASH! things in a typical side-scroller that closely resembles Castlevania. On the bottom of your screen, you have lots of hearts, you acquire power-ups here and there, and you attack enemies that constantly reappear. Unlike Castlevania, though, where the power-ups give some variety to the gameplay, power-ups in Astyanax only exist to upgrade your weapon or replenish your hearts or special power, nothing more. When you press up and B, you unleash a fireball attack, destroying everything on screen. Should you die, your weapon upgrades get taken away, making it even harder to progress or care about the game. Each level is fairly short though, and of course, ends with a boss that vaguely resembles characters featured in Greek mythology, like the Medusa. The story is told through cut-scenes, though they're not nearly as flashy or interesting as Ninja Gaiden's. The music wants to be as epic as Ninja Gaiden or Castlevania's, but there's a real lack of creativity in the compositions; 2-2 is especially appalling, because the main section of the song sounds fine, but is soon punctuated with some blotchy fart noises.

The whole point to this review is to say that there are other games on the NES with this style of gameplay, and they're executed much better. Astyanax, like many NES games, began its life as an arcade game, so there's a possiblity some features got taken out upon conversion, but I'm sure the principle of the game - move right and destroy things - is the same. To be sure, the game's features aren't all bad: the controls are solid, as good or better than Castlevania's similar controls, and some of the level design is very atmospheric and spooky. Nevertheless, you're better off playing the games that Astyanax liberally borrows from.

C