RETRO REBOOT | Astyanax (NES)

Jaleco has been a fascinating brand. They were one of the prevalent game development companies throughout the 80's and 90's, notably for Nintendo Entertainment System. A lot of their arcade stuff is alien to me, but the NES software were regular rentals in our house, namely the Bases Loaded series and infamous titles like Rushing Beat, known here in the United States as Rival Turf. I wouldn't say they produced inherently CRAPPY games, Jaleco fits somewhere into the middle rung of totally playable, but very average titles. For as far as my investigating over the decades has taken me, I think that their overall best NES game (to my knowledge) is Astyanax.

Titled The Lord of King in Japan, Stayanax was developed for arcades by Aicom and publishing was handled by Jaleco. The NES was released not too much later, and simply titled Astyanax, and features a fairly different plot. While the coin-op game lives the tale of Roche, a youth summoned from God to wield the fire axe, the NES game follows the titular hero, a 16-year old from Greenview High School is transported to another dimension. With the aid of the fairy Cutie, he must rescue Princess Rosebud from the evil wizard Blackthorn. Okay, admittedly, these names are peak 80's video games, and I love it.

Like many games on the platform, it's an action platformer. Walk to the right, scale upwards, defeat enemies, and proceed to the next stage. While not a title that I would consider the zenith of Nintendo games, it's certainly more than playable, and has some nuance to call its own. Your standard weapon, the Bash, is an upgradable melee arm (which becomes a spear, a club, or an axe, that comes with a power meter. When at full, your hits do maximum damage, and when depleted, you can wail on enemies, but the impact is minimal. Astyanax can utilize various magic spells up to three times, so as long as you have meter. I do appreciate the philosophy; have obstacles that you can't particularly hammer through, so one has to take their time to proceed and figure out the boss patterns. A tried and true formula.

Visually speaking, Astyanax looks fine. The colors are vibrant enough, and the enemies have a certain pop to them. And for what it's worth, some of the boss designs, taking inspiration form Greek mythology, are actually pretty cool. My issue with it is, there isn't enough of a contrast in the backgrounds, Astyanax himself, and the monsters. This creates a giant haze of hues, and it gets a little bit tough to decipher hazards from safe terrain. As a kid, I've fallen down pits because I wasn't clear what I was able to jump on, and some creatures just blend into the atmosphere, leading to cheap damage taken.

The controls, while decent, are a little chunky. Astyanax is already a huge target, it doesn't help that this hulking juggernaut is not very nimble. Jumping feels a little staggered, as you don't really retain momentum, and the attack range is incredibly suspect. I can't shake the feeling that every enemy has a chance to land a shot on me before I have a chance to evade. The stubby hit box means Astyanax has to practically get in a monster's face to land all-so necessary critical shot, only to either whiff and/or take damage.

While the challenge escalates respectively, and the music is pretty awesome, Astyanax is plagued by some incredibly boring and uninspired level design. Certainly playable enough, but the layout remains so consistently boring, I generally find my brain swimming. Sure, each stage looks a little different, but it's only the graphics that are changing. The template is generally 1) several ground-based monsters in a row, 2) a gap or chasm, immediately followed by a flying enemy, and 3) a combination of one and two at the same time. Template game design at its most mediocre.

Astyanax is not a bad game. But it also isn't that good. It's an NES game that perfectly defines the meaning of STANDARD. It's only six stages, it just feels like it goes on forever. The controls are decent enough, the music kinda kicks ass, and the silly story (which has more dialogue than I remembered) has a mid 80's anime charm to it. Playable, but repetitive. And until I report back with a change of opinion, still the best game I've played with the Jaleco label on it.