History VideoGame / Astyanax

* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: Almost literally! After battling through a fantasy world inspired largely by Greek mythology, the last level of the arcade game puts you into a Giger-esque {{Biomechanical}} setting straight out of ''Film/{{Alien}}'', where you kill wave after wave of Facehugger-like creatures, and take on the Alien Queen herself. It does ''not'' fit in with the rest of the game at all.

* TimeStandsStill: The Bind spell freezes everything on the screen for a few seconds. You can use it on the first two bosses, but every boss after that will simply ignore it and keep attacking you anyway.

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Averts this hard! [[spoiler: After Cutie sacrifices herself, the rest of the game has none of her powerups in it.]]

* MagicalMysteryDoors: Those in Thelenea, level 6-1. The secret is to [[spoiler:look for the doors guarded by skeletons; those are the ones you want to take.]]

* BossRush: Well, actually a Sub-Boss Rush. The final stage, Blackhorn's Tower, makes you fight a handful of sub-bosses from earlier levels (without healing) before you get to fight him yourself.
* SummonEverymanHero

* WombLevel: The final stage of the arcade game inexplicably drops you in a Giger-esque alien hive, complete with facehugger-type creatures, and the HiveQueen as a {{final boss}}.

* [[BossRush Sub-Boss Rush]]: The final stage, Blackhorn's Tower, makes you fight a handful of sub-bosses from earlier levels (without healing) before you get to fight him yourself.

'''''Astyanax''''' ([[MarketBasedTitle released]] as '''''The Lord of King''''' in Japan) was a side-scrolling action game released by Creator/{{Jaleco}} for the arcades and the NintendoEntertainmentSystem. It is not a game about Greek Mythology.

* AmericanKirbyIsHardcore: [[http://www.kidfenris.com/astyanaxcover.html Inverted]]; Astyanax looks less manly in the NES version's cover illustration than in its Famicom counterpart (which used the same artwork as the arcade version's brochure).

* MagicalMysteryDoors: Those in Thelenea, level 6-1. The secret is to [[spoiler: look for the doors guarded by skeletons; those are the ones you want to take.]]

* SpiritualSequel: To the TurboGrafx16 classic ''VideoGame/TheLegendaryAxe'', which was developed by the same team at Aicom.

** Even more so in the following Level 4-2 (Grave) which evidently takes you right through a crypt, as the background is full of coffins and shelves with skulls on them and many more of those skeletons emerge to attack you along the way.

* HeroicSacrifice: Cutie sacrifices herself to destroy Thorndog's seal and allow Astyanax to get to the Tower.

* FairyCompanion: Cutie.

* TimeStandsStill: The Bind spell freezes everything on the screen for a few seconds. You can use it on any- and everything, early bosses included.

High school freshman Astyanax (named after the hero of Greek mythology, "he thinks", although otherwise [[SadlyMythtaken not related to his namesake]][[note]]who died at a very young age[[/note]]) keeps having visions of a girl. Walking to school one day, he finds himself teleported to another world by a fairy named Cutie. Cutie is the advisor of Princess Rosebud, ruler of the kingdom of Remlia. Unfortunately, Rosebud has been [[DistressedDamsel kidnapped]] by the evil wizard Blackhorn. It seems Astyanax is TheChosenOne, as he possesses "The miracle power within him", and so it becomes his job, with the help of Cutie and a magic ax called "Bash", to save Rosebud and restore peace to Remlia.

* DistressedDamsel: Princess Rosebud.

* SpiritualSequel: To the TurboGrafx16 classic ''LegendaryAxe'', which was developed by the same team at Aicom.

'''''Astyanax''''' ([[MarketBasedTitle released]] as '''''The Lord of King''''' in Japan) was a side-scrolling action game released by Jaleco for the arcades and the NintendoEntertainmentSystem. It is not a game about Greek Mythology.

High school freshman Astyanax (named after the hero of Greek mythology, "he thinks", although otherwise [[SadlyMythtaken not related to his namesake]][[hottip:*:who died at a very young age]]) keeps having visions of a girl. Walking to school one day, he finds himself teleported to another world by a fairy named Cutie. Cutie is the advisor of Princess Rosebud, ruler of the kingdom of Remlia. Unfortunately, Rosebud has been [[DistressedDamsel kidnapped]] by the evil wizard Blackhorn. It seems Astyanax is TheChosenOne, as he possesses "The miracle power within him", and so it becomes his job, with the help of Cutie and a magic ax called "Bash", to save Rosebud and restore peace to Remlia.

* NintendoHard

'''''The Astyanax''''' ([[MarketBasedTitle released]] as '''''The Lord of King''''' in Japan) was a side-scrolling action game released by Jaleco for the arcades and the NintendoEntertainmentSystem. It is not a game about Greek Mythology.

* BigBad: Blackhorn
* DistressedDamsel: Princess Rosebud
* TheDragon: Thorndog
* FairyCompanion: Cutie

* NothingButSkulls: Level 4-1 (Marshy) has a bunch of them. It's also the only level with a non-[[UniqueEnemy unique]] ([[PaletteSwap relatively speaking]]) sub-boss; you fight a golden skeleton at the end.
* {{Nintendo Hard}}

* SpiritualSequel: To the {{TurboGrafx 16}} classic ''LegendaryAxe'', which was developed by the same team at Aicom.

''Astyanax'' ("Lord of King" in Japan) was released in the US in early 1990. It is not a game about Greek Mythology.

High school freshman Astyanax (Named after the hero of Greek mythology, "he thinks", although otherwise [[SadlyMythtaken not related to his namesake]][[hottip:*:who died at a very young age]]) keeps having visions of a girl. Walking to school one day, he finds himself teleported to another world by a fairy named Cutie. Cutie is the advisor of Princess Rosebud, ruler of the kingdom of Remlia. Unfortunately, Rosebud has been [[DistressedDamsel kidnapped]] by the evil wizard Blackhorn. It seems Astyanax is TheChosenOne, as he possesses "The miracle power within him", and so it becomes his job, with the help of Cutie and a magic ax called "Bash", to save Rosebud and restore peace to Remlia.

* AmericanKirbyIsHardcore: [[http://www.kidfenris.com/astyanaxcover.html Inverted]]; Astyanax looks less manly in the US box art than in the Japanese cover.

* TimeStandsStill: The Bind spell freezes everything on the screen for a few seconds. You can use it on any- and everything, early bosses included.

* PragmaticAdaptation: The NES game bears little resemblance to the arcade game of the same name; even their storyliness are totally different.

** Holy cow, he looks like he was painted by RobLiefeld on the original Japanese cover.