Oddly enough, the above cover doesn't have any battleaxes. Neither does the entire game...
Battle Axe is a 2021 indie arcade-style action game, developed by Bitmap Bureau (of Xeno Crisis fame), following a template loosely based on Gauntlet with characters and artwork designed by Dutch pixel artist Henk Nieborg (known for his work in Shantae).
In the High Fantasy-inspired Kingdom of Mercia, a ruthless Sorcerous Overlord, Etheldred the Witch, has unleashed her brood of artificially-created goblin minions into attacking every major city, where every seven years she will have her army abduct slaves to be delivered to her citadel in the northern wastelands. And as usual, it's up to you, the hero, to take down her mooks and save the kingdom.
Players can select between three different heroes:
- Rooney, a Mighty Glacier Marauder who lugs a cannon on his shoulders,
- Lalo the Magic Knight druid sorcerer armed with a Magic Staff,
- Fae the Dark Elf warrior Dual Wielding short swords.
The game is made available for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, PC, Mac and Linux. Like Xeno Crisis, an adaptation of the game for Neo Geo is planned.
Battle Axe contain examples of:
- Belly Flop Crushing: The second boss, a Giant Crab, can somehow jump really high, leaping all over the cavern while attempting to crush you under it's body.
- Big Bad: Etheldred the Sorcerous Overlord whose army you spend the whole game battling.
- Evil Is Bigger: Etheldred the Big Bad, as well as the game's Final Boss and the largest of all the bosses. In her penultimate battle she enlarges herself behemoth-sized to take you on.
- Floating Continent: The entire game is set on various floating worlds with their own vegetation, where you'll travel from one area to another via bridges. Don't worry about falling though, it's impossible to walk over the side.
- Foul Flower: Gigantic, acid-spitting flowers are another enemy type.
- Giant Crab: The second boss is a crab-like monstrosity you fought in the underground cavern's exit. Though it lacks pincers and breathes acidic projectiles instead, besides trying to crush you under it's massive body.
- The Goomba: The default, lowest-ranked goblin who wears no armour and dies in a single scratch. They're expectedly everywhere in the first stage.
- Gotta Rescue Them All: Hostages can be found in every stage, and a successful rescue (just by walking up and tagging them) will earn you extra points. No word on how they managed to escape after you release them though.
- Hyperactive Metabolism: Like every fantasy-themed hack 'n slash out there (which this game is paying homage to), you regain health by finding and eating food. The game will even announce it aloud:Announcer: Lolo has found some chicken! [cue health increase]
- Lethal Lava Land: Etheldred's fortress and the final stage, with drawbridges over rivers of lava.
- Ludicrous Gibs: Taken to the extreme, where enemies will literally explode into a geyser of flesh despite being killed by a slash.
- Mook Maker: The recurring goblin-like enemies are spawned from conical-shaped machines that constantly emits a purple aura from which additional goblins will materialize from, where in a few area you'll need to destroy the goblin spawners before you can proceed.
- Never Trust a Title: None of the three playable characters uses an ax, despite what the title says. Rooney uses a cannon, Lalo uses a Magic Staff, and Fae uses swords. None of the goblins or mooks are shown using axes either.
- Night of the Living Mooks: The second stage will start throwing undead enemies, mostly skeletons, at you. They'll either teleport into the area or burst from under the ground as an attack.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Etheldred's dragon minion is the second-to-last boss and looks oddly serpentine, having an elongated body unlike most depictions of European-style dragons in media. It's also obscenely huge to the point where you spend most of the battle fighting it's head (you do see the rest of it's body for a split-second, when it starts swooping all over the place to take potshots).
- Our Goblins Are Different: Etheldred's goblin mooks seems to be artificially-created, from a machine that spawns them randomly within an arena. They also bleed orange and explodes messily once they're killed.
- Purple Is Powerful: Purple seems to be the default color for Etheldred, the Final Boss and main villain. The interiors of her castle are draped in purple, as are the aura she uses when creating goblins. Her skin are crisscrossed with veins that glows in purple as well, as is the color of her hair and the thunderbolts she repeatedly throws at you... let's not get into the color of the flames that adorns her quarters.
- Sand Worm: Giant worms are a recurring enemy from the second stage, sticking their heads out of the ground with a biting attack. They can be spotted before they appear thanks to Worm Sign.
- Segmented Serpent: The dragon boss' neck and the rest of it's body is portrayed as spheres, paying homage to old arcade games from the 80s and 90s.
- Sequential Boss: Etheldred the Final Boss, who comes in two phases:
- She sends projectile attacks at you while floating all around, and using Teleport Spam to ambush you until you deplete her health. Which sends her falling into an abyss...
- ...and she then climbs up, enlarging into a One-Winged Angel demonic form while spamming thunderbolts on you and summoning extra mooks.
- Throne Room Throwdown: You fight Etheldred in her throne room, where she will taunt you before getting out her seat for the battle.Etheldred: What's this? More heroes trying to "dethrone" me?...
- Those Magnificent Flying Machines: As the adventure is set on a floating world, the first boss is a Steampunk-style flying ship with a cannon that blasts you from a distance. You damage it by throwing ranged attacks at it's turret.
- Unique Enemy: There's a single blue goblin that serves as helmsman for the first boss (a flying ship). He can take three hits, but otherwise dies rather easily and is the only one that's blue.
