Remember the demonic imagery and disturbing backgrounds of Ninja Gaiden as you got closer and closer to fighting the demon? How about the sci-fi creepiness of Metroid? Axiom Verge takes these elements and cranks them up. The setting is creepy, the music unsettling, and the story increasingly disturbing. There's even some impressively melancholy chiptune music at one point.
The game at first begins as an utterly shameless ripoff of Metroid. The enemy types, gameplay, and style scream Metroid, and it's painfully blatant. Amazingly, the game not only doesn't continue in this direction, but it even deliberately subverts expectations.
See that thin space that you just can't fit through? In Metroid, you'd get through it by turning into a ball. Axiom Verge never gives you an equivalent ability, but rather, a drone that can fit through spaces that you cannot. High up areas you can't reach? Grappling hook - there is no Space Jump. You don't freeze enemies to stand on them - you "glitch" some of them to stand on them, or you "glitch" the world on occasion.
What's this about "glitches"? Well, Axiom Verge has a little fun with the fourth wall. Remember how NES games looked when they malfunctioned? When graphics glitches caused things to get garbled and strange looking? When in some cases, a graphics glitch would even transform an enemy or object in such a way that its behavior became totally different?
This game does that for deliberate and sometimes unsettling effect. There are "fake graphics glitches" you encounter quite often, which perfectly simulate what actual NES games looked like when they malfunctioned. The glitches and how they are used almost make it seem as if the world is tearing itself apart - an impressive way to take an error from our childhoods and use it as both plot and gameplay device. Your "glitch gun" weapon can invoke this deliberately to a degree, as it transforms enemies into glitchy abominations and even changes their behavior.
Axiom Verge is more than just a nostalgic throwback to the creepier side of the NES - impressive as that is. It's an amazingly creative experience that plays with the expectations of the 30-somethings and late 20-somethings that it's aimed at. Even if you hold no such nostalgia, it's still a great game.
A love letter to the creepier games of the NES
Remember the demonic imagery and disturbing backgrounds of Ninja Gaiden as you got closer and closer to fighting the demon? How about the sci-fi creepiness of Metroid? Axiom Verge takes these elements and cranks them up. The setting is creepy, the music unsettling, and the story increasingly disturbing. There's even some impressively melancholy chiptune music at one point.
The game at first begins as an utterly shameless ripoff of Metroid. The enemy types, gameplay, and style scream Metroid, and it's painfully blatant. Amazingly, the game not only doesn't continue in this direction, but it even deliberately subverts expectations.
See that thin space that you just can't fit through? In Metroid, you'd get through it by turning into a ball. Axiom Verge never gives you an equivalent ability, but rather, a drone that can fit through spaces that you cannot. High up areas you can't reach? Grappling hook - there is no Space Jump. You don't freeze enemies to stand on them - you "glitch" some of them to stand on them, or you "glitch" the world on occasion.
What's this about "glitches"? Well, Axiom Verge has a little fun with the fourth wall. Remember how NES games looked when they malfunctioned? When graphics glitches caused things to get garbled and strange looking? When in some cases, a graphics glitch would even transform an enemy or object in such a way that its behavior became totally different?
This game does that for deliberate and sometimes unsettling effect. There are "fake graphics glitches" you encounter quite often, which perfectly simulate what actual NES games looked like when they malfunctioned. The glitches and how they are used almost make it seem as if the world is tearing itself apart - an impressive way to take an error from our childhoods and use it as both plot and gameplay device. Your "glitch gun" weapon can invoke this deliberately to a degree, as it transforms enemies into glitchy abominations and even changes their behavior.
Axiom Verge is more than just a nostalgic throwback to the creepier side of the NES - impressive as that is. It's an amazingly creative experience that plays with the expectations of the 30-somethings and late 20-somethings that it's aimed at. Even if you hold no such nostalgia, it's still a great game.