Golden Axe: Beast Rider Comments by Dan Whitehead

"Its single player only"

...

I'm going to pick this one up anyway, just cause I have more money than sense!!

ZOMG

Golden Axe was always shit.

""My ass. MY ASS! My kingdom for an ass"

/turns out lights, shines torch under chin

Be careful not to say ASS 3 times in front of a mirror, or hedbog will spookily appear and creepily kill you with a ghoulish PS3 made of bees!.

WoooOOOOooooOOOoooo!

/gets in mood for Halloween

"Why is Conan £10-£15 on the PS3 and £39.99 on the 360? :("

Currys had the PS3 version for a fiver and threesixty vers for a tenner a couple of weeks back!

It's like Sega are hellbent on undoing all the good work they've done in the past. :(

I imagine Sonic Unleashed will also be a turd.

Oh Sega why have you forsaken us?

So better than Sonic The Hedgehog on 360 then?

/sorry

"Ride them into battle and you'll likely be knocked off instantly, only for an enemy to jump on board, when suddenly the beast becomes almost impervious to injury. "

yup, that sounds like Golden Axe...

With all the horrible reviews so far, I'm so pissed that this game is waiting for me down in my mailbox today. I was desperately in need of something to tie me over until all the major releases in a week - but I guess I jumped the gun on this one :).
Looks like I better pick up Saints Row 2 as well - even though that wasn't really on my list either.

"lithe and nearly naked young woman"
SOLD! Nice review.

I see IGN gave this game 3.2 so it clearly is *not* a great game! God, I'm so glad I didn't pre-order the game on the strength of those Making of videos... LOL

Or at least maybe that's what Secret Level were hoping people would think when they chose the main (and only (WTF)) player character. :(

TeamXbox gave it 6.8... never did like their reviews though as I've often wondered if they knew the difference between genuinely good and genuinely bad games... LOL

""My ass. MY ASS! My kingdom for an ass"

/turns out lights, shines torch under chin

Be careful not to say ASS 3 times in front of a mirror, or hedbog will spookily appear and creepily kill you with a ghoulish PS3 made of bees!.

WoooOOOOooooOOOoooo!

/gets in mood for Halloween "

lol :D

Don't give me more Hedbog nightmares, I still haven't recovered from last time

/hides under blanket - gets weird looks from others in office

Damn this review agrees with every comment I ever made about the game since seeing it revealed. Even down to wondering what the heck it has to do with the golden axe games at all!

Sega really messed up with this one. We shouldn't be suprised though as, since they went into software only they have done little but, mess up all of their franchises one by one.

I'm disappointed, but did expect this result to be honest. A big giveaway was the absence of preview material.

However, for those who think Sega are going down the pan, please remember some of the more interesting and innovative games on the horizon as well; Valkyria Chronicles, Mad World, Bayonetta etc.

Viper_h - Have a look in Currys - there may still be about left over from the clearout they had recently. Picked up Conan and Viking for a tenner each in Currys 2 weeks ago, so definitely passing on this.

See Bloodkult beat me to it.

It's a huge shame, because I love the art and style, but this was never, ever going to turn out pretty.

Sega should probably just let all their old 2D franchises die because they're no good at bringing them up-to-date.

"Even down to wondering what the heck it has to do with the golden axe games at all!"

Indeed! - I suppose it took the best bit of the original (well what I considered to be the best bit anyway) and decided to make a whole game based on that one idea...best intentions and all that jazz...

What happened to SEGA?

Well, I read up as far as "buxom flame-haired warrior" then I kinda... trailed off... inexplicably... mmmm.

Huh? Oh 3/10?

Well, someone drive a stake through this one's heart, bury it under a crossroads and we'll call it a day.

Well, if it's a shite version of the shite Heavenly Sword, then you got pure shite, and that can't be good!

Shame, cos I'd quite like some of "The Adventure of Fiery Boob Lady".

to be this bad doesnt take long

Just in: Beat Rider recalled because it offends Lair Worshippers.

SEGA were on a role earlier in the year with a few decent games out, what happened??

Still, even though I've not followed this game I just new it would be rubbish. I may at least try a demo though if they are brave enough to release one, out of respect for the originals.

Get DMC 4 instead, it's great.

So far buying this before reading the reviews looks like it might not have been quite the major mistake I thought. Granted, I'm only around an hour and a half into the game so far, but I'm frankly enjoying it more than I recall doing the same few hours I spent with Heavenly Sword and Conan (I shelved both of them a few hours in - well, around 4 or 5 with Conan I think).

The graphics are nowhere near as bad as I assumed they would be after reading this and the IGN review - certainly not on par with Heavenly Sword, but easily as good as or better than Conan (which admittedly wasn't exactly a work of art). Can't say I've particularly noticed any animation "stiffness" or whatever other specifics were also brought up in that area - but perhaps that's just because I've got my hands full with the combat and don't have time to look at the way the heroine bends her knees when she runs or swings her sword when she's severing limbs :).

As for the combat system, personally I don't mind the lack of a ton of different combos, these types of games pretty much always degrade to button mashing for me anyway - but I can certainly see why some people would rightfully criticize this aspect.
And I rather like the evade/parry system. While the latter can be a bit tricky to pull off in melee combat when you're surrounded (deflecting lightning spells back on the caster with parry is cool though, when you're not busy in melee at the same time), evade has a certain grace to it.
So far the only issue I do have with the combat is, as has been pointed out, some battles tends to have a few too many casters bombarding you from all sides - and I assume this will only get worse as I go along. When you've got rocks raining down from the sky (evade), lighting coming from the sides (parry) and axes swinging at you in melee, it does seem the odds are stacked a bit unfairly against you. And I'm playing on casual. But then again, I stink at fast paces action games, so normal difficulty for me would probably equal ass kicking nightmare level for many of you :p.
Oh, and creature combat. Well, that does indeed seems like it could have been done much better. The two I've used so far are really a bit too fragile, and on several occasions they actually ended up as a risk as they would be "hi-jacked" and used against me when I was all too easily knocked off.

Anyway, so far I would probably give this a 5 or 6 - probably the latter. I don't know if it gets worse, but then again, I've only played a handful of games to completion in the last decade, so I base my opinion of most games on just a few hours of gameplay.

But.. I wanted this to be good :(

Another childhood memory shattered.

It seems that Sega manage to ruin something that could have been great. Furthermore, i was really looking forward..
Played GA on mega drive for so many hours.. I used to love it. :(

So It's TFU minus good music and star wars story ? :)

"Sega should probably just let all their old 2D franchises die because they're no good at bringing them up-to-date. "

Nah, they should be given to developers that not shit, Secret Level's games have been crap for a long while. After seeing the EG review I went to remove it from my rental list but they had already sent it. I think this review is spot on, the gameplay is so unbalanced as the AI cheats. If the enemy gets a beast to ride then its a bitch to knock them off but for you it takes only 1 or 2 hits. The evade/parry system is useless with 3 or more enemies, also the range magic attacks are fucking cheap.

Conan game developers + Golden axe = FTW

A 3? Wow, that's harsh.

I read EG for reviews like this.

Overly harsh I'd say.

For what it's worth, I'd say a 6/10 would be more accurate. Enjoyable with a few neat little nods to the original like the green Elves carrying health power-ups. I never really liked Heavenly Sword, which was wildly overrated by many, but this is easily on a par with it.

Wow, a buxom female hero rides beasts in this game? Bloody hell, I am so sold.

ha, it got 9.0 of some site called playmagzine but the same reviewer gave sonic (crap 3d one) on the 360 8.5!

"The Adventures of Fiery Boob Lady"

lol
priceless :P

anyone else waiting forthe inevitable Zero Punctutation 'review' of this game?
:D

Did you see the "Fanboys" of the original that were inspireing the develpment. I havent seen a bigger bunch of virgins anywhere...saw this a mile off

Sounds a little to me like the reviewer just wasn't very good at the game. Getting knocked off beasts as soon as he jumps on them? Pummelled from all sides by enemies? Not problems I've ever had, probably because I tend to move around and actually use the block and parry buttons like you're supposed to.

Anyway, very harsh review for what is by any standards a pretty decent game. Nothing special, nothing to set your world alight, but its entertaining for a few hours. If you enjoyed Conan or Heavenly Sword, Beast Rider is every bit as fun. 7 from me. I think games have forgotten what it means to be fun and not a walkover.

Interesting article. Maybe Eurogamer should comment on this.

http://www.playmagazine.com/index.php?fu...

I read Dave Halverson review, very unprofessional, keeps going on how sexy the main character is (apparently any game with a "sexy" female character gets a high mark)

RIP Sega :(