Format: HuCard
Genre: Action platformer
Developer: Victor Interactive Software
Publisher: NEC

Ancient temples, lush tropical jungles, mountainous plateaus, and an ancient crypt-- those are some of the settings of The Legendary Axe, and each one is interesting to look at it, setting the backdrop for the action nicely. Enemy designs are very first-order, and if the Japanese had a collective potential for nightmare, the game's final two bosses would be straight from that feverish hallucination.

The game's largely jungle-themed tunes seem to alternate between being smart and optimistic at once, then dark and off kilter the next. Some of the songs are quite experimental-- particularly the Merengue-inspired piece in the latter portion of the third stage-- and the gamble pays off with songs that have likely stuck in gamers' heads for years if not decades. Sound effects are minimal but get the job done.

The Legendary Axe features some of the most text book level design of all time, continually introducing mechanics in tutorial-like manner without the player even realizing it. Enemy patterns and stage layouts are fantastic fun to learn and memorize, while the jumping physics and axe charging mechanics are both nuanced and precise. The final stage is perhaps a bit too long, but doesn't do much to detract from what is such a fantastically watertight playthrough package.

The Legendary Axe entered into a crowded genre yet managed to set itself apart nonetheless, and to present itself as a fantastic showcase for the newly-released-- in North America anyway-- Turbografx-16. More accessible than Ninja Gaiden, more thematically interesting than Ghouls'n Ghosts, but with the depth and replayability of any of the genre's greats, it is on that pedestal that The Legendary Axe belongs: as a genre great.