Axys: The Last Battle

STORY / GAMEPLAY
Back from a perilous mission, you Lucke StormWalker, discover that your planet was destroyed. The nearest refuel point is the planet Axys but you will have to cross the border of Aula where many brave warriors have already died. During your flight, capsules may appear on the screen and each wave of monsters destroyed permit to obtain a capsule. You can collect the different capsules to recover energy and improve your weaponry, unfortunately if your ship destroyed you lose all your improvements. Some monsters require many shots to be destroyed, especially the bosses you face at the end of each level.
Axys: The Last Battle seems to be inspired by Xenon in terms of graphics, it is certainly a great shoot em up for the CPC computers, technically impressive for its time, and it is well worth the look and may be of interest to hardcore players.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
Graphics are fine, and it is obvious that a great deal of care and attention has been taken over them, and the detail seems to be inspired by Xenon in that regard. Colors are great while sprites and backdrops move smoothly, although the overall action is a bit slow. The game runs in vertical over-scan screen (that is, in full screen) and it is really amazing the fluidity of the vertical scrolling for a CPC game. The sound would probably be on the negative side here, the effects are solid spot effects for every single bullet fired along with standard boom type explosive noises, but doing little to enhance further the game to be honest. Maybe a tune rather than sound effects would be much more appreciated here, but again, the game already push the CPC hardware to its limits (with its great graphics).