TurboChip DUDS

[Black Tiger]

The first Legendary Axe is definitely overrated, even for its time.  Magazines were proclaiming it to be one of the best games ever and definitely the best game for the Turbo at the time.  EGM said "A definite 10!"  It was supposed to be the end all be all of the next generation and was supposed to only be matched by Sega's Ghouls & Ghosts.  It was hard to determine a winner between the Genesis and the TurboGrafx-16 at the time since Legendary Axe simply displayed so much RAW POWER!

Obviously they had never played Legendary Axe before writing these statements.  The character never even picks his feet up off of the ground when walking, he just slided them back and forth.  He has only two frames of animation when climbing up something, and one of those frames is just a mirrored version of the other, so he really only has one frame for climbing.  Very NES-looking in that regard.  Could have been much better especially since you spend the entire game looking at that same a$$hole.  The game even had the fuzzy, shimmering scrolling like NES games.  The music did indeed sound very NES-ish and certainly not much more powerful, if at all.

When I first bought the Genesis and a few games, I was finally able to rent a TurboGrafx to see what that system was all about.  The first game I plugged in was Legendary Axe due to it's amazing next generation awesomeness it was said to possess.  At that point I was glad I chose the Genesis over the Turbo because that game made me think the Turbo was basically a slightly faster NES with more colors.  Why this game was so hyped back in the day is beyond me.

Actually EGM was the magazine that trashed Legendary Axe, comparing the giant by 32-bit standards final boss sprite to the background with sprites for limbs final boss of Ghouls N Ghosts(which they said was supposed to be the end all be all of the next generation) as a slag against LA and the TG-16. I was a Genesis player back then and thought that it was a stupid comparison.

VG&CE gave LA the Game Of The Year award. But I never read that magazine regularly and never heard much of any acclaim given to LA. Which is part of why I only ever rented it back in the day and didn't give it much of a chance.

GamePro was Turbo friendly, often reviewing PC Engine games, but weren't biased towards the TG-16.

EGM however, overall was pretty hard on the TG-16 from the get go through till the end of the Duo. Of course now, to been seen hip and down with the retro old school, EGM rants about how cool all the TG-16 Wii games are that they trashed back in the day.

Even if by anyone's personal standards, Legendary Axe isn't teh next gen enough, its still a decent game and fun once you get the hang of it. Now more than ever, even if it wasn't what you were looking for aesthetically back then, it shouldn't matter now because judging games based on cutting edge technologicalessity, all 16-bit(and 8 - 128-bit) games are garbage.

[Keranu]

EGM however, overall was pretty hard on the TG-16 from the get go through till the end of the Duo. Of course now, to been seen hip and down with the retro old school, EGM rants about how cool all the TG-16 Wii games are that they trashed back in the day.

Right on.

[Joe Redifer]

Before the Genesis and Turbo were released, EGM said Legendary Axe was a "Definite 10" and it was the game that made them think the Turbo was the better system.  I am talking about my experiences then, so now doesn't matter.  The game was clearly overrated then.

Of course now, to been seen hip and down with the retro old school, EGM rants about how cool all the TG-16 Wii games are that they trashed back in the day.

That's because today's gaming sucks ass, so even shitty games back then are friggin' awesome in comparison. 

[Black Tiger]

Before the Genesis and Turbo were released, EGM said Legendary Axe was a "Definite 10" and it was the game that made them think the Turbo was the better system.  I am talking about my experiences then, so now doesn't matter.  The game was clearly overrated then.

I guess that was before Sega started with the payola, only to be outbid later on by Nintendo and eventually Sony(and depending on who you ask, now Microsoft). 

Of course now, to been seen hip and down with the retro old school, EGM rants about how cool all the TG-16 Wii games are that they trashed back in the day.

That's because today's gaming sucks ass, so even shitty games back then are friggin' awesome in comparison. 

That's true... about today's games. 

[Emerald Rocker]

even if it wasn't what you were looking for aesthetically back then, it shouldn't matter now because judging games based on cutting edge technologicalessity, all 16-bit(and 8 - 128-bit) games are garbage.

I don't quite understand this statement.  It sounds like you're saying it doesn't matter if we found LA aesthetically displeasing in the past, because it's technologically ancient now.  However, I think it does matter --- there are a lot of games that have awesome aesthetics, but are not (and never were) technologically cutting edge.

Aesthetics are why I still find some games, such as El Viento with its exaggerated explosions, to be visually pleasing... whereas artistically bankrupt games, such as Nanobreaker, actually look worse despite being more technologically advanced.

Maybe I missed some sarcasm?

[Black Tiger]

even if it wasn't what you were looking for aesthetically back then, it shouldn't matter now because judging games based on cutting edge technologicalessity, all 16-bit(and 8 - 128-bit) games are garbage.

I don't quite understand this statement.  It sounds like you're saying it doesn't matter if we found LA aesthetically displeasing in the past, because it's technologically ancient now.  However, I think it does matter --- there are a lot of games that have awesome aesthetics, but are not (and never were) technologically cutting edge.

Aesthetics are why I still find some games, such as El Viento with its exaggerated explosions, to be visually pleasing... whereas artistically bankrupt games, such as Nanobreaker, actually look worse despite being more technologically advanced.

Maybe I missed some sarcasm?

Basically JR was dissapointed when he first tried it, because it wasn't next genny enough at the time(more like a turbo NES). I had a similar experience with Altered Beast Genesis.

But NES games can still look and sound great. And even though a lot of us in the past may have dismissed previous generations as soon as the new ones appeared, everyone here can now appreciate classic games for what they are instead of being blinded by what they aren't.

The reverse is also true. Lots of people play crappy games and let a lot of things slide because of the technically killer graphics or some other contemporary gimmick(like a hip license). But once the technical display(seperate from art) or license/gimmick is old news, going back to those kinds of games can reveal how crappy or just plain not fun they really are.

In the case of Legendary Axe, I didn't really like the graphics and sound when I rented it back in the day, because of the time I played it(I was looking for something more cutting edge).

I probably had a similar experience as Joe back then, I was dissapointed at not being wowed right off the bat. If something reminded me of the NES or didn't feel 16-bitty enough, then I figured it must be bad. So I never gave it a fair chance. But years later I tried it again and was impressed by it all round.

[Emerald Rocker]

Got it now.  Thanks.

[nodtveidt]

The problem with LA's coldet has nothing to do with its range. It has to do with its premature failure. It works a little like this...in most coldet methods, you check a range of entities. In this case, collision with the powerup items were counted first, then collision with enemy entities. A correct coldet will check for all items within range, and will count all types of entities. LA's fails this by exiting the coldet function as soon as a single truth is fired. In other words...it bails out as soon as you hit a single entity, even if realistically, you should have hit two or more. Because LA's coldet function places powerup items as top priority, it fails as soon as one is truthed, and because of that, skips over all enemy entities (and all other item entities in range as well).

Does it make the game harder? Of course it does! Is that a good thing? No! Games are supposed to be hard on their own merits, not due to a technical limitation of the game engine. Bad coldet, cheap/forced hits, etc...these are details that frustrate gamers and cause them to have less fun playing the game...and make that game end up on lists like these.

[esteban]

OK, after catching up on this thread, I just wanted to say, first, that I agree with all of the points that Black_Tiger said in defense of LA.

Furthermore, I had the same experience as he and Joe had with LA when I first played it (and many other TG-16 / Genesis titles): it didn't seem like a hardcore "next-gen" game. Bleeding edge, if you will. Far from it. Instead, I felt it was an enhanced NES title. I still enjoyed LA, as stated earlier, but it didn't invoke the "cutting edge" feeling that, say, Strider or Shinobi III did.

LA II, on the other hand, had such a brooding atmosphere and polished graphics that I felt it was a proper "16-bit" title, even if the gameplay was a familiar formula. Another example: Blazing Lazers, for me, definitely felt like a proper 16-bit game... it was the complete package, despite the fact that Lifeforce on NES had equally compelling gameplay.

That said, I still like the aesthetics in LA. I think they are very kool. If I had a complaint, I'd say that there should have been a larger cast of enemies. And the eagle, or hawk, or whatever it was: it looked like crap. All the other sprites in the game were really nice, but the eagle was horrendous. And Emeril Rocker was right about the exploration in LA: there is none, really. LA would have benefitted from multiple paths in the stages and more exploration for required items. Or perhaps not. Perhaps the slow-pacing of LA would be unbearable if it was less linear and required exploration. And Joe's right about Gogan sliding around.