Original Release: Nonki, 2011, PC
Really not much in common with Golden Axe beyond some of the mook enemies, but Queen’s Axe is an interesting doujin fantasy brawler with its own punishing style
Queen’s Axe (PC, Nonki, 2011)
Where to Buy: DLSite (free demo available)
Review by: Master-B
Queens Axe is an unusual mishmosh of fighting game and beat-em-up … I’m really not sure which category to place it in, fortunately that’s not an issue for this site, if it was over at Knucklebash we might be in a pickle.
I’d say it leans more brawler than fighting game, if only because you’re almost always fighting heaps of enemies. But it’s made with Enterbrain’s Fighter Maker, and the large sprites recall mid-90s all-boss obscurities Monster Mauler and Metamoqester/Oni. You pick from a roster of mostly lady fighters, many of whom are recognizable from elsewhere in the world of gaming, and fight through a series of boards in which you’re subject to the ravages of a large (but finite) collection of aggro enemies.
Aside from the odd hybrid style, what makes the gameplay distinctive is that all the enemies come at you full-tilt all at once. No politely hanging back to keep things manageable, they will interrupt your attacks any way they can and mercilessly juggle you if they manage to surround you. Getting surrounded by the wrong enemy types can be a death sentence as they’ll just chain combo you endlessly with no ability to break out and fight back.
After one play, I was ready to dismiss the game as overly tough, poorly balanced and apparently made for dudes to intentionally lose and then jerk off to the girl getting ravaged. But dabbling around with it revealed something of a deeper layer of strategy. First of all, the weapon your lady is packing makes a huge difference. Guns are best, but swords and polearms can be competent especially if the gal has a good slide kick and complementary special moves (like Valis … or Yuka or whatever). My mistake was starting with Tifa, whose fists and kicks are not up to this brutal challenge and who is basically just raepbait in this arena.
Speaking of the “adult content,” it’s handled in kind of an odd way. In-game it’s limited to your character’s clothes getting blown off when their health is low and a particular level-specific static shot of monsters getting friendly with them on the “continue” screen. The real heat of the meat is actually back at the character select screen. Just about every girl has a version with a blue pig monster of some sort taking liberties with her, select that character to be taken to a special “dungeon mode” in which a group of these monsters find relief with her in an assortment of ways. You can cycle through about a dozen sprite loops of various sexo acts, which you can toggle to a close-up reminiscent of Turbografx CD art as an option.
I dunno why the hentai wasn’t more closely integrated with the gameplay, but I guess it’s convenient if that’s all you came for (I’d guess just due to limits in what you can do with Fighter Maker, which was a fairly simple mid-2000s game creation engine). It also allows you to skip over the gameplay entirely, which could be hit-or-miss. But I thought its extreme roughhousing style had a certain unique charm, it really doesn’t feel quite like any other fighters or brawlers I’ve ever played, it’s almost like the “bullet hell” of beat-em-ups. An interesting title for sure, and it’s on DLSite for under $10 and of a very reasonable size of about 500 MB, so no reason not to give it a look. Only big disappointment is that it really has nothing to do with Golden Axe despite the name and theming.
Links
Hell if I can find a move list, anyone know where to find one?
Videos