Astyanax (NES) Playthrough

Astyanax (NES) Playthrough

A playthrough of Jaleco's 1990 NES platforming action game, Astyanax.

Alright, first thing up is the age old question: how do you pronounce "Astyanax"?

\ ə-ˈstī-ə-ˌnaks \ "Uh-stai-uh-naks"

Betcha feel smarter already, huh?

Astyanax was released at the same time as Jaleco's arcade title, The Astyanax. They aren't the same game, but are instead two games based on the same general style of play. This also happens to be the same style and play as you'll find in The Legendary Axe 1 and 2 on the TurboGrafx-16. They all share the muscled meathead swinging huge weapons at things, and they all share the charging gauge that dictates the power of each hit. The NES and TG16 games differ the most from the arcade game in their pacing - the console titles all tend to be slower and more deliberately paced than the quarter muncher was.

Though they're not all technically related to one another, they were all developed by the same team at Aicom within a year or two of each other. It's apparent that Aicom found a system they liked and stuck with it for awhile. I'm also guessing that Astyanax was a test-bed for some of storytelling ideas that we later saw again in Vice: Project Doom, another Aicom title.

Astyanax on the NES is a standard platforming game with upgradable weapons, special attacks, life bars - if you've played an NES game released between 1988-1993, you know all the basics already. It plays competently despite its questionable hit-boxes and super-stiff animation - the charge bar forces you consider what you're doing (button mashing will get you killed quickly!), and the magic spells do a nice job at helping you side-step any ugly surprises - nobody likes being bounced backwards into a pit, right?

The difficulty level is nicely balanced. It's not so easy that you'll just race through, but it's never particularly frustrating or difficult. It's a good game to throw in and chill with if you don't want to be swearing at the NES within five minutes.

The biggie that really differentiates this one from the arcade game is the cinematic plot scenes that show up constantly. Sure, they look like low-rent pretenders when put up against Ninja Gaiden, but there's a lot of charm to be found in the stilted dialogue, neon colors, and poorly drawn portraits. I still get a kick out of them.

Astyanax isn't a top 10 title, but the nostalgia can be strong with this one. It's very good at putting a smile on your face as it reminds you of times long past.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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