It seems like all you really have to do is mention Nitrome, and people know they're in for a treat. They sort of feel like the Willy Wonka of casual gameplay, distilling fun down into tasty little pixel packages. Up until now, there has been a disappointing lack of games where you can wield a barely conscious chicken to destroy all who oppose you. Nitrome has come to fix that and bring a little sunshine into your day with Double Edged.
Double Edged can be played on your own or with a friend. Either way, it's time to put on your massive helmet and gird those manly loins, because ancient Greece is calling. You might think it's just another side-scrolling hack-and-slash adventure. And then the little satyrs would go running past you. Followed closely by the juggernauts and the chickens. And the first time you stunned a boar so you could pick it up and throw it at someone, you would know something wonderful was happening.
Played with the keyboard, you use the [arrow] keys to move around the screen, [<] to attack and [>] to jump. If an item is in front of you, the [<] key picks it up, and tapping it again will throw it in the direction you're facing. If an enemy disarms you, or you just want to swap your weapon for one you've found, stand close to the weapon and tap [<] to pick it up. If you find yourself surrounded, pushing [<] and [>] at the same time will unleash a whirlwind attack that will knock down and stun most enemies.
If you've never played a side-scroller before, it's okay! Shhhh, shhhh, it's okay. Put down the paper bag, because we promise you Nitrome has made this as easy as possible for you to learn. Each time enemies appear, you'll need to kill all of them before the big, flashing, disembodied hand will give you the go-ahead to the next area. As you progress, enemies will drop coins that increase your score, which can be picked up simply by walking over them. If you come across a treasure chest, bust it open by throwing it against the side of the screen, or someone's face. Inside, you'll find precious coins, and occasionally equally precious (but significantly more delicious) roasted chicken, which replenishes your health.
While most of the levels have you simply fighting your way from one end to another against hordes of enemies, most of whom apparently shop at the same helmet outlet you do, every few stages you'll come across a different boss. Some of them can be handled by old-fashioned stabbin', but others require a special trick to defeat. None of them are very challenging, but the little stories behind each one add a lot of personality to the game and really make it stand out.
Analysis: Rendered in Nitrome's familiar pixel-perfect art style, Double Edged not only looks great, it plays great too. And by that I don't just mean the controls are easy and the frame-rate stays silky-smooth. Well, they are, and it does, but what I really mean to say is, Double Edged might be the most fun I've had in a free flash game all year. I bludgeoned a man to death with a chicken. I hurled boars and men who had been turned to solid gold at my enemies.
Ladies and gentleman, you can ride a tiger. I owe Nitrome a Christmas card this year. And they should be invited to all of your birthday parties.
While it's not the longest game you'll ever play, what's there has been polished to a mirror finish. In a previous review for a similar game, limited control keys were cited as a poor decision. Surprisingly, the same concept works much better here. The single attack button allows you to focus on the constant moving you need to do to keep ahead of your enemies. Since each weapon you'll pick up has its own attack, you aren't left fumbling with the controls in frustration, trying to figure out if you're facing the right way with the planets in the proper alignment to trigger a special move. Fans of more strategic gameplay may be put off by the lack of a control scheme they can master and hone their skills on, but in my opinion it makes Double Edged user friendly, so that you can jump right in without missing a beat.
Aside from its brevity, the only other real complaint I have with Double Edged is that it's also fairly easy. Even when the screen was being swarmed by legions of little Grecian Stormtroopers, I was only ever rarely in any danger of dying. Some enemies do more damage than most, of course, but most of their attacks can be laughed off. Maybe because they haven't learned the fine art of boar-bashin' or chicken-chuckin'. What this means is that while Double Edged is tremendously fun, beating it doesn't feel like any sort of momentous achievement, either.
If you're looking for something fun to take up an afternoon, Double Edged is here to sweep you up into its burly, reassuring embrace, stroke your brow, and then throw you at an enemy soldier. It's not thought-provoking, but it is a wicked amount of fun, and sometimes that's all you really want from a game. Offering fast gameplay with a friendly design and a great sense of humour, Double Edged is a great addition to Nitrome's library. Just don't let PETA find out about it.
I love Nitrome! This is a great game, and the chickens just made it that much better.
Finnaly, a new Nitrome game, this game looks really fun, I hope it doesnt take as long for them to get a new game out as it did between Droplets (which didnt take long to beat at all) and this
I went from "Like it" to "love it" when the golden king shouted "GIVE ME A HUG"
XD
I went from "Hey, a Nitrome game that doesn't seem overly sadistic" to "Nope, I still hate them with fiery passion" when I got to the Collossus.
Advice:
Kill the "rear" leg first, otherwise the front leg gives the subsequent fighters a place to hide and ambush you as you run to try to catch the other leg
What to do about the legs constantly just stomping at the edge so you can't hit them in their vulnerable spot for MINUTES ON END? I haven't got that yet, but Nitrome ought to get some more hate mail if that keeps happening. Jerks.
Ah, now that I passed the Collossus, now I see Nitrome's cunning plan to make this game as unenjoyable as almost all their other "offerings".
Yep, this is just like all their other seemingly-wonderful, but totally-impossible-to-enjoy games. Like a golden turd, it is.
Don't even bother swinging. Fifteen guys will crowd the whole screen, so that you can't even properly pick yourself out of the crowd, and then you will get hit so fast, over and over again, that all you can do is jump up, and fall back down. As soon as you get hit once, you're done, just give up because you can never, EVER recover.
How the hell is that a challenge? Nobody is that fast. And there's almost no curve. One level offers you 4 or 5 guys at a time, and the next you're fighting an entire football team at once... This game was almost enjoyable up to the point where you abruptly can't continue, just like most Nitrome crap.
It makes me mad to see that so much in the way of resources is invested in a totally unplayable game (again) that could have been fun, but isn't.
Go ahead, make with the "oooh, try a different strategy". Okay, sure. Tell me what strategy makes you invulnerable, or gives you superhuman reaction time, or gives you a code to stop 20 enemies marching onto the screen and surrounding you all at once.
Very. Disappointing.
Good review!
I was pleasantly surprised when I found that you could fight with a chicken; I was innocently fighting, when suddenly I found I was wielding a bemused chicken! I've got to try the boar next...
Some things such as the setting and the music remind me of Bugs and Taz: Time Busters, whch is quite favourable, as I like that game too.
I'm on Hercules (boss) right now, and he reminds me of that boy in Glassworks (grunting, small stature).
One last thing... should we all expect a barrage of games like before?
Except for appreciating the pretty pixel graphics and synthesizer music, I am generally lukewarm to Nitrome games. TwinShot (and Dirk Valentine before that) got me a little bit excited that Nitrome had turned a corner, but Double-Edged returns them to their high-production-values/low-enjoyability average.
Case in point: being able to throw pigs and swing chickens is fun and shows attention to detail... but the rest of the game is just tap-tap-tap on Attack. Moreover, this one doesn't even have the cool music! Sure, it's appropriate for the theme, but the single music track offered here isn't catchy enough to keep me tapping
Last week's "Barbarian Onslaught: Secret of Steel" was a much more enjoyable game, despite it's cruder graphics. Why? IMHO, because it implemented the single most important element for a hack-n-slash game: variety of attacks. Since Final Fight and Battletoads, any good hack-n-slash has allowed the player multiple ways to finish off an opponent, beyond the simple hit-hit-BigHit combo. I'm thinking of stun/grab combinations, specifically. Every game in this genre should at least have this. Beyond that, you can have direction+attack moves, etc. Because Double-Edged lacks this aspect of play, and because the enemies are very easy to kill, I became bored quite quickly.
I think the one thing that really got me motivated enough to post this is the fact that Double-Edged features coins as a reward for killing opponents, getting chests, and catching those little dwarves. Alas, they're just part of the high-score system. In this day and age (and in a game that already supports multiple weapon options), I actually expected there to be some sort of money/upgrade system... but there wasn't. Pretty soon, I found myself using the chests solely for throwing at enemies, and then I ignored the coins. This is another big disappointment in the game, and one that relegates Double-Edged to the lower-middle part of the hack-n-slash pack.
Am I the only ubuntu user that likes games too? What happened to the frame rate staying "silky smooth". A lot of the games you review sound awesome, and when i try to play half my CPU starts working overtime! I don't think it's really fair, but I think the rest of ubuntu is worth it...
Gobsmacked, if you are going to make a huge "hate" comment, write it on a sticky instead of posting it here. If you don't like the game, don't come here just to post about how much you hate it. It gets annoying and this is the best game in a while. Sure Droplets was horrible in strategy and playability but it was original, which made it enjoyable enough to play through it. And it had a "rewarding" ending, and I never had a problem with getting knocked down and "never" getting up again. The enemies aren't "smart" enough to wait for you to get up, so just because you aren't skilled enough you don't have to go saying this game is like a golden poo.
here are some funny things i've noticed throughtout the game which make this game more enjoyable, and if you complainers would play this game you could find even more
1st: the king that turns things to gold with a touch, when you fight him he says "Give me a hug!" 2nd: When the wizards turn the reptiles to chickens, farther through a lizard comes in and says "Where are my friendssss... Did I missss something (i cant remember others but there were more by this point
Brilliant!
I loved it!
Mindless violence, with chickens and random half goat things with bags of gold included.
Perfect for stress relieving I've found. It's nice to have a game that requires little thought and you can get far with.
Gobsmacked has just as much right to air his opinions as anyone else. No one ever said "positive comments only please."
Anyway, as far as this game goes, I'm not finding it too difficult myself (though I'm not too far through it just yet). Actually I find it fairly enjoyable so far (uncommon with me and Nitrome games). Although, I must say, I find myself wondering if the Nitrome crew sat down and said "Let's take Golden Axe, strip it down and give it a greek theme!" Hmm.
Call me nuts, because I love Nitrome games, but for some reason I liked Barbarian Onslaught (the game you cited previously) a little better. Maybe I'm just addicted to gore, or I liked the intricate special-move system a little better than picking up new weapons. Ideally, you could have both, but there are limits to a flash game.
This game is absolutely fun. The only thing is it suddenly got to "OMGITSSOHARD" at Hercules.
I mean the guy is a super fast kid with the ability to give you suplexes and you'd have no chance to hit him. Extremely frustrating. (Then again, I was using the hammer at the time.)
(Hum, I don't know if anyone else had trouble with him. Tips would be nice. =3)
I gotta love the whole wittiness of the game. (ex: "Stop!... HAMMERTIME!")
Yay:
The hammer has a massive range. Just line up with Hercules vertically, and hit him from afar when he's still running at you.
OMG I'm so glad It's finally out! A while back nitrome "released" this game instead of cosmic cannon.(The cosmic cannon link led to this game.) It was fixed within the first week and I've been waiting for it's official release for a long time.
Also, Gobsmacked should be smacked. How dare you talk trash to nitrome that way?
I seem to be having trouble with the minotaur...
I'm quite surprised no one has mentioned castle crashers yet. it's the same basic gameplay. Anyway I though this was a pretty enjoyable game. Not too challenging(not done yet though), but fun anyway.
p.s. this is my first post on jig, but I've been coming to this site for a while now. Great site!
Cyberjar88:
some advice
have you thought of moving out of the way like he tells you too...
he might just run into a pillar
It seems nice, but the controls are not great for me. I have a french keyboard and both are on the same key, so it's not very easy to play...
I wish the controls were editable!
Normally I quietly roll my eyes at Gobsmacked, who posts a comment about how much every game Jayisgames reviews sucks.
This time, though, he's right.
Seeing as how I usually suck at games in general, it's strange that I found this surprisingly easy. As long as you get the sword (very good range) and just keep smashing attack like a madman, you'll probably be fine. Most enemies go down in two or three hits, and there's always the whirlwind if you get desperate. I never found myself swarmed - once, three of the huge guys started ganging up on me and throttling me repeatedly, but one threw me far enough across the room that I was able to retrieve my sword and speedily dispatch them. However, the colossus is broken - if you attack the wrong foot, you're doomed to being attacked by several enemies you can't even see.
Thanks to some extreme key smashing from me and my brother in two player mode we beat the game.
Then he let me kill him to finish the game.
That princess is a JERK!
I seriously do not understand how *some people* can rant about the awesome games nitrome puts out there.
Nice post Gobsmacked.
Very. Nice.
Who else gets the Golden Axe reference?
The midgets with bags
[Edit: Please refrain from name calling. Thanks for understanding! -Pam]
I just found another Golden Axe refrence!
person at start of 1-2. See, his weapon is a golden axe!
How do you get past the second boss.. the giant guy?? Help!!
THIS IS FUN. :D
mrc: You can edit the controls. Just press "Redefine Keys" at the start. I changed the attack and jump controls to X and Z, because I thought that felt better. I believe this is the first Nitrome game to let you do that.
katty-girl: You have to get behind the colossus' feet and stab him in the heels.
There IS a "redefine keys" option. Maybe they just added it.
Kinda OK, but not my cup of tea. Repetitive, and I too was hoping the coins meant something in terms of upgrades.
mrc- The keys are editable.
I'm afraid I have to agree with some of the people here, it is a good idea, however when I say simple hack n' slash, I mean really simple.
It basically gets grinding, and though I didn't finish it, and I'm sure there's some appealing ending of some sort, the gameplay didn't please me, and the soundtrack was okay, however.. Only one?
It's a good try, and a good idea, just some more polishing and it might get better though.
Awesome!! For a few minutes... Normally I love Nitrome games, but the fact that all I had to do to beat the first couple levels was button-mash two keys got old.
How do you kill the first big boss, the talos or statue whatever thing? This is really annoying. Yeah- glad to know it just isn't me, all nitrome games, I get to a certain level and it's like FORGET IT.
I do NOT tear down every game on JIG. For one thing, I don't play most of them (the work laptop is much faster than mine, so I download little to nothing, and I have no iPhone, so 2/3rds of the posts are worthless to me, anyway).
Jay did rightfully point out that I (like many of the rest of you) tend to over-post criticism and under-post praise of games we like (we're too busy playing them, I guess).
I do believe I had a positive comment in the Barbarian Onslaught thread, before I got to a completely unbeatable boss and just gave up. The parts you can actually succeed at are great in that game.
The parts that you have a prayer at in this game are lukewarm, at best. And Nitrome does put out crappy games that are too damned hard and not fun to play. Many are neat gameplay ideas, but implemented in a way that, just like this one, 10 minutes in you are either screaming in rage or just giving up. If you enjoy them that much, I submit that you are a mashochist who enjoys being abused by uber-cheap, cheatly mechanics.
I assume that at least some of the developers read these comments, so I am as brutally honest as I can be, in order to help turn the tide of too-hard, too-cheap, un-fun games. The site says "CASUAL" gameplay, for crying out loud. What's casual about hair-pulling frustration?
Finally, someone's going to have to tell me what a sticky is in relation to this forum, if there's some form of etiquette I'm breaking by not using one. It's hardly obvious from the page I'm looking at...
Gobsmacked, I respect your opinions, and frankly it's always good to read criticism about a game that consists of more than "I hate this, it sucks". This site is NOT a fantastical wonderland where everyone gets a free unicorn and a snowcone and no negative feedback is allowed. If you don't enjoy something about a game, you're darn right you're encouraged to talk about it, as long as you keep it constructive and mature.
I apologize for any attacks by other posters, and I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the game. Am I a masochist or a robot? Maybe! Maybe. I enjoyed this game a great deal, but I can see how some other people might not do so. Thank you for sharing your opinion with us, and I hope you're not discouraged from doing so in the future.
Got all the way to final boss but cannot beat the Behemoth!
Did figure out his weak point:
His eye; you can only hit it when he leans down to lick the ground
I'm not a huge fan of Nitrome games, either.
I played the first level of this one, went "This is interesting," and stopped. Because I knew it would be repeated levels of the same exact thing.
Ah, well.
"If an item is in front of you, the [left] key picks it up …"
No it doesn't.
"If an enemy disarms you, or you just want to swap your weapon for one you've found, stand close to the weapon and tap [left] to pick it up."
That doesn't work.
"If you find yourself surrounded, pushing [left] and [right] at the same time will unleash a whirlwind attack that will knock down and stun most enemies."
You mean [<] and [>]?
[Edit: Fixed the < and > usage. And yes, that's what Dora had originally in the review, but I edited them like a dolt. -Jay]
"If you find yourself surrounded, pushing [left] and [right] at the same time will unleash a whirlwind attack that will knock down and stun most enemies."
You mean [<] and [>]?
Also, it seems the picking-things-up move (which is also [<], not [left]) works on the chest that appears at one point, but not on the swords that the enemies drop.
Oh, now I see. It's because I already had a sword, and this wasn't a different sword.
Maybe enemies shouldn't drop swords when I haven't yet encountered anything else I could be holding.
Oops. Mea culpa.
That was my doing, I changed the [<] and [>] to [left] and [right] by editing the review without ever having played the game.
So sorry, Dora. :(
"This site is NOT a fantastical wonderland where everyone gets a free unicorn and a snowcone..."
Aw, dang it! :(
As for the game, it manages to be both boring and hard at the same time. This is not a good combination (more on this later).
It was boring for me because it is essentially a button-masher. You just pound away at the buttons until the enemy falls down and goes boom (speaking of the enemy, I found it kind of weird that they gave you hints and spoke of themselves in the third person--it would have made more sense to have a Greek god/goddess pop up to do that). This is in keeping with the traditions of the genre, but it's a lot less fun now then when I fed quarters to the machines in the arcades.
On the hard front, I found the controls to be a bit unresponsive, namely the power attack. I rarely got it to work, even when I put a tiny eraser over the left and right keys and then pressed down exactly in the middle (that is, so that the keys would be pressed at exactly the same moment). I would guess that it worked maybe one out of ten tries.
Even more frustrating than that, though, was the fact that, when moving forward, your avatar is almost at the right edge of the screen. Now, it's been a while since I've played a side-scroller, but this makes no sense to me. You would think you would be able to see more than a few feet ahead of you, especially when you can see so far behind you.
This is why I gave up when I got to Midas. I was on top of him before I knew it, and once he touched me, it was over. I was desperately mashing the buttons (again) trying to get free of his golden touch before the "enemies" even figured out that they needed to throw the statues at him. I could probably get past him if I tried it again, but there isn't enough intrinsic reward (i.e., "fun") in the game for me to go through the level more than once.
If a game is really engaging and really hard, I will keep coming back to it until I beat it. If a game is really engaging and really easy (like, for example, Small Wheel, which was reviewed here relatively recently), I will breeze through it and enjoy the experience. But if a game is both boring and really hard, I will usually play it until I die, and then stop. Not necessarily because it was too hard to beat, but because the difficulty/frustration outweighs the interest I have in the game.
But that's just me. I'm a unicorn/snowcone kind of guy, so your mileage may vary.
(Say, I'd be willing to pass on the unicorn if I could just get a snowcone...)
I for one LOVED this game. Maybe it's because I love Nitrome. Maybe it's because of the witty and humorous flavor of the game. Maybe it's because the classic graphics and side-scrolling hack-n-slash reminded me of my favorite arcade games of yore and had me squealing like a giddy schoolgirl.
Whatever the reason, this game filled a gaming hole in me that I didn't know existed since the last time I spent an afternoon at the local arcade. My brother and I played co-op and I laughed out loud as we beat each other with chickens, fought over treasure chests, and took on hordes of enemies while riding tigers. My advice to those who didn't like the game: Play with two players. It is awesome.
There are only a couple things that I would have changed about the game:
1. Don't make the "pick up items" key the same as the "attack" key. In a game like this, where button-mashing is king, it's a bit frustrating when your massive lion-headed hammer is unexpectedly swapped out for one of the many swords laying around on the ground. Either change the key or pare down the number of weapons that get left on the ground.
2. More usable weapons. Maybe just a few more.
Congrats Nitrome!
I'm only four levels in, but I like nitrome has recreated this genre that had no reason to go away.
I have to say I loved the game. I loved the homages to Golden Axe as well. It obviously was a parody of Golden Axe, not a remake.
For the Behemoth
First, save the chest. Chests can give you health-restoring food when your health is below 50%
Second, stay to the bottom of the screen. If you walk in the middle top part of the screen, the Behemoth will grab you and do MASSIVE damage. This is really the only damaging attack it has. (the other attacks only do a little damage)
Third, keep hitting the Behemoth to get it to lick the ground. But while you do this, the Behemoth will randomly attack you by either dropping a rock on you, or opening its mouth and blowing skeletons to you. So you need to hit the Behemoth, then run away from the Behemoth and downwards, then hit, and run. The rocks don't hit you if you walk up or down from it, and you can finish of the skeletons without much fight.
Fourth, when the Behemoth's head falls and its tongue lolls out, walk up to his eye, and hit jump, then swing, then jump, then swing. You can maybe get in 3-4 swings until he blows more skeletons at you.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Too easy and repetitive. Reminded me how great Golden Axe and original Double Dragon were.
Good graphics and music though. And I always like weird humor in games (like wielding a chicken).
Btw, completely agree with Peelz. It's ridicilous that the "attack" key and "pick-up" key are the same so in a heat of battle you can't help constantly switching weapons. Irritating as hell. I cannot fathom how noone realized this in game testing phases...
Now I beat it. Only three more Nitrome games to beat. I need Hydra's help with Nanobots. The other two games I haven't beaten are Hot Air and Pest Control. Double Edged was a very good game! I enjoyed it a ton!
I enjoyed this one, actually; I know what people mean about Nitrome games which are fun up until a short way in when they become impossible, but this one was short and sweet and I only died once or twice. The levels could've been a bit shorter, and I agree that there might've been a greater variety of attacks and that the Pick Up and Attack keys should've been different by default. But overall I found it an enjoyable experience, although a couple of my fingers were strained by the end. And what an ending it was.
When I looked at Hercules, i was lie, OH NOES!
I saw some people saying they wish the controls were editable
THEY ARE!!! WOOT!!! when you select one player or two player look at the bottem left, you can edit the controls!!! WOOT!!!
Fun before fighting with undead.
Undead have high hp, but my weapon was keeping as a normal sword. It is not exciting after I experienced the hammer.
Sorry, but i really agree with Gobsmacked. I got to Hercules and found him impossible to beat-
I wish not to strangle Nitrome for another unbeatable game, but to hit them with a freshly stunned chicken.
I outfitted my controls and let space jump and 'V' attack (they're next to each other) but that also didn't work. I wish that someone would list some tips for the whole game.
To make a long story short- I'm sorry, but this is another impossible game, and may Nitrome be hit with a gold statue (scratch that- they're too annoying for gold, throw boars at them!).
Zev9
I do not completely agree-this game is very funny and a great stress reliever.
But i definetively agree with the fact that Hercules is MAD! The little midget keeps zipping about the screen, continously evading my attacks... when all of a sudden i find myself with my face half a metre under the ground with that hairy dwarf on top of me! This flicks my hammer out of my hands, and my continous attempts at retrieving it turn out to be worthless.
One person suggested that you just have to hit him with the hammer at the right timing. This seems like a pretty sensible idea, if it wasn't for Hercules, which is just too fast to give him a proper hammering. I manage to hit him once, maybe twice before i get killed.
So i tried fetching a bow and arrow just before i fought with him... unfortunately Hercules is too fast for the bow's fire rate. So i can't keep him away from me... after which the scenario occurs of me getting flicked about the screen continously while trying to fetch the bow.
So has anybody got an idea? A plan that allows me to give the flying hairball a good hammering?
yarrr,
I haven't beaten Hercules yet (note: I've only played through enough to get to him twice so far), but got pretty close to beating him little while ago.
I found that if you can get him with the hammer once, you can keep on pounding on him until his stun wears off. As soon as it does, he gets smacked again. I was doing pretty well until a couple of the big guys walked on the screen, then I had to move which gave Hercules a chance to recover. I'll have him next time for sure.
Good luck!
Vince, that's what I did until up 'til that point with Heracles. After that I went "OMGWTHNOTFAIR" when those two giant dudes came up to me and did a roundhouse kick to the back, sending mah hammer flying.
It was pretty pointless to try to get your hammer back because all that Hercules would just run up to you and do a German suplex on you.
I'd totally go back and try again only if the level wasn't frustratingly hard to start with in the first place.
Really, really hard after the first ~4 levels. Esp. when you get to Hercules. I tried to use the hammer on him, but it's way to easy to get cornered in a huge group of enemies with no way to get out. IMO, the whole idea of getting your weapon knocked out of your hands fails because its too easy to wind up in no win situations that simply frustrate the player.
Hmm, fun, but I found it really, boringly easy. Except the final boss, who was annoyingly tedious. As some have mentioned, Barbarian Onslaught had combat that was a lot more fun.
The hammer is the dominant weapon, once you get your hands on that there's little reason to ever use anything else. Otherwise, I found the original sword tends to work better than the axe or bow in most situations. Combined with frequent throwing of boulders or farm animals, and the occasional power-attack when you're swarmed, the game is cake.
For all of you who are complaining about difficulty, have you tried the power attack? It knocks everyone close to you down and disarms them; recharges pretty fast too. Judicious use of that makes it so that you really can't ever get swarmed.
The one thing that really annoyed me, though, is that the "pickup/throw" button is the same as the attack button. Makes it so that you can't fight people near fallen swords or other objects for fear of losing your weapon instead of attacking.
BOSS TIPS:
Hercules: as long as you're lined up with him properly, you can time your hammer swings so he never even gets close.
Colossus: Attack the heels. Do the top one first, then the lower one. You can dodge stomps easily by moving out of the way vertically.
Minotaur: Stand in front of the middle pillar, then move up when he charges. When he's stunned, smack him from behind. Rinse, repeat.
Medusa: Turn to face away from her when she does the gaze attack. Pretty easy.
Behemoth: Stay at the bottom of the screen. Keep attacking him until he bends his head down (tongue out) then jump and swing at his eye. The constant skeletons make this pretty annoying.
To everyone having trouble with Hercules:
First of all, try using the hammer. When the battle starts, you are standing on the left side of the screen. Hammer him as he runs towards you - this is very easy when you realize that the hit-box for the hammer is much larger than its graphic.
From there, ~do not~ stand over Hercules' body. Rather, simply walk to the far right side of the screen + hit him again as he approaches you.
If you stay on the right, then the juggernauts that come in halfway through won't surround you. The only possibility of getting hit is if you swing at one of the juggernauts and Hercules happens to run at you at the same moment, but if you can keep an eye out for that sort of development, you can hold off on your swing for a split second + get them both.
Total cake!
I agree with a lot of the negative criticism here. Take for example, Hercules. He is very easy to beat as long as you don't get hit. If you get hit one time, recovering is impossible and you might as well start the level from the beginning. Recovery is difficult for the whole game, but Hercules moves faster than you and you can't even jump over him.
The last boss battle is even worse and I didn't even bother to finish. I kept hitting him in the face but apparently that doesn't hurt him, even though he says "ow" every time you hit him. I eventually figured out that the only way you can hurt him is to hit him in the eyeball when he licks the ground (what??), and he seems to only do that about once every three or four minutes.
Is there anything after beating the Behemoth? After I beat him TWICE
and rescue the prudish princess
it sticks on a loading screen forever...
Just posting to give extra internet coins for this game because of Golden Axe references
i finnally beat Hercules! Oh yeah and beating the
skeletons are soo easy to beat! Just grab the lion hammer and smash away!
I love this game! Did anyone else noticed in one of the levels,
the stone statue was of a Twinshot charecter?
xP
I thought that the game was good except for two things:
1.) Most of the bosses were really easy, and then there was an extreme jump of difficulty between Medusa, and the Behemoth(This name reminded me of the ride @ Canadas' Wonderland :D)
2.) There weren't enough levels! I really wish that there were more. The levels did seem kind of long to, so I thought that there should have been some sort of check point thing.
Except for those two things, the game was AWESOME! Four stars out of five, definetly :P
I Know! That ungrateful little brat princess! And I don't think there is anything after the one eye dude. The game was really fun. But it should be longer........ Oh yeah and if anyone needs help with the last boss stage:
Stay at the bottom! if you go to the top, he will hit you with the grab and smash attack. When he blows skeletons at you, don't go to the top of the screen to fight them, let them come to you. When he smashes the ground, run away (left or right, NOT up) to avoid boulders. When he licks the ground, jump and swing at his eye (try for 2 swings per jump).
I'm confused, I defeated the Behemoth, and now the princess has told me to get her down. I can't. I've tried cutting at her, special attacking her, I even threw the gold chest at her. How do you free the princess in the last level?
Nice game, not too difficult for the average person, and I like the silly story lines and characters. I can always trust Nitrome to put a smile on my face.
The only problem I have with it is playing with a friend. The controls are really awkward when you have two pairs of hands over the keyboard, and it took a lot of fiddling with the command keys to find something that worked for two people, and even then it was still difficult to feel comfortable maneuvering the keys.
Another is when the screen is swarming with enemies, it is hard to not injure your comrade. There's too much going on, and sometimes just being near you leaves your friend stunned and disarmed when you launch an attack. All this can be pretty annoying for anyone who likes playing in two-player mode, but otherwise, it's a great new game from Nitrome!
I haven't been that thrilled by this game, but I rated it a 4 anyway, as an aknowledgement that, AT LAST, the programmers at Nitrome discovered they could use those fancy thingies called "variables" to allow players to set their own keyboard controls. An effort that deserves encouragement.
If only every game creator could aknowledge that not everyone uses a QWERTY keyboard...
Hm... This game reminds me of a game from way back in my childhood... Could it be...? GOLDENAXE. This game, and the one it's a 'spoof' of, are very similar to good old Goldenaxe. What reminded me of it was the odd little vikings with sacks, which reminded me of the stupid elf that you ran into on the field, and at your campsite. The game plays just like Golden axe in terms of movement. The big brutes also remind me of the Generals and the twins you face in goldenaxe... Egads, Nitrome has made a rip-off of a rip-off! What is the world coming to?
(if you don't know about goldenaxe, it's not hard to look into.)
Did anyone else notice on the Medusa level a certain reappearing character?
One of the cherubic twins from Twin Shot has made a reappearance as one of Medusa's statues.
While playing, I only died once throughout [at Hercules] but I'm fighting the Behemoth [sp?] right now, and I'll probably die a few more times. Overall, it's definitely one of my least favourite Nitrome games, but it's not as insanely hard as some of you think it is. [Also considering the massive time gap between this and Droplets I was very disappointed, even with Castle Corp coming out a few days after, which wasn't amazing either.]
Ah, I see Aethelind had noticed it as well. [I did end up dying by the way :P]
Anyway, I refuse to spend another 10 minutes going through the boring level again just to get to the boss. Would be nice if you could have the bosses as separate levels in themselves, without just being at the end.
WOOT JUST FINISHED THE GAME
the best way to beat the big strong men is with the
HAMMER!
Did anyone else get this random flying attack? I was mashing buttons randomly at one time, trying to figure out the controls, and I soared really fast to the right, holding my sword out in front of me, over the length of 1-2 screens! Maybe it was an error? How did it happen?
Ani, you were probably whacked by an enemy or something.
Anyways, Hercules is NOT impossible to beat. You need to have a hammer, and once he shows up, don't worry about the other guys, just run wildly around the screen. When he comes near you, just slam your hammer, and BLAM! he takes damage. At this point, wait for him to start getting up again, then whack that hammer again. After that, or occasionally one more, he'll start dashing around the screen again. At this point, simply copy him once more until he pauses near you, then launch your attack. After repeating that a few times, he'll be done for. Hope that helps!
How To Beat Hercules
Get the hammer. The hammer has some range and it can knock down multiple foes at once so when Hercules runs at you slam your hammer and it will stun him. Take a breath when he's stunned and repeat the process. His cronies come out from the left side so stay on the right side. If your health is more than half gone then if you kill his cronies they might drop some meat. Always keep Hercules and his minions to one side never his minions on the left side and Hercules on the right or they will catch you. And base your attacks on Hercules and not his minions they move slower so they'll get caught up in your attacks. I got lucky because Hercules threw me right on the meat when I was about to die. =)
Good Luck young warrior.
[Edit: Spoiler tags added. -Pam]
Very Brief Guide to KO Hercules.
- Pick a Hammer
- Use special attack to knock him out
- Spamming hits with hammer at the correct distance and he will bounce back to the same position after each hit
I am in so much need for help. I have defeated the Behemoth but how do get the princess down?! I spent 30 frustrating minutes trying to get the princess down. Please help. In the medusa level try and save twinny, the twin shot statue.
when fighting medusa just turn away from her when she uses her special attack and then throw statues at her.
oh do you kill the minitor or what ever i can't hit him cause he moves to fast and i am always too far away from the sides
Loin Head Hammer/Axe
Clearly the best weapon.
Too bad you dont get it cept in the first level undead level
How do I rescue the princess?
To rescue the princess:
First if you're on 2 player you have to kill one of your men. Seriously. Then you have to stand in a particular spot left of the princess and slightly downward. It might take a little experimentation and it may be frustrating but you'll get it eventually.
Hope that helped!
Ah! So not cool: Just beat Medusa and I got killed by the remaining soldiers on the screen...now I have to start the level over :P
how do you defeat the minotaur??? PLEASE HELP!
To beat the minotaur: stand right next to a column. when he charges at you, move aside. His horns will get stuck in the column and he'll spend a few seconds pulling them back out. Then, simply hit him with your hammer. Repeat until he's dead.
I'm stuck on Hercules, though. It would be easy to beat him if It weren't for the enemies. ANy strategies, walkthroughs, or suggestions?
The game is simple and real easy you just need to find the weakness of the boss then BAM!
Wish there's another one with awesomer weapons a li'l bit harder oh and some weapon combos for each weapons oh! and like a different special attack for each weapon like for bow is triple fire or for the hammer is umm... swings the hammer so hard everybody in front of you gets uber damage!
Is there a weapons guide anywhere?
I am stuck on hercules.
P.S.
Did you notice how powerful a bow and arrow is?
This game is just the biggest LOL ever.
Nitrome have never been great with humour but it's always nice to see them trying, and in this case the jokes were so lame they were good. Still can't get over the "oh! My statue!", having seen it over a dozen times. What really confirmed my opinion though was "STOP!......Hammertime!" After that point I was really just left staring at the screen with a stupid lopsided grin which stuck for the remainder of the game.
Other things that make this game the lulziest nitrome game of all time......
The noises the skeletons make. And the way they laugh when they die.
And the fact that you can hit the priests.
And all the stupid things the characters randomly shout. HECATE!!!
I love this nitrome game because it doesn't take itself seriously. When I first saw it I was reluctant to play it, percieving it as just another rip off of the huge number of fantasy multiplayers the internet could do without. But the lack of scincerity and downright absurdity of this game seems almost parodying that genre, which I found highly amusing.
Good gameplay; simple controls and yet you seem to be able to do a fair amount with them. You're free to use your iniative and clobber the enemy over the head with the closest commonplace object at hand, whether it be a rock or a farm animal.
In practise, my only complaint is that the last two levels got rather dull fighting the same old skeletons, and the bossfight was probably the longest and most reptitive of any nitrome game.
Other than that, this game gets a huge thumbs up from me; even if it wasn't such fun in practice - which it IS - it would still be good simply for its ability to instantly cheer you up.
how do you get past the last level?
Honestly, I don't see how the collosus is hard at all, au controire, I think he was one of the easiest bosses of the game. Especially with two players...
By the way, Nitrome's game are always hard and those who don't have the mettle to play them should not bash on the company, much less be nasty to them for making FREE games for you. If you hate them, make your own ''better'' games and see how hard it is...
Hey you guys!
The reason you can't use power attack twice in a row is because of this:
Look @ the little green bar below the energy bar. Once you use the power attack once, it empties. You've gotta wait AT LEAST 5 seconds before it'll refill, and you can smack some one again.
I adored this game! But that's just me.
In stage 1-4 i noticed something funny
Sometimes a soldier would die because he got flatten by the COLOSSUS's leg IF u had destroyed one leg.
xD Its funny only for sadistic people.
The switching weapons mechanic is bad... when the screen gets crowded with fallen weapons (or chickens!), you end up constantly picking up weapons instead of using the one you have. That has gotten me hit a few times, and in one case killed outright.
Could the change weapons button be switched to space or something?
This game was actually very amusing although it wasn't that much of a challenge I have to say I enjoyed it very much, thanks to the story and the outstanding graphics and natural humour in the game. I really hope there'll be a sequel!!
I love this game Five stars, but I want it on iPad, iPhone or iPod touch so I can play it on the go,
I got all three
i beat the game and it was awesome especially the end
the whole game is a quest to save...
Princes Andromeda who asks you to take her home with you
bosses up to Hercules:
throw golden statues at king Midas
(weapon: statues and hogs)
slash and whirl-wind at the far foot ankle, then run to the bottom right of screen (you will be safe there) and slash at the ankle of next foot. (weapon: sword)
moooove out of the way at the last moment. then the Minotaur is stuck to the pillar slash (weapon: war hammer)
pound Hercules. when he's stunned move far away from him. as he runs towards you, smash him. this will send him flying away. he will run again. just repeat.
(weapon: war hammer)
I cannot pass the Behemoth boss.Please help me!!
I play it with my brother and we decided to when he put the skulls out he kill them while i kill him.He were not dead.PLEASE HELP ME!!
After beating the Behemoth, I was jumping and cutting away at the rope holding the princess, and accidentally killed my partner, lol. Then, then princess jumped down. So maybe you have to kill your partner first?
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