Brian Bloodaxe

Copyright : The Edge | Reviewed by : Malc Jennings

Another game takes on the ever popular Jet Set Willy style in this new adventure from C. Bystram. This time around you play the part of a ruthless pirate named "Brian Bloodaxe" who appears to have gotten himself in a little bit of trouble, help him retrieve his gold and avoid the many dangers ahead. Men wielding shotguns, giant swords and walking armour are the least of your worries.

Graphics

While the developer might not be as well known as Software Designs the graphical side of Brian Bloodaxe is pretty much spot on. It?s no question that Jet Set Willy had a few problems here and there and Brian Bloodaxe is no exception to those faults, colours are spot on with plenty of variation between rooms, enemies are pretty much varied about the game, animation might be a little basic but it does the job nicely and the playing area is nice and large. Sadly the graphical glitches from JSW have been copied in this game also, if you walk in front of certain backgrounds you will blend in but not so bad as you are invisble to the player. Not bad overall and nothing to be held against the game.

Sound

Sound is pretty nice also, staying faithful to the Jet Set Willy series there are no in-game sound effects and the music simply loops over the top of the action. We did notice that the sound is a little quiet and you will need to turn the sound up on your speakers if you plan on listening to the music all the way through, we would rather play the game in silent mode however as the music quickly becomes annoying after the 5th loop.

Gameplay

Brian Bloodaxe is very faithful to Jet Set Willy and as such is still a difficult game to get to grips with, controls are often frustrating as Brian gets stuck on the background or refuses to jump from platform to platform but these are problems that any JSW fan will be more than used to by now. It?s just a shame that these bugs were never ironed out before it was released to the public. Despite the rather unknown developer the game is still very playable and does the JSW series proud.