Axe Bow and Staff

Axe Bow and Staff is a game that will push your sense of coordination a bit more than you can imagine. At first, you play three stages with three different heroes so that you learn their gameplay mechanics, but afterward, you have to control two or all of them at the same time. It will be tough, but it will be fun once you get a handle on how things work.

Axe Bow and Staff pushes gameplay that’s seriously demanding for a pixel art sidescroller in which the three heroes have only two skills. Each character has a main attack and a secondary skill that can be used to block attacks, avoid obstacles or heal themselves.

Playing with one at a time is enjoyable, relaxing actually. However, when you have to swap between them, things get interesting. Once you gain control of all three, their skills have to be combined for them to succeed in their mission.

At times, you’ll have to use the wizard to push enemies from his lane to that of the warrior’s so he can slice them into pieces. Other times, you’ll need to do the same with the archer. There are several of these combinations and at first they will be very confusing. But if a real challenge is what you want, play Axe Bow and Staff.

In Axe Bow and Staff, you have three paths on which the characters will move either alone or together. Swapping lanes is done using the w and s keys, but those won't always work. You can use the mouse cursor to pickup a hero and drag him to the lane you want which is a lot simpler but in doing so you’ll have a hard time with multitasking.

In fact, that’s what Axe Bow and Staff is, a game that requests that you sharpen your multitasking skills to their limit. It’s a good game, it really is, but the controls implementation is a new one, and it will take time to get used to them so be patient.

To wrap it up, Axe Bow and Staff will annoy the heck out of you at first with the faulty control system but it does get better. It has a very interesting approach to gameplay that is worth trying out.