Reviews

I really like this game, it's a fun, easy to play, variable platform game, with minor arcade adventure elements - nothing too taxing, such as you can use a spade to dig, a gun to shoot enemies (until it runs out of bullets), a detonator box to blow up a bomb, etc. And unlike in most platform games, when you kill an enemy they stay dead, even if you leave the screen and come back again!

Some of the graphics are very nice, although sometimes a bit flickery, and there's lots of imagination throughout, and the continuous in-game music is the theme from Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Flaws? The screen layout is sometimes illogical, although this does add to teh surreal feeling of the game, and it's a very hard game to play with just the standard lives, although emulator users or people with Multiface or disc snapshot devices won't complain! That and the fact that there was never a sequel are the only flaws I can find in the game. If the ratings here were out of ten, I'd give it nine, as the slightly steep difficulty, and the slight flickering of the sprites stop it from being a 10/10 game for me, but since the ratings are out of 5 it will have to be a 4. Consider it a 4.5 .

Another thing to note is that each of the screens is suppose to be a different city or town in Great Britain, so presumably the one with the green sea monster is Loch Ness, the pool table screen is Poole, etc.

All in all, a great platform adventure game, that's sadly under-rated by most people. Recommended if you like this sort of game.

Overrated platformer that could have been so much better. The main character is slow and doesn't control very well. The game does have a lot of charm though and if you persevere with the unwieldy controls you'll find a lot to enjoy here.

An average platformer with poor movements and nothing very new or special on its side to offer ...


2 / 5 .

Surreal platformer à la Jet Set Willy, only more playable and inventive, mixed with the arcade/adventure genre, with lots of objects to pick up and use.

I should have loved this game... a big scopey platform puzzler with wonderful surreal sprites and a madcap sense of humour, Brian Bloodaxe is an imaginative work of Art, albeit a flickery colour clashed one.

Back in 1985 I loaded it up and thought my version was botched, not because of the Spectrum reset gag, but because of the soft-hard nature of the walls and platforms. I was used to the precise and fair minded platforms of Jet Set Willy and I just couldn't get my head around the fudgy-fuzzy design of Bloodaxe.

Nowadays I understand it better - the spiky helmet that kills adversaries and slows your descent, the ability to create platforms out of collected objects, jump safely off adversaries heads etc were nice fresh ideas.

Overall though the lack of crispness and precision throughout the game still leaves me feeling somehow cheated and the room designs seem thrown together. Even with a revisit 30 years on I can't get much out of it.

I'll be 100% honest, as a massive fan of 80's platformers I should have liked this game a lot more than I actually did!

There's some great humour in there, some of the sprites are really well drawn, but let's face it they flicker like a boring relatives slideshow of a holiday you're not interested in, the animation is choppy as fuck, and that 10 second loop of the Monty Python theme makes you want to smash your own face into a wall repeatedly after about 30 seconds.


I never got on with this game as much as I thought I should have, and I always thought I was missing something, but really after about 30 years I've decided nah! its a bit crap really innit!

I never liked Jet Set Willy with its pixel-precise movements, it's simply not what I call "fun". But Brian Bloodaxe is something completely different! It doesn't have JSW "one touch and you're dead" difficulty, and you can even use your helmet to kill enemies! Your helmet also can "stick" to some platforms, which can be used to your advantage sometimes.

One of the best platformers I've ever played. Even slightly flickering sprites cannot make it annoying. Oh, and it has more interesting mechanics than mentioned here. Give it a try, and you may love it too! And don't afraid to experiment with the game, some "glitches" you may find are parts of the game design, and can help you alot.

And yes, it is beatable without "infinite lives" poke.

And no, there is no escape from Hell... almost.