Writings of Mass Deduction

I’m not sure what bikini-clad women have to do with rock and roll, and I don’t particularly appreciate the gratuitous nature of their inclusion, but thankfully I like absolutely everything else about “Righteous Axe”. The game has tremendous animation, enjoyable gameplay, and a pretty nifty control innovation: with compatible guitar controllers, you can actually control the tilt of your character, moving the angle it moves up and down on by correspondingly adjusting the tilt of the controller. Let’s back up one step.

Most of the game has you traveling down a corridor, in the traditional vein of a horizontally scrolling shoot-’em-up. You can play with the regular controller, but it really comes into its own with a guitar controller. Specifically, if you have a newer one with varying degrees of tilt then you can actually control the direction your character shoots by raising or lowering the handle of the guitar controller. You will drift up in the direction you’re shooting, which actually leads to interesting tactical considerations when shooting one enemy might pull you into the path of another, a neat mechanic that ramps up the challenge and gives the game a unique feel. The game is not only playable but also enjoyable with the regular Xbox controller, but it’s amazing with a compatible guitar controller.

You must hit the right face button (or guitar controller button) to destroy the correspondingly-coloured enemy. The animation of the game is very smooth, the art is detailed, and the audio is appropriately rocking. As long as you’re not too offended by the gratuitous inclusion of scantily clad women, this is an easy recommendation. If you are offended by such things, then you’ll probably want to give it a miss despite its strengths.

Here’s what the developer (SoftwareByEugene) has to say about the game:

“Righteous Axe rocks out the space shooter genre with revolutionary guitar-based controls, seizure-inducing particle effects, hot multiplayer action, and a hardcore soundtrack to boot. So grab your gamepad and come on in! And if you want a real challenge, grab your Guitar Hero controller! … and a friend!”