Arcade Archives: The Astyanax (Switch) review "Thoroughly competent without ever rising to the level of exemplary."

The Astyanax first hit Japanese arcades in 1989, where it was known as The Lord of King. Then it released on the NES, later that same year. A few months after that, the home port came to North America as Astyanax. Shortly thereafter, a young lad named Jason Venter purchased a copy from Sears because it was super cheap and looked kind of cool.

Believe it or not, I am that very same Jason Venter! And I’ll admit it: I kind of liked Astyanax at the time. Sure, it featured a generic story about a boy getting pulled into another world to save a princess from an evil wizard. But the cutscenes were pretty decent, the levels were moody and difficult, and the music was solid. I played the game a lot and eventually even conquered it, despite sometimes getting stuck in a swampy level that may or may not have prompted me to yell obscenities at the screen when my mom wasn’t around to hear me. Those fish men can suck it!

A few years later, I found out about the existence of the arcade version. I decided I would make playing it a priority. But I didn’t look for it on MAME and I didn’t roam arcades, because I had more than just the one priority. It wasn’t until 2021, almost five years ago to this day, that I finally acquired a “legitimate” copy of the game after Hamster released Arcade Archives: The Astyanax on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. Finally, I knew, I would see what I’d been missing all those years. Naturally, I then proceeded to wait almost five more years to play the game I’d drooled over for so long. And you might very well wonder: was it worth the wait?

No.

The Astyanax isn’t an awful experience. You wouldn’t have to look hard at all to find piles of arcade games released around the same time that suck in comparison. Aicom was clearly a talented developer. But over the years, most of the stuff that might once have made the game a blast to play has since lost its appeal. Modern players who give the campaign a chance today will encounter a six-stage romp that is over almost as soon as it begins, one that fails to offer much they’re likely to remember five minutes after the credits roll (let alone years later).

Arcade Archives: The Astyanax features two versions of the game itself (one localized and one not), along with a high score attack and a “caravan” mode that players by now expect from Hamster’s extensive library of retro releases. There also are the usual convenience features and filters that give the visuals an old school face lift, just in case you miss playing on a CRT of some sort. I’m on board with such perks, but mostly I just want to play the game.

When you kick off your adventure in The Astyanax, you are dropped into the first of six reasonably detailed environments. It’s a forest with lots of ledges, stone columns succumbing to ivy overgrowth, and skeletons. You hack and slash your way to the right and eventually you reach a wide waterfall that you must leap across using bits of stone that briefly expose themselves within the cascading water. Getting across that gap may take a few attempts and cost you several lives if you’re not careful. I’m not sure why the segment was even included, though, because there’s nothing else like it for the rest of the adventure. Maybe the goal was just to suck quarters? That’s probably it.

As was true of the NES version of the game, stages end with boss battles. I still remember the boss of the first level in the home game, with his pointy finger and menacing aura. I’ve already forgotten the monster I fought in the arcade version. I think it might have been a slug or something? Or maybe it was the guy with a bunch of swords. Definitely it was one of those two. I think. The standout encounter is a duel with a two-headed dragon, several stages into the adventure. The wizard in the fifth area is also kind of cool, but a bit of a pushover. And speaking of pushovers, so is the game’s final boss. When I beat him and the game’s ending sequence played, I kept waiting for a more impressive adversary to crash the party. But that never happened.

If you played the game in arcades and only had a few quarters to devote to the effort, you might have had to return a few times to get enough practice to clear the entire adventure. But on home systems, you can just press a button to “insert coins.” And it won’t even take a lot of those virtual coins to simply power through the entire adventure. The stages are relatively short. Gameplay mostly amounts to taking a few steps, mashing the button to swing your axe a lot, then strolling toward the next group of adversaries. Sometimes they leap around you, and you can jump to a higher ledge or drop to a lower one. If you hold off on hitting anyone for a bit, you also power up your weapon so you can unleash a mightier blow. And there are magic vials that let you cast spells. But mostly, just walking around and slashing a lot will get the job done.

Although I didn’t test it myself (because getting my wife to play retro games with me is an exercise in futility and my 20-month-old daughter hasn’t yet developed her father’s elite skills), The Astyanax also offers a two-player mode. That’s actually a nice touch. I suspect it would have made the mobs easier and less tedious to clear. But again, it’s not like they’re all that difficult even when you go it alone.

Unfortunately, that brings me to the end of the list of things I care to say about The Astyanax. It’s thoroughly competent without ever rising to the level of exemplary. At one point it must have made decent competition for the likes of Rastan and Magic Sword. Here in 2026, though, I can’t really say it warrants a recommendation unless you’re curious like I was.

I certainly don’t regret the time I spent playing The Astyanax, but I’m kicking myself (just a little bit) for waiting as long as I did to get around to it. And now I will probably forget all about it. I’m sure no one would blame you if you do the same thing.

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Staff review by Jason Venter (April 16, 2026) Jason Venter has been playing games for 30 years, since discovering the Apple IIe version of Mario Bros. in his elementary school days. Now he writes about them, here at HonestGamers and also at other sites that agree to pay him for his words.