"Greek Mythology with an NES flavor."

The story pretty much unfolds as you taking the role of Athena whom is decidedly bored and looking for adventure. So, in all of her wisdom and glory, she decides that she’s going to go out into the world and start defeating monsters to prove to herself that she is more than just a pretty face. What you end up finding, is a game that isn’t great, but isn’t bad either with the premise of the game needing to be found through adventure and time. Mind you, the game is only a one player game, and it is extremely long at that, but has those special overtones of Kid Icarus thrown in for good measure with the amount of mythology that is involved! If you can get through the long stages and the amount of item finding, enemy killing and boss beating without finding yourself lost or aggravated, then you’ll find that Athena is a rather good action game with plenty of good elements thrown in for good measure.

-The Game Play-

The game play is a bit of platform gaming, side scrolling action and elements of role play gaming all rolled into one title in which you spend much of the time collecting weapons and items to enhance your character attributes. Even though this may sound a little strange, you’ll find that the game has plenty of elements of all three genres that come together to make a rather enjoyable game! The different stages that you traverse through has a boss that you have to find within a time limit and during this time, you have the ability to collect weapons and items that will help you in your quest.

You’re really not shooting for any goal other than to make it from one stage to the next, but the amount of enemies that you face and even some of the puzzles in certain stages will be enough to make you sit back and think. Most of the puzzles don’t come up until later, and even through they are difficult, they are easily solved with a little bit of thought and can be passed up without wasting too much of the stage clock. If you manage to get into the different aspects that the game has to offer, you’ll find that there are plenty of weapons and other items that you collect to help you on your quest. Most of the items that you find are more or less are weapons that you can use against your enemies at various points of the game.

Be aware though, that once you change weapons, you can’t go back to the original one, and if you’re stuck with a crappy weapon {like the ball and chain} then you’re going to have to figure out a new strategy to get through! The challenge of the game is about as hard as you want to make it without the game ever really being much to begin with. When I say this, the level puzzles and the bosses only require a little thought and some strategy, while the enemies themselves are nothing that can’t be taken out with a few well placed hits. There is no save feature on the game, and the only way to continue is if you lose all of your lives and are forced back to the beginning of the game.

For most, you’ll find that the lack of a save feature and even the point that the stages are so long will be a turn off, but if you’re into games like this that require time, then you’ve come to the right place. The control that is featured here in Athena doesn’t really suffer from Ghost Control, baring the fact that the jumping parts of the game need some tweaking. The battle system of the game is simple to the point of just knowing how to use the different weapons and learning their reach! With that being said, anyone can pretty much pick up the control and start playing the game without having to learn anything too important, and with no real advanced moves that you have to learn, the learning curve on the control is fairly even for beginners and veterans alike.

-The Visuals-

Visually, the game is cartoonish and animated in a way that caters to younger kids without getting to far into more mature audiences. Your character, while detailed well is enough to make you take notice of the colors and the character detailing, but little else! The enemy designs seem to suffer a little bit from the age old problem of image break up and slow down, especially when the action starts getting too intense, but there is nothing that you can’t see past if you’re used to the common problems. The special effects of the game really aren’t there either, in which you have little or nothing to call flare or dramatic effect on any of the situations in the game. For most action gamers, this may come as a relief or a burden, all depending on your preference of what you see and how well it is presented!

-The Audio-

Audio wise, Athena has an audio track that sets the mood of the game into the different aspects of the game play. While it really doesn’t change much from one level to the next, you’ll find that the game offers you several different sound effects come out and blend together for a nice sounding game! The examples of this come with the boss battles and even character to enemy fighting in which you have small clangs and other various sound effects. If you can get used to the way that that Athena presents its sounds and music, you’ll find that the game fits the mood and the adventure to the letter.

-The Verdict-

When I first played this, I was wondering just what the point of the game was. Though it seems to be annoying for the most part, I found that it was rather fun and it reminds me of the NES version of the same game. With a rather interesting story line attached to the mindless adventuring and item gathering, it really is pretty cool once you pump a couple of quarters into it. I’ve found that the game has plenty to offer an action gamer, but it might not hold those with a short attention span for too long. Worthy of a buck in quarters, make a stop and play through the mystical realm of Athena.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/02/02, Updated 10/02/02