Retro game review: Battle of Olympus Part 2

Finally, I'm getting round to posting the second part of this review. Now the game starts to get quite tough.

Phytia
This mountainous area is accessed after defeating the rock giant Gaia who is found in Attica (you need the ocarina to wake him up first). This area is an absolute BASTARD. It's riddled with rock-dropping eagles and hoppy monkey things that are all too willing to knock you into the numerous pits in the area. After entering this area, if you head left you are on the path to the metalwork and crafts god Hephaestos who sells you the best weapon in the game known as the Divine Sword. This also shoots out little lightning bolts known as "The Power of Argos". Use this in conjunction with Ares' bracelet to increase the power of the bolts and to prevent the bolt usage from consuming your energy. If you head right at the entrance you will encounter the Centaur, who hops around firing arrows at you (he's pretty easy to beat). You also come to a cave in which, if you have the Graiae witches eye (obtained in Crete) you will find a door to one of the three nymphs (You need to get the key off the old codger in a house near Athena's palace in Attica first). Continue on to enter the Garden of the Hesperides to fight Ladon the dragon (who's basically the same Hydra sprite except green instead of purple). Once you are done here and once you've done everything in Crete it's time to go th the hardest area in the game, Phyrigia (which was a kingdom in ancient Turkey, Midas being the King of that area in mythology). You can access Phyrigia by the sea route just after the Lamia boss battle in Attica by summoning the dolphin with the ocarina.

Phyrigia
This is an absolute hoor of a place. It will first remind you of Crete but the sky is muck darker and it has an excellent Middle Eastern-style soundtrack to it. You will first encounter the Dark Pegasus who spits fireballs at you but just like Talos in Crete you can simply ignore it and enter the old ruin. The ruin is full of staircases, holes to drop down and die, long hard jumps and giant f**k-off cobras who will absolutely OWN you unless you have the salamander shield to block their fireballs. Your objective in this area is to get yer ass to the palace of the moon goddess Artemis who will give you her moon crystal. This is VITAL in order to defeat the final boss Hades. Once you are done with all areas it's time to visit the last area in the game, the entrance to this area lies on the sea route between Crete and Argolis after rescuing the three nymphs.

Tartarus (The Greek Mythological version of Hell)
Once you enter this area you drop down into a section with two doors. One door leads to another similar section while the others lead to a boss/Amazon battle. Once you enter the final door you get to face the three headed hell-hound Cerberus (who is like a faster, stronger version of the Nemean Lion boss in Argolis). Once you defeat him you enter a dark forest area not-unlike Pelopponessus. Advancing thru Tartarus brings you into short, dark, gloomy versions of all the other areas until you eventually get to Hades' palace itself. This palace is full of nasty creatures, staircases and a weird, warbly soundtrack. When you get to Hades use the moon crystal in order to see his shadow so that you can attempt to defeat his. Once he's beaten you get to rescue your missus (who is encased in stone in the room just before Hades' lair). Yaaay!!

Anyway, that's practically it. An excellent side-scrolling game with simple but nicely done graphics, an excellent soundtrack although it's a shame about the weak sound-effects though (although the sound a boss makes after you hit it is cool). Playability is good but using the shield can be frustrating as you must be perfectly still, and getting knocked back after being hit by an enemy is one of the most annoying things in the world. Collecting the olives can be a tedious pain in the anus as well.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this little review/walkthru. Here's a vid of the game that I found on Youtube that comes in a number of parts (Kudos to the vid maker for this).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGzqdTq9t88