Milky Way Games

Milky Way Games (formerly AXIS Games) is a video game company founded in 1992 by Ida Barb. They're known for developing Xing Unearthed, Bobsled Championship, and many other titles.

History
In 1992, a person named Ida Barb formed Milky Way Games, because she dreamed about being a video game company; and wanted to make that dream come true. Between 1993 and 2001, they developed parts of many games, and that all changed in 2001 when they started developing an platformer game that is great for beginners.

The first game they made was Xing! released on January 9, 2002 for the GameCube and PlayStation 2. It was an 3D platformer game "with a zing". It included a beginners mode and an expert mode. These modes vary in difficulty. When the user plays in expert mode, they can unlock weapons and level them up (one being the Flair Gun, which can be upgraded up to an Yotta-Flair). People loved the game for its varied gameplay, modes, and weapons, and the game got an 89 on Metacritic. Sequels of the game were made, like one called "Flair Exposion", released in 2004.

In 2009, another original game was made, called "BlockWorld", which is another platformer game, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable and the PS3. The mission is to stop a corrupt business tycoon who wants to destroy BlockWorld. The character and all the characters in the game were blocks, which varied in colors so they can be more recognizable. The levels are side-scrolling, and the Yotta-Flare from Xing! is available in the final levels, and the player can jump and run on ceilings by moving the analog stick (similar to gameplay mechanics in VVVVVV) and can fall onto ropes and jump boosters, and new obstacles like "sparky hills", fireballs and more, giving the game more variety, and completing the worlds will stop the business tycoon's operations one-by-one. The game was later ported to the Wii, but users had to hold the B button and swing the Wii Remote up to get on either the floor or ceiling.

BlockWorld 2 was released later in 2012 for the Xbox 360, Wii U, PS3, PlayStation Vita, and was later ported to the PS4 and Xbox One in 2013. The graphics were improved, the player had the ability to unlock trails, and some of the obstacles were simplified. There was a new gameplay mechanic called the "Elevating Block". When the player falls on this block, it will start moving right and upwards as well. When the player flies off the block, the block disappears to never be seen again. There was also a new character - a companion to the player, named Null. The game received critical acclaim, and was considered "the best PS3 game that everyone would love". A couple more sequels of Blockworld were made, but DangitTanget doesn't want to make this page hard to read.

On May 9, 2018, Milky Way Games' first original racing game, Bobsled Championship, was released. Instead of karts, bobsleds with nitro jets were used instead. All of the maps were in a snowy setting, and players can choose characters from other Milky Way Games titles.

In 2019, a highly anticipated Xing game was announced on E3 2019, called Xing Unearthed. The game focused on Xing traveling through different worlds, like "Sorrow Abandons". There was a new gameplay mechanic called the "Manglers", which attack Xing once Xing touches them, but the Manglers can get attacked with weapons, like the "De-Mangler". It also had a new proprietary engine which allowed for further advancements for graphics. It was later released for the PS4/PS5, iriSoft Clickd, and the Xbox One in December 9, 2020. The game was an huge success, and was praised for its superior gameplay that included depth, which resulted with a 96 on MetaCritic, and was even called a Must-Play on the aforementioned site. It also had some BlockWorld references and had remakes of worlds from Xing!

On November 27, 2020, Axis Games changed its name to Milky Way Games and got a new logo as well.