Golden Axe

"This game dug the tunnel, but didn't explore it!"

In this 1989 translation of Sega's 1988 arcade game, The evil Reptile-like Death Adder has massacred the the villages of Yuria and it's people, including the three main character's families, steals the Golden Axe (ironically a symbol of peace), and soon captures a king and of course, a princess. So it's up to (sigh) three determined heroes to stop him and his evil army's reign of terror.

Almost every character on the game has the same moves, give or take a few. All you do is slash a few times, then either konk them on the head twice and kick them, or throw them forward, or you can charge and shoulder block. While other enemies just pound you to ground with one hit.

You select from three characters: Ax Battler ''the terrible (they got that right!) barbarian'' who looks very similar to Conan, sporting a short sword, decent power and decent volcano magic.
The second is an amazon named Tyris Flare; also sporting a short sword, but as usual, she's weaker than the other two characters. However, she has VERY powerful fire magic, albeit it takes a long time to accumulate it.
Last but NOT least, there is Gilius Thunderhead; a Dwarf sporting a long, powerful axe, and lightning magic that can't compare to the magic of the other two, but still pays the bills.

The truth is, the Dwarf is by FAR the best character on the one-player mode. Seeing how the other two characters have to get hit at least once just to get close enough to attack unless you shoulder block! This is acceptable for the amazon, since her powerful magic more than makes up for it in the two-player mode. But it's not for the barbarian, since his magic isn't that good either. This is not a game where you can settle for second best, and he's second best in about everything. In his defense, he's not second best in range; he's the worst! I'll just go ahead and say it; The barbarian SUCKS!

OVERVIEW

GAMEPLAY- 7
the gameplay is fun and simple; hack everyone in your path, get temporary magic points from bag haulers, and ride dragons and other less classifiable beasts so you can blow fire and tail whip. They're called Bizarrians (I can't say it with a straight face).
The bad news?The characters are very slow, even while they run. And speaking of running, the game forces fights to be waaaaaaayyyyy too based upon shoulder charges on both sides! Whenever you and the computer are far away from eachother, which will be quite a bit, it's shoulder blockin' time!
GRAPHICS- 3
VERY bland! It's hard to explain how lame the game looks. It's probably because it has a very limited amout of colors, even for a Genesis game! They're not quite to the point of being repulsive, but they're pretty bad.
The level graphics are about as vivid and exciting as Mr. Roger's street.
The backgrounds are just as bland as the foregrounds and the three color characters. Everything on the game just screams ''bland''.
The only things that saves this catagory from getting a 2 are the very cool magic effects. With the amazon, you'll find yourself wasting magic just to see what happens.
SOUND/MUSIC- 6
the sword, club and axe swinging all sound NOTHING like they should. The magic, like fire-raining and lightning sounded okay in it's time, but it's a bit outdated now. Those are about all the sounds on the game.
The music isn't easy to explain, but it sounds very archaic, as it's supposed to to have that fantasy feel.
LEVEL DESIGN- 6
most of the levels just consist of the ground, some trees, and the sky. Although there's also a level called ''Eagle Island'' where you ride a giant eagle to Death Adder's abode, it doesn't even look that diverse. The final two levels are in a castle, but it's still Nothing special.
The enemies are typical fantasy characters; Ogres, Orcs, black knights, skeletons, etcetera.
CHALLENGE- 6
I beat the nine short stages in one 30-minute try a few days ago after not playing it in over five years!
For an intermediate player (like I was in the early 90's), it will take about three full tries to beat the arcade mode, one or two players.
This game also has a one ''duel'' mode that's about equally hard where you pick a character and fight nearly every enemy on the game one, or two or three at a time.
REPLAY VALUE- 6
this game will keep you busy for a few days. When you start to get board with it, you can fight player two and try to ditch him in certain parts of the game. It's more fun throw down there than on the 2-player ''duel'' mode.
OVERALL- 6+
This game is a pioneer in quite a few areas; it was the first side-scrolling fighting game to have more than one character to select (Billy and Jimmy Lee were both the same person!), it was the first side-scrolling fighting game to have individual special attacks for each character, AND the originator of the hack-and-slash sub-genre used in many other games like AD&D, King of Dragons and most notably TMNT.
Despite this game's recalcitrant list of firsts, it's nowhere near the best and can't really stand out that well by itself. I gave it an extra half of a point for it's historical importance.
Basically, this game is one of those sublime stepping stones that every true gamer should play or should have played, rather they like it or not. I suggest you spend the 5 or ten bucks on the Sega 6-PAK, because it's a MUCH better deal that way.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/04/00, Updated 09/04/00