"How can a Dwarf be so awesome?"

While the Sega Mega Drive didn't have as big third party support as Nintendo had, Sega managed to release enough great games on their 16 bit system to keep making the Sega players happy for a long while. One of the biggest games before Sonic the Hedgehog got released and made the system even more popular, Golden Axe was one of the most important games on the system.

It's an port of the Arcade game which has the same title with a few levels and modes added. However for some reason Gillius's axe is no longer made of gold, which means that there are no Golden Axe in this port.

Golden Axe is a side-scrolling beat em up where fight with weapons instead of fighting with bare hands. The game also takes place in a Tolkien Fantasy world with dwarfs, dragons and monsters. You choose between three different characters to play as. The first is Ax Battler, a strong barbarian who can use average magic, but his strength is in his Broad Sword.

The second character is Tyris Flare, an Amazon who has the most powerful spells, but are the worst melee fighter. Finally there's Gillius Thunderhead, the Dwarf who can use weak spells but possess the mighty Golden Axe (which is gray and not gold in this version). All three character are balanced so it's possible to finish the game with all three, but nine of ten who have played this game will say that the Dwarf was their favourite character.

The story in this game is that the evil knight Death Adder have kidnapped the King and the pretty Princess and are keeping them as hostage in his castle. If the people in the Kingdom of Yuria don't want the King and his daughter to die they better surrender to Death Adder and accept him as ruler of Yuria. Our three heroes can of course not allow that to happen, so they set out on a journey to the evil Death Adder's castle to save their beloved king.

In almost any other of Beat em up it's possible to pick up weapons that you can fight with. Since our heroes already have a weapon to fight with, Sega invented something else. Instead of picking up weapons, you can knock down enemies who are riding on monsters and then ride on them instead. For example there are a few dragons you can use to shoot fire balls at the enemies. after that the monsters have taken a few hits, they will run away from the stage.

There are also two kinds of gnomes that you can hit so they drop something good. The blue gnomes drop magic potions which can make your magic stronger and the green ones drop food which will increase your health.

As I said before there are two new modes in this version. The first one is BEGINNER, which is an easier version of the first three stages. This mode is for novice players who wants to train a little before they wants to start on Arcade Mode which is much harder.

The other mode is Duel. In this mode it's possible to either duel a set of monsters if you play alone, or duel another player if you have a friend to play with. It's not possible to use any magic in this mode, so it's not the best mode to play if you have convinced a friend to play Golden Axe with you.

It's much better to play the Arcade mode with a friend. Since it's originally an Arcade game, the game is much funnier if you have a friend to play with. It often happens that two enemies gang up on your hero and attack him or her on both the right and the left side. But if you are two players, then it's easier to work together to avoid that from happening. You also have two players to cast magic on the boss if you play with a friend.

You can also set how many health points you want to have. If you choose to have five health points then the game will be a bit to easy, but if you pick only three than the game is a great challenge. I don't even want to imagine what the game is like if you have one health point. I guess ultra hard is a good way to explain it.

Golden Axe is a short game. It only takes about 40 minutes to beat it, and the ending is the same no matter which character you picked to play as. But still it's enjoyable to pick once in a while and play it again. It's not the absolute best game in this genre, but it's still a game that just about anyone can enjoy. Consider Golden Axe to be a welcome addition to your Sega Mega Drive collection.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/04/07