"Tyris Flare is hot. There, I said it!"

Golden Axe is one of the most recognizable and well known Sega games. Beginning in the arcades as a very popular game, notable for its unique style and attention getting music, it has been on almost every Sega system ever in some form or another and is a very famous game.

Golden Axe tells the story of Death Adder an evil being wreaking havoc and destruction access the land of Yuria. He has kidnapped the king and queen and stolen the mightily golden axe a magical artifact, and has threatened to destroy it and kill the prisoners unless the people of Yuria submit to his will.

The game's three playable characters vary widely in their abilities. For example Tyris uses a shorter weapon, giving her inferior reach, but she is faster and has by far the best magic ability. Gilius has a powerful long axe, but his magic is the worst. Ax Battler is a jack of all trades; with a long sword and average magic.

Golden Axe is a side scrolling hack and slash type game. You walk along, meet enemies and hack them up with your weapon. Once they are all dead you advance to the next section of the level and destroy all the enemies there and so on. The levels in this game scroll in sections and once you advance a certain distance you will have to defeat all enemies to continue.

Enemies include soldiers with maces, Amazon women and skeletons. There are also creatures such as a monster which uses its tail to knock over enemies, or a lizard that breathes fire. These creatures can be ridden by enemies and you can knock them off and take control of the creature to kill foes.

Magic also plays a part in Golden Axe. As you progress though the levels you will encounter small goblin like creatures with sacks. If you attack them, they drop magic pots that you store in a meter. When you use your magic the amount of pots in the bar affect the magic you use and they range from small cyclones buffeting enemies, to multiple lightning bolts or even a fire breathing dragon destroying everything. Each character varies in magic ability.

Combat in Golden Axe is quite visceral. As you slash enemies they flinch and writhe and when you are attacked, you are knocked to your knees before being viciously hacked to the ground. Enemies scream as they die and there are a number of nasty animations for downing enemies, such as kicking them, clubbing their head with your sword pommel and even throwing them.

There are a good number of moves as well, including running attacks and back ones to attack enemies behind you. It lacks the large move collection of a game like Streets of Rage, but it's serviceable and the characters are fun to use.

Golden Axe looks great for its time. Characters are large and clear and there are many animations for fighting as mentioned above. There are a lot of palette swapped enemies and there really could have been more designs, although there wasn't in the arcade either. The frame rate stays solid no matter what is happening.

Each stage has a different feel to the others and is very imaginative ranging from the wilderness to a village on the back of a turtle and the back of a giant eagle. Magic effects are also well done.

The sound is excellent. Golden Axe is full of iconic music that is still remembered and remixed and they suit their respective stages very well. In particular the rousing wilderness theme and the music at Death Adder's castle are well done. The sounds of combat are suitably harsh, although the only voices are screams of the fallen.

Golden Axe is at its heart an arcade game, so it's not designed for long bouts of playing. If you're good enough you can finish the game in half an hour although there is also a dual mode to complete where you fight increasingly harder enemies and the game support 2 players. You'll definitely reply this one a few times tho.

In short golden axe lives up to its legendary status as one of the original 16 bit classics and if you own a genesis it's required to own this game. The sequel however is even better!

Fin

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/16/10

Game Release: Golden Axe (US, 12/22/89)