Golden Axe

The Good
Classic beat em up action. Excellent graphics and sound for its time. The gameplay is somewhat addictive and the controls on the Genesis version are tighter than the original arcade release. This version also contains an extra stage at the end which is moderately difficult, and the Duel Mode give a little extra added replay value.

The Bad
I guess due to hardware limitations the graphics are not as good as the arcade version, although for a Genesis game they are still great. It also would have been nice if back then you could have more than two players.

The Bottom Line
This is one of the best arcade to console conversions out there. The game it self is a classic and fun to play. The added features of the Genesis version also make it worth your while. This is a MUST have for any Genesis owner or classic console game collector.

The Good
Ah Sega's classic beat em up Golden Axe. A arcade sensation that has been ported to home. This game represented for the first time a Arcade game could be ported to a home console and look like a visual representation of the actual arcade game not the dreaded words "arcade port"

Now for the good.

The Graphics are VERY close to the arcade. Infact if you never played the arcade game you would swear you had the arcade game at home. This version just totals any other ports in graphics and gameplay.

The speed is parallel to the arcade which means fast and furious gameplay. Tons of enemies crowd the screen to give you a pummelin a plenty.

Three characters to choose from. Each character has different magic and a slight variation of moves.

The game is a nice time waster. Kill five minutes or beat the game and kill 30 minutes. This game is always fun for the duration.

The game still retains it's fun after over fifteen years. A true gem in the genre of beat down.

The Bad
now for the bad.

The game only gives four credits. The game can be a trite hard if you're a newbie to this genre. Even I had trouble beating Death Addler who has the ability to combo into every hit. If he knocks you down then you face a fierce spell which takes one bar of health per hit. You get three bars of health per life. YOU do the math.

Not as good as the arcade version. Though it's a very close port it just pales to the arcade just a little bit. The music also isn't as good as the arcade version.

The game doesn't have any backup to keep your scores. Sure most games didn't have this but it's a little nitpick to add.

The Dwarf is the most unevened character in the game and has the weakest magic even though his physical attacks do the same or maybe just a tiny bit more then the other two characters.

The Bottom Line
In the end this game is recommended to anyone who likes beat em ups like Streets of Rage or Final Fight. A worthy game to anyones genesis collection. Plus at around five bucks money isn't a issue. Hell you'll probably waste that much trying to beat this game in the arcade.

The Good
Yet another review-wannabe thing of this!? Of course, because it is GOLDEN FRIGGIN' AXE!

The MS-DOS PC version might be a little bit thin compared to the arcade game, but I didn't know that when I was a kid. It was one of the first games I got more into and eventually have beaten it. It is regarded by most DOS-age gamers as one of the best hack 'n slash action games. I don't want to describe the playing mechanics here, I'm too lazy. But who doesn't know it anyway? Oh yeah, and it has the advantage over the arcade original that it has plus two more levels from the Genesis/Megadrive port.

Beside the "story" there is a Duel mode, where you have to face a small group of enemies in each turn in an arena. It gets harder and harder, but after the last turn nothing particular happens, just a usual rating and then back to the main menu. First I had a buggy version which after a certain duel turn wanted me to insert disk 2 (even when the whole game was on hard drive), and it kept me excited what happens after that. There is even a little practice mode, which is like the main "story" mode but easier and only lasts up to the 3rd level.

There is three characters to choose from when starting a new game. I always pick the dwarf, "Gilius Thunderhead", he was simply the strongest with his axe, even when his thunder magic was the weakest of the three. There was a glitch that changed the colors on him on each level (but I only noticed that when I connected a color monitor to the computer, because originally it had a tiny monochrome SVGA display) Once I even manged to get the maximal A+++ rating at the end. The amazon, Tyris Flare looks soo sexy and she can summon a giant fire breathing dragon! (haha, her bikini and pantie wear isn't a little bit too leisure for a medieval setting?). And there was that barbarian guy... I don't think I have gotten past even the second level with him. The magic system in the DOS version was simplified as I see now.

On the keyboard, Keypad 5 was the weapon attack, Right Shift was the magic charge, at least for player one. There was even a mouse control feature... it was VERY awkward XD

The graphics looks good by 16-bit standards (I am talking about VGA mode of course). It does not use 256 colors, more like 16, or maybe 64 because the gfx was directly converted from the Genesis/Megadrive version.

To me, the most memorable feature of the game is the PC speaker music and sound effects. I had no sound card back then in my 386 PC and the game still delivered polyphonic music via fast arpeggio beeping, and violent death screams via PCM digitized sounds, all that during gameplay. The mild music with the Adlib is nothing compared to that. The beeper was raw, wild, and LOUD, ear raping awesomeness. The buzzing metallic case created a harmonic bass together with the music. I liked the game called "The Cycles" from Accolade too because of this. PC beeper music lacked percussion, but I didn't realized it until quite recently. The crunchy digi sound effects interrupted the music, but it was not all that disturbing. All these sounded on each computer a little bit differently. The tiny internal piezzo speakers and emulators nowadays can't do justice to that. Yeah, this is the feature of the game that definitely aged much,

On some places where are pits the enemies can be pushed into then, making that part easier.

There is two player mode in both story and duel modes. Me and my friend always argued over the dwarf because we both wanted to play as him, but it was not possible. Also, we could hit each other in story mode too, so the cooperation easily turned into a deathmatch. We never got to the giant eagle in 2 player mode.

I once discovered that each sprites are stored in different files, so with renaming those files you can play as the enemies, haha! It was really buggy although. I scammed my friend with this: on the start of a 2 player game he picked the dwarf and I picked the barbarian. That moment when he realized that the barbarian is Death Adder himself...

My friend liked to make fun of the sound effect when the skeletons rise from the floor, because it sounded like farting.

When running the game with memory hog resident programs, the lesser the memory was, the more features were stripped away. First, no two player mode, then the enemies were all the same. I managed to run it with so little memory that even the magic attacks didn't work.

The Bad
Even with the plus levels, it was too short :)

Jumping over the wider pits... first it was a nightmare before I discovered the headbutting jump attack.

I think they should have implemented a save-able highscore feature in the PC version, because the rating screen was directly lifted from the console versions.

Occasionally, the midgets that held the power-ups, got stuck in the wall, and the game didn't let you further until they were gone, so it had to be restarted. Earlier I didn't even notice that with pressing Esc you can return to the main menu, so I restarted the computer.

It also lack many animations and small details compared to the Genesis/Megadrive and arcade versions. Like the little arrow on the speech bubbles that shows which character is talking, the floating feathers on the giant eagle level, the pen on the map screens, etc. Death Adder also lacks the underground fireball attacks so he is much easier to defeat.

The Bottom Line
Simple. Easy to get into. Addicting. Even if it didn't age well as a hack n' slash, it is still a very fun arcade action game. If you are new to it, I recommend you to look at the Arcade or Sega Genesis/Megadrive versions, or a remake, there must be one out somewhere.