Golden Axe

The Good
The graphics in the PC conversion of Golden Axe are very good; if you were to pipe the output of your VGA onto a television, they're indistinguishable from the Sega Genesis version.

The Bad
First and foremost, the PC version is damn near impossible to complete without continuing. After an hour of gameplay, I would have hoped that the game got easier to master. It doesn't. After 30 minutes of getting repeatedly kicked into unconciousness less than a second after getting up, I was ready to smash the screen. The original arcade game was easier than this!

There are other problems that bother me a bit: There are entire sections of land missing in the PC version. Since the game is disk-based, it would not have been a big deal to include them. And while the CGA graphics run on almost any platform (8mHz and higher), the EGA graphics really require a 286 and the VGA graphics require a 386 to run smoothly.

The Bottom Line
If you liked the arcade game and don't have access to a Sega Genesis or arcade emulator, the PC version will satisfy your Golden Axe cravings. But if you haven't played the arcade game and aren't familiar with it's style of gameplay, look somewhere else for a side-scrolling fighting game.

The Good
One of the best soundtracks I've ever come across on the C64. The tunes here really do have atmosphere. The graphics are good for an 8-bit machine, and the characters look like the ones in the arcade version (albiet smaller).

The Bad
Let's be honest, it was mainly the graphics and music which made the 16-bit versions of Golden Axe playable. Without those, the raggedness of the gameplay is clear for all to see. Added to that is the problem that only one enemy is on the screen at a time, and that there's only one type of enemy and one type of boss in each level (though as they all behave in identical fashion, I don't suppose it makes any difference). What you have to do, as one of the three heroes, is wait for a baddie to come on the screen, walk up to him and press the 'attack' button until he falls over. Repeat this until he dies. Then another identical baddie will appear. Then another. After you've dealt with several of these villains, an arrow will instruct you to move a bit further along the level until another bad dude appears. Then you must repeat the procedure of killing the naughty folk who come onto the screen, one by one. I think the challenge must be to see if you can reach the end before you die of boredom. Quite often, as you're slashing away with your sword or axe, the baddie you're fighting will suddenly start hitting you back. Your character will then fall over and lose some energy. There isn't really anything you can do to stop this happening. You just have to hack away and hope for the best. The original batch of C64 Golden Axe tapes apparently had the last two levels missing. Frankly I wouldn't have noticed. Backgrounds apart, they're all identical.

The Bottom Line
As with the arcade version, the evil Death Adder has filled the land with his villainous minions. So it's up to you, as one of three heroic figures, to make your way through several levels of hack-em-up medieval horizontally-scrolling fighting action. The characters all have some personal grudge against Death Adder. He pulled the arm off Ax Battler's teddy as a child, hid a spider in Tyris's pencil case and blew a raspberry at Gillius Thunderhead. Or something like that. Anyway, during the level you will sometimes come across little figures with bags containing either food or magic. The food replaces lost energy, whilst the magic can be used to destroy or injure enemies. The more magic pots you have, the more powerful your magic. In Tyris's case, possession off a full magic bar will allow you to summon a dragon to incinerate foes. Enemies include knights, club-wielding brutes and even skeletons.

The Good
The thing that will probably matter most when discussing this game is the conversion itself. Those that loved it's original incarnation only care about this, and those who don't really don't care anyway. Rest assured fans of Golden Axe, that the conversion is pretty accurate and save for some quirky details that make it more a port of it's 16-bit home incarnation rather than the original arcade one, this is flawless. The graphics are dead-on (at least as far as I remember) and the music sounded, well... "accurate".

The game offers a brand new duel mode that isn't exactly top notch but offers something different in gameplay terms, and most importantly: retains the 2-player co-op gameplay that is essential for these types of games.

The Bad
The only real downside to Golden Axe is that it isn't really that hot a game to begin with. I remember when it was around the arcades and it was interesting mainly because it was the first to offer a medieval-fantasy twist on the 2D -sidescroller beat'em up genre, but that was it. The sprites were pretty small making the action much less interesting, the gameplay was pretty unbalanced (tip: use the dwarf) and the amount of things you could do was pretty limited compared to other games that offered different throws, items, and more animations per hits. As far as I'm concerned It never even got close to the sheer genius that were Capcom's or Konami's 2D fighters like Captain Commando or the immortal Final Fight. And if the only reason that you cared about Golden Axe was it's fantasy-edge, then you still had better options like King of The Dragons or the pseudo 3d- Broken Sword.

Of course, since none of those titles where converted to the pc it's really pointless to compare them, right? Still... why should we settle for less??

The Bottom Line
For nostalgic medieval fantasy lovers only. Real action gamers come join me at the local arcade for a one-two of Final Fight, or heck: even Double Dragon!!