Golden Axe

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!!