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
We all remember when Golden Axe came to the PC world. In those old DOS days, a lot of game lovers where happy to find this arcade game and playing in their home. The convertion was excellent, and we loved to play it. And, when I discovered that it had mouse support, it was better. Some movements, especially long jumps, became easier. I always liked to play with the old dwarf, it was my favorite character of the game.

The Bad
In those days, there was nothing to criticize against Golden Axe. Nowadays we can complain about the graphics, the gameplay, and a lot of thing, but there were a little ahead of a standard in that time.

The Bottom Line
An impressive arcade, that older PC gamers can't easily forget.

The Good
The first time I caught a glimpse of Golden Axe was in an Arcade somewhere in France. I was really impressed by the marvelous graphics. On the PC the game still looked pretty marvelous, but unfortunately not on my PC (I had a 286 at the time). But Golden Axe’s graphics are among the best (maybe even the best) of it’s time. I like the creativity of the designers: the island that is a giant turtle, the huge eagle. The design of those stages is extremely well done. Moreover the magical spells are a joy to watch. The graphics are Golden Axe’s best feature. But there are some other things to like about Golden Axe.

• Great sound effects & midi music. I can still hum some of those tunes.
• You can knock enemy soldiers off their dragons and ride the dragons yourself.
• It has a two-player cooperative mode, there nothing more fun than beating up some bad guys together.
• It has a nice story twist. At a certain moment you think you have won the game but the toughest part is yet to come.

The Bad

• It’s not complete! The intro and the cool ending that MAT is talking about are not included in the PC port.
• The controls feel a little stiff.
• Gilius is a lot better than the other two heroes because of the broad range of his axe (combined with his jump-attack). Not only would this cause arguments about who would get to play with Gilius, it also meant you virtually had to play with Gilius in order to win. I could beat the game easily when I played with Gilius but never succeeded with one of the others.
• The “Duel” mode is lame and very difficult to complete.

The Bottom Line
A side scrolling beat ‘em up best remembered for it’s great graphics. Of course even great graphics look dated after a couple of years. In fact the whole side scrolling beat ‘em up genre is rather dated. Games like this one don’t get released anymore. In the early 90’s they were released in truckloads. Nowadays I find games like Final Fight, Double Dragon and Streets of Rage rather boring, but I still enjoy playing Golden Axe.