User Reviews

Golden Axe was one of many ultra successful popular side scrolling combat games and was essentially a fantasy version of Double Dragon (1987).

Choosing your character out of the dwarf, amazon or barbarian you battled across 8 stages with simple melee attacks and powerful magics.

At the time this was still pretty revolutionary stuff, it looked good, it sounded good and was a very enjoyable title. It's one of those games that people look back on with great fondness but might be a tad blinded by nostalgia.

It was hokey, bit buggy and had a very small array of foes. The game was badly flawed but made up for it with sheer unadulterated charm. Sadly this was not the beginning of a great franchise, the sequels went downhill and it died altogether way before it's time! We've not seen a competent modern one in several console generations.

Despite all this the original Golden Axe is an enjoyable classic, it just came out at a time where there was a lot of very stiff competition.

The Good:

Great charm

Very playable

The Bad:

Hokey combat

Not much variety

This is one of the best remembered Genesis games, though it's absolutely nothing special. It's almost totally like Streets of Rage with magic spells instead of special kung-fu moves and set in the dark ages.

You can choose the big Conan lookalike Ax Battler, who uses earth magic, Tyris Flare, the She-Ra type amazon woman who uses fire magic or Gilius Thunderhead, the viking dwarf uses lightning magic (and the character who actually uses the Golden Axe) or team up in a two-player (the best way to play the game).

The story is a load of cobblers. Some dude called Death Adder (and his son Death Adder JNR) are up to some amount of evil and you've got to stop him. So on you go on your journey of hacking and slashing goblins, skeletons and various other guys in armor. It's fun, but not great.

The sound effects are pathetic and do not show off what the Genesis was capable of. David Whittaker's music, while being slightly tuneful and medieval, was pretty bad and wasn't as memorable as Yuzo Koshiro's effort on the Streets of Rage games.

A fun game to play right to the end once (in a two player) but not as memorable as it's following would suggest.

There are beat-em-up games and then there are ones like Golden Axe, the ones that stick with you for a long time and keep you coming back over and over again. This game has everything an action fan could ask for: a strong swordsman barbarian, a hot bikini-clad amazon, magic, dragons, orcs, ruffians, skeletons, and a dark lord all rolled into one. The gameplay mechanics have aged like wine, and the hit detection is spot on, I love using the backward sword spin on the Barbarian and Amazon, and I love using the Amazon's kick. It's pretty short (20 minutes to complete), but the challenge and variety of characters to choose from always keeps me coming back. Overall, this game is worth anyone's time.

I enjoyed playing this one in the arcade, loved walking the ancient streets as citizens were being beaten by the evil horde of plunderers and you and maybe a friend would kick their tails. Then when there were a lot of enemies on the screen, unleash the fury of a magic spell! I was stoked to get a Genesis console to play this game and I have to say it was okay, but just not the same as the arcade. For one, there was not the random running crowds running for their lives. There was not the random people being stomped on by the bad guys. While the Genesis was powerful, it did not match the arcade machines power which is not surprising as an arcade machine's sole purpose is to play one game while the Genesis was meant to play many. Huge machine dedicated to one, or one little cartridge so I can understand why it was not as good, but it still kind of sucked as a kid when I thought it would be as good. It is also short cause it has the same amount of levels as the arcade so we are talking a very short trip, a game you could win in a short amount of time cause you can not make an arcade game last hours upon hours. It was fun choosing your characters as you could be a Conan look a like who wielded a sword, a Red Sonya type who also wielded a sword and a drawf that had an ax and was the character I usually picked in the arcade. The golden ax did not refer to the drawf's weapon, but rather the one that the final boss of the game had. Your characters could also unleash cool magic attacks like a giant dragon spewing flames or an electrical storm. Most levels had you going from one end of the screen to the other fighting various swordsmen and barbarian types, and while fun in the arcade gets repetitive at home. Still, for what it was it was fun.

This is another of my favorite video games of all time as well as beat em up. You can also say this game is another of the first major franchises that helped make the beat em up genre a permanent place in the video game world.

I really love that the game took on the fantasy genre as it's one of my favorite genres of all time, so it's easy to imagine how much it blew away fans of that genre as there was never anything like this game at the time. But also, just simply something different as most beat em ups at the time were always set in the urban streets and the present day, so it was a wise choice to place this in the fantasy genre as it has plenty of offer and the possibilities are endless.

Obviously, this game was inspired by Robert E Howard's "Conan" series along with the "Conan" films derived from it, which is perfect as the "Conan" series is well known for its action. But mainly just the fantasy films in the 80's in general which makes sense as that decade was practically the golden age for the fantasy genre as you have plenty of them going on.

The graphical presentation is great as its inspired by the fantasy art from Frank Frazetta and Boris Vallejo. From the background down to the character designs it really looks and feels like the artwork from them comes to life. But most importantly helps in giving you the feel of being in a dangerous but fascinating fantasy world.

Really like the characters you play as, each of them handles differently as they have their strengths and weaknesses. And best of all about them is each of them weld different types of magic. Two of my favorites I like playing are Ax Battler who is obviously the Conan equivalent, his character is armed with a broadsword, and he controls earth magic. The other is Tyris Flare who is the Red Sonja equivalent or even Sailor Mars from "Sailor Moon" if you think of Tyris as an Elseworlds version of that character. Of course, she's true to her last name as she controls fire magic.

Gameplay is solid, from the levels which all look and feel different along with a good assortment of enemies. Like in one level you have skeletons armed with swords and shields, that was cool obviously an homage to the fantasy film "Jason and the Argonauts". In one level you have two boss giants armed with sledgehammers, though I don't know what's worse either getting hit with the hammers or their arrogant and mocking laughs that you see every time you get hit, which in a why even more motivated me to kick their butts; once that happens those smiles are always wiped from their faces, which always puts a smile on my face.

And just like with any beat em up, you have the typical jump and attack, each of the characters have a good combo system. And of course, the magic ability which you should use for emergencies only. I like there is a small RPG element as your character has this magical ability. You of course use this for emergencies only but as you see there is this gauge to track your jars; though you can refill them by knocking and kicking mischievous midget thieves that are holding them. But they only show up in the middle of the level and the bonus games, they also move slightly fast before they run away, so get the jars out of them quick and use those jars sparingly. The more magic jars you collect the bigger the effect and damage, which is part of why I love playing this game to try and build up so I can see what kind of power I can conjure up. My favorite is with Tyris as she has the best kind of fire effects.

Another highlight of the game is the fact that you get to ride on each of the fantasy creatures you encounter and each of them have their strengths and weaknesses. You have this bird lizard creature, despite how small it is packing a wallop, as it can swing its tail like a giant whip and make contact and take down not just your regular enemies but also the bosses. And of course, my favorite is the dragon as it just breathes out a flame thrower that just lights everyone up within its parameter.

And the last highlight is the music, this game has some of the best video game soundtracks ever, each of the tracks are memorable as it's almost hard to pick favorites, though if I had to my favorite is the first level. But anyway, the tracks are just beautiful as they just sing out epic fantasy action adventures, just hearing them always just pumps you up to fight off evil that you encounter or comes your way, and at the same time discover what wonders the world you venture in has to offer.

This vintage classic is sharp and still shines with golden fun.

Rating: 4 stars.