My Played Video Games Review: Golden Axe for the Sega Genesis
Golden Axe is a side-scrolling action-adventure, hack and slash video game released in 1989 by Sega of Japan for the arcades. That same year, it got ported to the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive.
Playing it was great for me. Golden Axe pretty much reminded me of sword and sorcery, barbarian-themed movies of the 1980s.
The Story
It is a spellbinding age of magic, dragons, and strange creatures! The brutal invaders have come! As one of the 3 magic-using warriors, you must find the prison of the King and Princess, save them, and return peace to the world.
Beat the evil fiend Death Adder who wields mighty Golden Axe, for it is time to settle the score!
The Graphics and Sound
The graphics are actually pretty decent for an early release Genesis game. The backgrounds get bare at certain places though.
The evil enemies are made to look rough and barbaric. Bosses are large and scary-looking. And the magic spells look powerful and awesome.
Golden Axe has a mostly epic fantasy adventure soundtrack and they set the mood.
The sounds effects are pretty decent too. Slashing, bashing, or just kicking can sound somewhat brutal. The magic attacks' sound effects are loud and powerful somewhat. The enemy screams are pretty weird though when they die.
The Gameplay
You get to choose one (or two if playing with a friend) from three characters for the quest. The dwarf is strongest but weakest in magic, the Amazon bikini warrior is weak, fast and has the strongest magic, and the barbarian guy is balanced in stats between the two.
The good gameplay is a little more than average for a beat 'em up. You make your way through levels fighting various enemies along the way. Your character can also ride on creatures which you can use to attack your enemies. Your character has a magic gauge that gets filled. Filling up your magic gauge gets filled by collecting pots of magic by kicking blue elves that appears a few times per level. And there is even the green elf that gives health items on later levels.
For the most part, the controls are responsive and it works really well.
With the cooperative play feature, and 3 characters to choose from, there are other modes on this fun game. There is the challenge mode where you fight harder enemies and a duel mode for fighting against the 2nd player. These add to the replay value of this classic.
My Verdict
Golden Axe was a good game for its time and despite lacking some few things in some areas, IT is very well-made with a simple but effective beat-'em-up gameplay formula. Its overall fun gameplay cannot be ignored. It is definitely worth checking out if you like 2D beat-'em-up games.
Go play this Sega gem on the Genesis/Mega Drive or on your chosen emulators.