Golden axe beast rider soundtrack12/26/2023 ![]() ![]() Golden Axe III was released for the Japanese Mega Drive in 1993. I fully expected a Saturn port a few years later but sadly it never came. There was still the standard Conan-ish barbarian but it also had a centaur and a dude with a pitch fork. The characters selection was changed, too. The art style was markedly different and, well, weirder. ![]() Graphically it was amazing, showing off Sega's new System 32 hardware capabilities. After my disappointment with the second Genesis game, this was the redeemer. There were hack 'n slash platform levels and an RPG-style overworld with random battles (although the battles were still action-based).ġ992 had the true arcade sequel, Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder. CRV would probably know better than I would.Īnother 8-bit spin-off, Ax-Battler: A Legend of Golden Axe, came out near the end of 1991 in Japan (1992 in the West). I'm not sure if it was developed in-house at Sega Mobygames has it listed as sharing a staff member from earlier Compile games like The Guardian Legend although wasn't listed as a Compile game on their site. I was initially turned off by this game as it was a blatant rip-off of the original Legend of Zelda but after putting time into it, I found it quite well made albeit brutally difficult. One of the best games for the system that year was Golden Axe Warrior. In the original it was all or nothing.ġ991 was also the last year for new Master System releases in North America. ![]() One thing I did like was the reworked magic system that you select how much magic you could use at one time. It had some odd enemy designs and the gameplay wasn't as tight. While still a good game, it lacked much the charm of the original. I was glad I rented it first instead of buying it for full price. Genesis Golden Axe was re-released on Sega CD in 1992 in the pack-in compilation but with added load times, awful redone voices, and the removal of two-player for some insane reason, it was a big letdown. The only good qualities were some semi-cool cinemas and the CD-quality music. I usually like Telenet games but not this one. I only played it once so my memory's a bit fuzzy but the gameplay was butchered badly. I found this at a pawn shop a few years ago, surprisingly. I remember the sound sucking but maybe that was my PC's fault. The PC version was based on the Genesis game and had the extra levels and versus mode. The 16-bit computer versions were pretty nice looking (and thankfully didn't get Euro-fied artistically like many ports of Japanese arcade games back then) but the gameplay suffered due to joysticks not havng enough buttons from what I remember. This was decent if you didn't own a Genesis but with Ax-Battler as the only playable character (sure Sega, pick the worst of the three, thanks), it was noticeably downgraded. This played okay, better than the Speccy one anyway, but still no substitute for the real thing. The aged C64 was another system ill-equipped to handle it. I feel sorry for whatever poor limey kids had to settle for this port. Golden Axe had plenty of other home ports back then (the non-DOS computer versions were by Virgin Games/Probe): In the pre-Street Fighter II era, Golden Axe's versus mode was one of the better fighting games on the market (not bad for a bonus that wasn't in the arcade). The one-on-one versus mode, like in NES Double Dragon before it, was a very welcome addition. The extra levels added to the port were nothing special but I found I liked the gameplay more than the arcade game due to slight differences in timing attacks (probably unintential by its creators). I was amazed at how close the game looked to the arcade game in motion.Ī few months later when I got my Genesis, I got to play it more in-depth. I entered Compucentre and there was a crowd of fellow teenagers gathered around. I still clearly remember when I first saw the Genesis version in early 1990. I was already starting to save to buy the system anyway. It wasn't long until magazines informed me a Genesis port was coming. Golden Axe's medieval setting, epic soundtrack, magic attacks, beast riding, and multiple character selection both set it apart thematically and upped the genre's variety of gameplay. Beat 'em ups were now a thriving genre thanks to Double Dragon although very few strayed from modern day street brawling themes. When I first saw the original arcade Golden Axe back in 1989, it struck me as something special. I'm just going to skim more across the games. With the latest game in the Golden Axe franchise less than a month away, I think it's as good a time as any to take a look back at its history.įor an excellent, more in-depth view of the series, there's Melf's Sega-16 article. ![]()
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