Golden Axe (Genesis/Mega Drive)

Developer:

Sega

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Release Date:

1990 (1989 in Japan and Arcades)

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Systems:

Lots

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm playing the legendary arcade game Golden Axe! On the Mega Drive!

It might seem a bit strange that it's taken me like eight years to finally get around to Golden Axe as it's fairly well known. Maybe not Mario or Doom tier, but definitely Alex Kidd tier. Higher than Toki, lower than Tekken. Anyway, one of the reasons I haven't played it yet is because when I started this site I was only writing about games I hadn't seen before and knew nothing about, and this is one I know a bit about. In fact it's probably the first Mega Drive game I ever owned. I wasn't very good at it and I've never reached the ending, but I've seen those first few stages at least a half dozen times!

The other reason I've put off writing about it, is what am I going to write? You walk to the right and you hit things, there's not much else to it. I suppose I could mention that the arcade game was created by the team that made Altered Beast the year before. Also, they were apparently going to call the game Broad Axe, after they couldn't use their first choice, but then the president of Sega US noticed that the dwarf's axe in the game looked golden and decided that they were going have to change the title to Golden Axe or else they weren't going to sell it. That's what I've read anyway!

By the way, the kanji in the logo with all the weapons hidden in it, "戦斧", means 'battle axe', which is what they wanted to call the game in the first place. I think Golden Axe is a better name to be honest.

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I left the title screen on for a bit and got gameplay demos for each of the three playable characters, followed by a sketch of them and a list of their relatives slain by Death=adder.

Now I'm wondering if that equals sign is supposed to be a space or a dash. It seems obvious that it's supposed to be a space, but maybe she's called something like Jane Tyris-Flare. I don't want to make assumptions!

Anyway I'm going to have to press 'Start' at some point if I want to get this over with.

That's cruel, putting the number of credits on the title screen without giving me an obvious way to change them. I can increase my life meter and swap the buttons around in the options menu, but that's it. Though it does also have a sound test in there so I can listen to the music.

Actually there is a way to increase the continues: press 'Start' on the second controller instead to put it into two player mode. This does have the side effect of making it a two player game though, so you'll need someone else around to use the second pad.

'Arcade' and 'Beginner' are basically different difficulty levels, except this is one of those games where if you play on easy you only get the first three stages. 'The Duel' mode lets you take on increasingly deadly opponents one round at a time, or lets you fight player two one on one. Apparently. I've never tried it.

Right, I'm going to start playing the Arcade mode all on my own and see how far I get with my 4 credits.

Man that's a big blue skeleton. Still, at least he's not waving a floppy disk and laughing at me like the one from Barbarian II.

Before I start kicking ass I have to make a decision: which of these heroes should get to have their revenge against Death=adder?

Ax=Battler the Barbarian lost a mother, Gilius=Thunderhead the Dwarf lost a brother, but Tyris=Flare the Amazon lost a mother and her father, so I think she wants it more. Plus she's wearing her skimpiest bikini armour, which should offer her incredible protection against enemy attacks, and she seems to have the most magic.

I'm definitely not playing as Ax=Battler, because he battles with a sword and it's confusing, and Gilius looks like he's escaped from The Lost Vikings. Actually he looks like Link from the Zelda games got old.

Hey it switched resolution! It's rare to find a Mega Drive game with its graphics squished horizontally like a SNES game and even rarer to find one that goes back to standard 320x224 resolution when the gameplay starts. All the screenshots in this post so far would've looked like this if I'd stretched them to the correct aspect ratio, but I prefer to leave the pixels sharp for you.

I've already learned a few things from this short intro: the name 'Death Adder' definitely has a space instead of a hyphen, this is one of those games where you rescue a princess, and the Mega Drive game is missing the bit from the arcade game where the hero's friend Alex limps over and dies. He does get a mention though.

Golden Axe is a bit unusual for a scrolling beat 'em up game as the heroes all carry weapons. It's also got a very Western style; it looks like the American box art for a Japanese video game. Or like Altered Beast with regular sized heads.

Arcade

Here's what the original arcade version looks like for comparison. It's a lot foggier and the bodies are piling up instead of flickering away, but it's very similar otherwise. Characters still have that weird half-outline down one side of their sprite, though it's less obvious here on Tyris.

Both versions only give you one attack button, and both games have you go into a short combo as you chain hits together, which ends with the enemy being sent flying.

Though whenever I get cocky enough to try hitting one of them a few times, his mate comes over to remind me that I'm not invincible while I'm carrying out a combo, and I don't seem to have a good response to that. It'd be nice if I could pull an Arkham Asylum and flip over their heads, or block, or roll out of danger, but my move set seems limited and my jumps are terrible.

I suppose I could've tried walking upwards, but then who's going to hit the bad guys while I'm strolling away? I'm starting to see why this is a co-op game.

At least these little imp things with their giant creepy faces don't fight back, plus they drop jars of mana to fuel my spells! The more I get, the more powerful my magic attack will be when I choose to fire it off. You can see in the red box at the top of the screen that I'll need to grab five to give me a level 2 spell, six for a level 3 spell and so on.

I have to use it at the right time though, because when I trigger my magic I use all my potions up at once. I've got to chug down a whole six-pack right there on the spot before I'm ready to show them my true power. More, in fact, as the first column is 4 potions wide.

I love that I can knock people off their dragon mounts and nick them. I think this purple one's actually an Altered Beast enemy called a chicken leg, making a cameo. It also made a surprise appearance in the first episode of The Mandalorian yesterday, when the hero finds that... actually, I'll just shut up.

These smaller enemies have been charging into me from the other side of the screen and knocking me flying, and it was getting old, so I tried double-tapping right on the d-pad and discovered that I could give them a taste of their own medicine. They can take their green moustaches and tiny hand-held trees and piss off.

Those two blokes with the sledgehammers are a bit more of a concern, because they're like 8 feet tall, and they've got sledgehammers. I think I'll see what level 3 magic does.

Hey it summons a flying flaming ghost!

My summon got rid of the guy who'd hijacked my stripy dragon ride, but the sledgehammer twins proved to be more resilient. So I switched to barging into them with the chicken leg with repeated d-pad double-tapping until I got knocked off and it ran away, then I carried on doing the same thing without my ride to finish them off with flying kicks.

Amiga

Each of the characters have a different set of magic spells, with Ax Battler having volcano magic. Don't see that in many games.

This is the Amiga port by the way, which is a little more faithful to the arcade's visuals maybe, but feels a bit unpolished and sluggish to me. I suppose playing a three button game on a one button joystick was always going to be awkward though.

It has Up+Fire for jump and Left Alt for magic, though to be honest I haven't had reason to jump around much so it's not as much of an issue as you'd expect. Plus the game only comes on one disk, so there's no swapping and minimal loading during gameplay. The biggest problem with the Amiga port is that there's no continues, and I need them to live!

STAGE 2

I'm not sure how I'm supposed to be playing this, but I know what move's getting the job done. It may take forever, six kicks just to kill one guy, but it's the safest way to make progress!

Once he was down I finally got my flashing GO! sign encouraging me to continue onwards to the next screen full of people who want me dead.

It's a bit strange that the game has to encourage players to keep moving forwards once they're done hitting people. Were they worried that people would hog the arcade machines all day just staring at the pretty scenery?

There's no time limit, so you can just ignore it if you want, but if you do you get punished. Things start getting a bit Harryhausen, with skeleton warriors rising from their graves.

Oh I like this dragon! This is my new favourite. I like his tiny little arms.

Those innocent villagers aren't running away from me by the way, or at least they weren't. All my flames are directed straight at that mana hoarding gnome I assure you.

Arcade

Here's the arcade version for comparison, which features more fleeing peasants and adds a few on the floor getting stomped on for good measure. Plus it has 'SEGA' written on that door in the background.

I'm actually airborne right now, though it's a bit hard to tell without shadows. What I'm doing here is a variation on the flying kick, as I double-tapped to run, then jumped up in the air and hit the attack button to slam down onto an enemy, sword-first. It's a really devastating move if it connects, killing almost any enemy in a single hit, but it has to be directly on target and most of my targets tend to just walk out of the way. Then I'm the one that ends up getting stomped on.

ZX Spectrum

The game also came out on 8-bit systems like the ZX Spectrum. It runs surprisingly fast as well! It's just a shame I can't figure out what the hell I'm doing in it. Good on them for actually giving the characters colour instead of making everything monochrome, but it doesn't really make it any easier to tell what's going on. Probably would've helped if I hadn't picked the character wearing green.

You're not missing much by not having sound on this gif by the way, as the Speccy version doesn't have music in-game. Though the theme music's surprisingly decent on a 128k machine (YouTube link).

There's actually about a dozen different ports of the game, as it came out on nearly everything (aside from the SNES weirdly), but I'll spare us both from going through all of them. I mean after the ZX Spectrum version the others would just be a let down.

When a stage is over the little elves try to get their revenge by nicking my supplies while I'm sleeping, but it never works out all that well for them. They're going to limp away with empty bags and bootprints on their asses, and I'm going to get a pocket full of potions.

I'm also going to get an early breakfast, as the guy in green drops health-restoring food. It's a shame he never shows up during the levels where I actually need him! There are no healing items at all in the stages in fact, at least as far as I'm aware.

STAGE 3

Arcade

There are three types of dragons in the game and here's a shot of all of them. You can't really tell, but the red dragon breathes fireballs, which are less impressive to look at but cover more distance.

Oh by the way, that entire last stage took place on the back of a turtle, and it's not any more obvious while you're playing it. Well, until you reach its head I mean.

Now I face my greatest challenge yet: leaping across this small gap. Tyris gets a lot of height in her jumps, but not a lot of forward movement, and I'm sure the other characters are the same.

Yes, I made it across on my first try! I'm pretty shocked to be honest, as it's rare that I'll pass up an opportunity to accidentally throw a life away like that. I've certainly been throwing them away in battle. I've already managed to lose a continue as well, which isn't great seeing as I'm only two stages into the game and they're like five minutes long each.

Arcade

This is what I do to enemies trying to beat me over the head with a bouquet of flowers in front of the Sega Beer Garden.

Sadly we never get to see what's behind those doors back there... except in the PlayStation 2 version which reveals for the first time the endless void within.

PlayStation 2

Voids aren't all that impressive looking unfortunately. Neither's the PlayStation 2 remake to be honest, as it looks like a Dreamcast port of a PlayStation 1 game. Plus even though they've tried to dress it up with massive shock waves every time my sword connects with something, it's hard not to notice how stiff the animation is. This is a really cheap game and you can tell. Music's good though.

Sega Ages 2500: Vol.5 - Golden Axe, to give it its full name, is fairly faithful to the arcade original in gameplay, as all you do is all walk to the right and hit things, but it's not an exact clone. There are a few brief cutscenes now, the stages are more padded and you can refill your magic by hitting things. Plus the little elves look like lemmings now, and they sometimes drop health as well! Which is good because this version of the game doesn't seem to have lives, so all you get are your continues. 

Speaking of magic, I'm at level six and this creature from the beer garden seems tough so I might as well clear the screen.

PlayStation 2

This is another change for the PlayStation 2 version: cutscenes for the magic attacks. So now I get to see Tyris's ridiculous abs close up as she calls in a giant dragon to incinerate everyone in the street.

The Mega Drive port just skips right to the giant dragon.

I'm spotting a bit of a 'fire' theme to all of Tyris' magic.

I've actually been doing fairly well in the PlayStation 2 version as the enemies haven't been as effective at surrounding me and I've been able dodge them when they charge, then circle around to take the group on from the side.

Meanwhile in the Mega Drive game, I've been doing crap, losing lives all over the place. But it's letting me make a decent amount of progress regardless, which is nice.

SOON

I'm spotting a bit of a theme with the levels as well, as the game likes to say "Surprise, that whole last level took place on the back of an animal and you had no idea!" Then on the next level you start by walking off the creature's head.

I have to admit that I edited this image a little, as the quill drawing red lines all over the map had already finished and flown off by the time 'the final battle begins' had been typed onto the screen, but it seemed a shame not to include it.

WAIT, it's the final battle already? Seriously? I don't know what I'm more surprised about, that the game's so short or that I made it this far on my first try. I've been playing really badly.

STAGE 5

Arcade

Yeah that's definitely an eagle. Nice of the bird to give me a lift to this castle free of charge, though I suppose I did it a favour by clearing out all those skeletons on its back. A giant bird giving a warrior a ride to a fortress of the undead, why does that seem familiar?

I wouldn't call this the Dark Souls of side scrolling beat 'em ups by any means, but certain parts of it are similar.

Like the way I keep getting my ass kicked by giant dudes in armour on a castle wall.

It's entirely my own fault really, as I keep trying to fight them properly. I even tried throwing in a few stylish spinning back attacks, now that I know how to do them, but Tyris takes forever to get the sharp bit of the sword where it needs to be and I'm bad at getting the timing right.

What I should have been doing, is flying kicks.

Flying kicks solve all problems. They deal damage and keep the enemies well away from me.

The only downside is I have to keep double-tapping on the d-pad and I can't quite pull that off consistently. Plus they make fights take forever, that's a bit of a downside as well. I'm obviously not supposed to be doing it this way. Works though.

STAGE 6

In some games throwing a skeleton at the boss would at least make him flinch a little, but flying bodies have little effect on anything in this. Still gonna throw him though. Incidentally, Tyris really needs to get herself a scabbard, as hanging a sword from your bikini strap is a terrible idea.

Hang on, is this boss Death Adder? His axe seems more bronze than golden, and he looks like a variant on the sledgehammer twins sprite, but I think it actually might be the final boss. I've only got the one hit point left, no lives or continues, but if I can avoid being hit I could actually win this! I've never beaten Golden Axe before.

Oh, the other skeleton just smacked me in the back while I was throwing his friend and that was game over. Never mind then.

D rank, huh? Well that's not bad. Only 6 ranks away from the top.

I wish I could say that I'd do better on a second attempt with all the practice I've had, but I really doubt it. If there's a trick to the game, I'm a long way from figuring it out.

Though I'm still chipping away at the arcade game.

Arcade

Man, I really had no chance on the Mega Drive version. The way this fight's going it's going to take me four credits just to beat Death Adder.

He is the last boss though... on the arcade version. In the Mega Drive port there's another stage after this, with another tiny gap to jump over. Then after that you fight Death Adder's palette-swapped twin brother.

Arcade

Hey the king and princess were hanging up over here all along!

I would've gotten a screenshot of Death Adder's axe flipping up in the air and landing in his chest with a spray of blood, but he died halfway off screen just to spite me.

The Mega Drive port ends with screens full of stats for each of the characters, then Gilius Thunderhead starts throwing balls of letters over so one of those rogues with the club can smack them into the sky to form the game credits.

The arcade version, on the other hand, is a bit different...

Arcade

It ends with the game's monsters escaping out of the Golden Axe arcade machine! Uh, the Great Axe arcade machine I mean. Then they escape into the street with the heroes chasing them.

You'd expect to the arcade to be covered in Sega game titles, but the only one that gets a mention is Last Survivor. Everything else just has the name of the hero from Fantasy Zone written on it, kind of.

Arcade

Man, it's a real shame that Golden Axe II didn't pick the story up from here. I'd play this, running around in the modern world slaying fantasy creatures. They could've even had a level that takes place on the top of a 747 jet, and you don't even realise it until the end. Hang on, why does that sign say 'HAGA', when the company's called 'SEGA' inside the arcade? These in-jokes are ruining my suspension of disbelief!

Took me about 25 minutes to finish the whole game if you're curious. And I still got a D rank.


CONCLUSION

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Golden Axe is a bit rubbish, though it's a charming kind of rubbish. I've got a nostalgic fondness for it and I'll always have that level one music etched into my brain, but I found actually playing to be a bit of a dull slog.

At least that's what I think about it, and I think I've established pretty well at this point that I'm crap at the game. It's only got one attack button and like four ways to hit people, so I wouldn't call it complex, but there must be a trick to the combat that I'm not seeing. Every time I tried to play it normally I was surrounded and interrupted by a mace swung by one of the marauder's mates, so I relied on weak flying kicks. I guess playing it in co-op would've helped.

You can tell how basic the combat is by how good the Amiga port is, as it managed to replicate the gameplay on a one button joystick, but I think the Mega Drive version probably has the edge when it comes to the home conversions. Sure the Amiga graphics are a little more accurate, but it's all shades of brown from start to finish whatever version you go for. Well except for some of the 8-bit systems, but... no. The only advantage the ZX Spectrum version has over the other ports is that you've got time to go play two stages of the arcade version instead while you're waiting for it to load. Though I do like its version of the theme.

I feel like Golden Axe is one of those games that everyone with any interest should play once, as it's a classic, but I wouldn't really recommend it as a game. The bits in between riding around on dragons and casting all the spells get very repetitive despite its tiny length, and the genre has so much better to offer. Unless you accidentally fall out of an arcade machine and find yourself back in 1990, then I suppose it's probably one of your better options.

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Thanks for reading! If you hadn't I'd just be a crazy person typing hundreds of words about old video games for absolutely no reason.

Speaking about writing about old video games, you can share your own thoughts about Golden Axe in the comment box below. Or you could even take a guess at what the next game's going to be. Here's a clue to help you out: it's not Double Dragon III... unless it is.