Golden Axe II - Genesis / Playstation 2 / PSP / Playstation 3 / Xbox 360 (1991)
Dark Guld The lord of Darkness. He looks like Death Adder - they could be brothers for all we know.
The sprites are new, but their behavior is identical to their size equivalents in the original Genesis game. The backgrounds aren't quite as interesting as in the first game, mostly castles and dungeons and such. However, in general, the visuals have improved a bit over the Genesis version of the original Golden Axe.
There are small changes though - the little thieves have been changed into midget wizards, you get spellbooks instead of magic potions, and some of the beasts are a bit different. The magic works slightly differently too. Instead of just blowing all your spellbooks to cast whatever level of magic they equate, you hold down the magic button. How long you hold it down determines how much power you use up and therefore the level of the spell. (Uh...real time spellbook reading?) The default combo is also a little longer for each character now. The difficulty is quite easy compared to the arcade. If you put the game on hard, it approximately matches up to the arcade on easy mode.
The music is composed by Naofumi Hataya (Nights: Into Dreams) and compared to the original, it's taken a bit of a slide. "Ravaged City", the first level track, is fantastic, but "Enemy Headquarters" sounds a little bit like first Sonic the Hedgehog, and the rest is mostly forgettable. Overall, Golden Axe II is an alright game, but it feels uninspired and ultimately rather redundant.
MP3s Download here
Ravaged City
Golden Axe II
Golden Axe II
Golden Axe II
Golden Axe II
Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder - Arcade (1992)
The story is typical: Death Adder has been revived, and he's back to trying to enslave the world. However, there are now four completely new playable characters this time, with up to four players at once, depending on the type of cabinet.
Characters
Stern Blade An Ax Battler clone. He has fire magic that incinerates foes. Captain average. Dora A female centaur who uses earth magic. Her attacks come out VERY quickly compared to everyone except Trix while doing almost as much damage as Stern Blade. Probably the best character to use if you're playing through the game by yourself. Somehow grows human legs for the purposes of riding beasts and pulling switches. Finally, she has the lowest magic cost in the game. Goah
A giant who is ridden by Gilius Thunderhead. Gilius wields the magic of death and entropy. The most powerful character, both in strength and magic. This more than makes up for his low speed. Little Trix An imp with a trident. He uses some sort of plant magic that makes trees grow. This is awesome because it causes apples to fall to the ground that refill your life if you collect them. A must for multiplayer play.
You can now switch characters when you continue, which is a very welcome addition. There are tons of new enemies too, which include tribal men, giant squid, grim reaper type enemies, death knights, and ogres.
The graphics and artwork are fantastic, and completely blow the competition out of the water. The characters are huge, and everything is much more detailed, mostly due to the System 32 hardware. There are gorgeous waterfalls, giant mushroom forests, even some scaling effects in certain segments. This game has lots of cool animations for characters being slain, staggered and knocked a way, it gives the game a lot of personality. The best is how when fighting tree men, a well timed heavy strike will cause them to immediately shatter, the pieces scaling up into the screen.
There have quite a few changes since the previous games. First of all, you can take multiple paths like in Metal Slug 3 which increases the replay value. They also added a huge variety of ridable creatures which all control a little bit differently. The two highlights are a giant mantis that snaps an enemy's neck as a finisher and an undead dragon that is very nicely animated. The other two are kind of silly. A giant mantis that breaths fire and a scorpion that creates an arc of electricity with its claws. Fortunately there's a less shocking (HA HA HA) version of the scorpion that, while lacking magic, can use its tail to devastating effect.
One cool factor is that you can use mini catapults and ballistae. You also have option to mount these on your rideable creatures, and use them while moving. You can also destroy projectiles when they are fired at you. Magic works differently here, instead of having different levels, you just have one awesome spell that uses a pre-set number of potions. However, you can collect many more potions than this cap though. When Stern Blade and Goah (via Gilius Thunderhead) use, their magic, it cuts to a totally ruthless close-up of the faces of your enemies being incinerated (or turned to stone)!
The basic fighting mechanics are the same with a few new additions. You now have a kick attack that stuns characters. The awesome running jump followed by a downwards stab attack returns. This time you can do it even while riding a beast! There are also crates to smash that reveal power-ups, and switches that can be used to free captured slaves. The hit detection has also improved a great deal too. Enemies seem to deal a lot more damage in this game, and can stun you with almost every hit. This can be frustrating, but thankfully the game lets you continue as many times as you want, as long as you keep pumping in the credits.
The music is composed by Masanori Takeuchi (After Burner Climax) and Tomoyuki Kawamura (Sega Rally 2) and is yet again is inspired by the Conan movies. This is especially prevalent in the Main Theme, On a Ship, and Mushroom Forest. Still, despite the higher sound quality the overall soundtrack lacks the visceral punch of the original. The sound effects are still cheesy and they still have the "Oh Gawd!!" sound effect.
It's only flaw is that it's just too damn long. There are only a handful bosses in the game that you fight over and over again, and while they're each cool and their palette changes each time, they're not even all that different from each other. They all utilize the same pattern but with one move each to differentiate them! There's a fourth boss type that's much more interesting, an armored scarecrow with a scythe, but even his act gets old after a while. Otherwise, this is one of the best arcade beat-em-ups made, and certainly shows Sega at the top of their game
MP3s Download here
Main Theme
Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder
Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder
Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder
Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder
Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder
Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder
Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder
Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder
Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder
Golden Axe 3 - Mega Drive / Playstation 2 / PSP / Playstation 3 / Xbox 360(1993)
Technically, Gillius Thunderhead is the only returning hero yet again, although you don't play as him. Instead, he sends a male and female barbarian, a beast man, and another beast man into battle against the forces of evil. Seriously, Gilius Thunderhead is awesome. Why does he order these simpletons out to do the dirty work here? Anyways the Golden Axe is stolen from him by the improbably named DAMNED=HELLSTRIKE, also referred to as the Prince of Darkness.
Characters
Kain Grinder This game's Ax Battler clone. Sarah Barn A dancer whose troupe is killed by Damned, she takes up the sword of her father to exact revenge. Braoude Cragger An impossibly strong man descended from giants. Gilius frees him from slavery in the underworld. Chronos "Evil" Lait No one knows why he is nicknamed "Evil." Once a normal human, Damned curses him and turns him into a panther man. He fights to regain his humanity.
The biggest change is that Sega changed the controls to make it play like every other console beat-em-up, instead of like Golden Axe. This means it's a bit faster and smoother, but it's also lacking in distinction. The graphics are much more washed out than any of the previous games. There's better use of color, but the artwork is much less defined, giving it a bit of a grainy feel. There's some very nice backgrounds in concept, but the overly bright colors kill the detail. Also, this game has the choppiest animation of any Golden Axe product.
It has inherited some of the better aspects from Revenge of Death Adder though, particularly the branching paths through the game. Additionally, you can now double jump, and each character has two special moves. The magic attacks are back to the original Golden Axe method wherein you get potions, and use them to cast spells of a certain level depending on how many potions you have. You can now dismount beasts at any time instead of having to be hit off them or completing a level. You can also gain an extra life by rescuing slaves scattered about the levels.
The music is pretty amazing for a Genesis title. Songs like Ancient Mound and Ride the Whirlwind sound like they were for a different system. The Music was composed by Naofumi Hataya (Nights into Dreans) and Tatsuyuki Maeda (Dragon Force). They also kept the screams for the arcade, but thanks to the scratchy sound of the Genesis, they're not quite as good.
Golden Axe III only saw retail release in Japan. It was translated and published briefly on the Sega Channel in America, although it later showed up on the Sega Genesis Collection for the PS2 and PSP, on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for the PS3 and Xbox 360, and for the Wii Virtual Console. It's hardly the best game in the series, but it's certainly far from terrible, and definitely doesn't deserve the black sheep reputation it wears.
MP3s Download here
The Vast Field
Golden Axe III
Golden Axe III
Golden Axe III
Golden Axe III
Golden Axe III
Golden Axe III
European Mega Drive Cover
Japanese Mega Drive Cover
Golden Axe II
Golden Axe II was developed solely for the Genesis, bypassing any arcade ports, although it later showed up on the Sega Genesis Collection for the PS2 and PSP. It's perhaps a bit TOO much like the original in practically all aspects. Gilius, Tyris and Ax Battler are back this time around, to defeat the evil Dark Guld.
Enemy's Headquarter
Japanese Arcade Flyer
Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder
Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder
Golden Axe: The Revenge of the Death Adder is undoubtedly the pinnacle of the series. Released in 1992 in the arcades for Sega's System 32 hardware, it improves on the original in every way, but apparently it was so good they didn't even try to port it, which is truly disappointing.
On a Ship
Japanese Mega Drive Cover
Golden Axe III
Golden Axe III
The third console Golden Axe is largely considered a disappointment. The biggest reason is that gamers wanted a home port of The Revenge of Death Adder, and they got this instead. It's not a terrible game, but it's not quite up to par either.
Ancient Mound
Ride the Whirlwind
Staff Roll
