Genuine retro goodness.

User Rating: 8.5 | Golden Axe GEN
In the age of arcade games, a game was usually flashing on a screen. On the Sega Genesis, you'd have your socks knocked off to find a game that was even slightly enjoyable. Golden Axe was fun on swift wings to anyone who played it from beginning to end. Back then, this was NOT simply a game among games. It was a holy relic juicy happy gaming. Simplicity sometimes takes the cake when it comes to gaming. However, many games took this for granted and slapped together a piece of crap that you couldn't sell at a yard sale. This game became a beacon of light to the path of awesomeness. Not being overly awesome itself, it showed the way to the others, giving them a real chance to make themselves fun.

Here's the cruks of the game in one paragraph. You pick from 1 of 3 characters, each different in appearance and play. You use this character to save the princess AND the king from the evil Death Adder. Simple, but not bad enough to make the game ridiculous, but easy enough to understand to quickly make a game out of. The concept has been used countless times. Great warriors must save some people from a heinous evil. To go through the game, you will be attacked by a variety of opponents, all with different movesets while playing through several different looking levels. The controls are also easy to understand, but that will come later. At the end of each level, you fight a boss/bosses to the death. Afterward, you proceed to the next level to do the same thing. The concept of simplicity never ceases. Fight, run, win, rinse, repeat.

Combat explained in detail. The controls are easy and smooth to use. You have a couple of different kinds of attacks. You can slash, jump slash, attack left and right simultaneously, roll, use a ram attack, and cast magic varying in power depending on how many magic potions you have. The main attack combo consists of you just hitting the attack button repeatedly to an opponent. Depending on how close you are, you will either use a kick or a throw for a finishing move. You can also do a quick throw by getting very close to an opponent an hitting attack. The entire moveset is useful. Not a single move is underpowered or useless, nor are any overpowered. Each character has a different way of using this moveset. The dwarf would have more attack range while the barbarian would be stronger kind of differences. Basically stat differences if you wanna get technical. Each enemy is unique to their type. They all have different movesets, stats, appearances, and battle strategies to take down( the strategies if you want to take down enemies most efficiently, mainly used by hardcore players. You need to find them all out by trial and error). As easy as this system seems, it will take a while for it to click. Many times you will die before you know who you're favorite character is and the moveset sets in. But once it does, you will be able to take down nearly every opponent in the game without even getting hit once. All that said, the combat system is fast, varied, and enjoyable for a long time before you start to get bored.

The graphics are ok for being on Sega. It's hard to say anything on sega had good graphics because most of the games had the about the same amount of graphical power. The game's animations work smoothly and the environments are decent. So, the graphics are probably as good as they could be for being on Sega.

The games sound is pretty basic. Regular beeping style arcade music, striking, getting striked, and battle cries are all nothing new.

The replay value is pretty high considering this IS an arcade game. Since the game is short and sweet, you can play it over and over again without getting too bored.

Story- What story? Oh yeah, that bit at the beginning about the people getting kidnapped and needing to kill that Death Adder guy. Not really too important.

When it comes down to the overall characteristics of the game, it's an exceptional arcade style game that keeps players coming back for more. The battle is fun, the sound is none too shabby, the graphics weren't an eyesore ( like a lot of Sega and PS games) and the game is generally enjoyable for being on the Genesis. Plus, it forged the path from the weeds of games that once were to salvation in the land of Mountain Dew and Cornchips and Mountain Dew. In other words, it rooted out the serious flaws of so many action games that destroyed them. That gives the game another .5 points. Woot...... And the game gets an 8.5 out of 10.