A Magic Twist
You can choose the big Conan lookalike Ax Battler, who uses earth magic. Tyris Flare, the She-Ra type amazon woman who uses fire magic or Gilius Thunderhead, the viking dwarf uses lightning magic (and the character who actually uses the Golden Axe) or team up in a two-player (the best way to play the game). The story is a load of cobblers. Some dude called Death Adder (and his son Death Adder JNR) are up to some amount of evil and you've got to stop him.
So on you go on your journey of hacking and slashing goblins, skeletons and various other guys in armor. It's fun, but not great. The sound effects are pathetic and do not show off what the Genesis was capable of. David Whittaker's music, while being slightly tuneful and medieval, was pretty bad and wasn't as memorable as Yuzo Koshiro's effort on the Streets of Rage games.
A fun game to play right to the end once (in a two player) but not as memorable as it's following would suggest.