Golden Axe – So shiny... I want one!

Grab your axe, broadsword or long sword… Gird your loins and steel yourself your the adventure of a lifetime. With an initial choice of 3 characters, for the first two games and 4 characters for the third game, setting off on your adventure solo or with a friend to face the hordes of skeletons, Giants and general grunts. A true classic of the 16 bit era.

Prepare for streets of rage with swords!

The Game

Golden Axe was a Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and Master System game released in 1989, developed byt Sega AM1 and published by Sega

So which hero was my go to?

The axe wielding dwarf was my hero of choice: easy to fill his magic gauge to maximum, and a horned helmet.

all the easier to run into the enemy head first with

The three foot and a peanut tall ball of green fury in my opinion was easy mode, but fun easy mode.

Aint nothing more satisfying then seeing a horned green ball of fury flying across the screen, barrelling into enemies full pelt like an avenging leprechaun, hell bent on axe shaped violence.

Oh yeah!

I’m getting ahead of myself here lets get a bit of backstory shall we?

The Story

So an evil entity Death Adder, about 9 foot tall, muscles the size of oxen and breath smelling of mead and blood hence forth revered to as “The Git”, has captured the king and princess of a land called Yuria.

All three heroes have a very personal beef with “The Git”. The male barbarian

couldn’t find a name for this one sorry

lost his mother; Tyris Flare the amazon lost her parents; and Gilius Thunderhead

one hell of a badass name and my personal favorate to play as

lost his twin brother.

What’s the common theme uniting these warriors you ask? Yup, you guessed it: Death Adder himself. Or forces acting under his command, in the case of Bad-ass Thunderhead, killed the nearest and dearest of our heroes.

On top of all this, Death Git has stolen the Golden Axe; The symbol of Yuria and main focus of said game. He threatens to destroy both the axe and and royal family if they don’t bow down to his rule.

On there journey our ragtag crew of flailing swords and blood will rescue a village, ride on the back of both a turtle

not the great A’Tuin, or so I’m told… Discworld reference for, ya

and an Eagle, before heading out to the castle were Death Adder himself lies in wait, flexing muscles and being intimidating.

After a lengthy battle, many sword swings and magic potions used later he is defeated… but it doesn’t stop there.

Death Git isn’t the final boss!

Dun Dun Duuuuun!

Unfortunately not, his mentor Death Bringer (a lot of death in this game) shows his even bigger head to challenge you… yep you guessed it TO THE DEATH!

So how did it play?

Annoying stun lock situations aside, back then and even now I find Golden Axe a blast to play

green nut-bag dwarf blurs aside

regardless of the hero I choose. Back in the day in particular, I would always be the Bad-ass Thunderhead; no exceptions. Kinda made me feel sorry for Jay in a way, because the other two aren’t as pain free to play as to be fair.

Nowadays experiencing the game as other characters lends a different perspective to the overall experience in regards to play style: The Barbarian I found has more health but a slighting shorter sword. Tyris on the other hand has some truly epic magic!, the down side to that it takes the longest to fill her magic meter up, however she compensates for this be being the fastest out of the three heroes

at least I think she is, or more so that what I found playing it

So big question:

Did I, or Jay and I, complete this medieval masterpiece?

As far as I can remember yes. With green and red blurs aplenty at all times, the occasional rock slide, and either fire or actual dragon appearances to aid in our button mashery, and vengeance delivering quest.

So from summoning magic, fighting all sorts of enemies, riding different mounts

one being used in a different game as well

to obtaining the actual Golden Axe itself said to grant immortality, Golden Axe is a must play for fans of the Streets Of Rage style game. Wielding pipes and fighting twin sisters on a boat is fun and all but this game has swords and dragons. Whats not to Like!

Did you ever play this epic beat um up on the Mega Drive/Genesis? Or even the many other ports of this title? Who was your favourite muscle bound bladed magic user? Did you ever Bring Down Death Git and his mentor plus cronies? Let us know in the comments below.

And ass always I shall catch you in another post.