GEN - Golden Axe

Haiku-Review:

war on a turtle
cast magic on an eagle
bring it on, Bringer

Additional Comments:

When it comes to some serious beat 'em action and hair-pulling, wall-punching, controller-throwing difficulty, this game delivers. Now, I've played Golden Axe II for the Genesis countless times, and I've only toyed briefly with Golden Axe III, but I'm not sure if I've ever played the first one, although I have played one of the Golden Axes in the arcade, and I want to say it might have been this one - not totally sure, but whatever.

This game definitely excels in difficulty compared to the second one. Despite the agonizing torture this game just put me through, it's still everything I remember and loved about the Golden Axe series and I enjoyed playing every minute of it - erm, almost every minute of it. The battle against Death Bringer is a different story entirely. I was fighting him for a good thirty minutes or so before I began to suspect that perhaps his skeleton guards are indestructible. Well, they're not, but they're pretty damn close to it and I blame all my frustration solely on them. Ok, the battle's really not that bad once you figure out the proper tactics on how to bring down the Bringer, but until then, it's hell.

I'm not entirely sure if there's a difference in HP and attack power for each sprite between Beginner mode and Arcade mode, but it definitely seemed to be a substantial jump in difficulty, but maybe that's just me. It's not so much that Arcade mode played that much harder, but that Beginner mode seemed to be too much of a breeze. Of course there's the game length differences, but that's beside the point. Duel mode, which I often enjoyed playing through in the sequel, is still just as enjoyable here. Though it definitely keeps you on your toes since you only get 8 life bars to play with through all 12 rounds whereas in the sequel I believe your life would get replenished.

All in all, the game is hard, but fun - the classic beat 'em up with a brilliant fantasy twist that is uniquely Golden Axe. It owned in the arcades, and it still delivers on the home console. But I have to ask this one question, is it just me or are the levels really short? Well, while the jury's out on that one, let's listen to some classic Golden Axe music with Wilderness.

Nano-Rant:

Oh my god, why does it always feel like the player character and enemy sprites are suffering some sort of magnetic repulsion? I go up, they go down. I go down, they go up. What the fuck are you guys so antsy about!? Arggghhh!!!!

Rating: 3 Longmoan's out of 5