SEGA Genesis Collection -- Everything Golden.

In 1989 SEGA released a sidescrolling beat'em up into the arcades by the name of Golden Axe.  The arcade game pretty much became an instant classic hit. In the very same year SEGA was introducing its new console system, the Genesis to American homes. The big push for SEGA's Genesis was for the first time ever you could have arcade titles at home. Sure, there were ports of arcade titles going back to the Atari Video Computer System through the Nintendo Entertainment System and SEGA Master System era, but they never did the arcade games they were based on any justice. In less than a year SEGA had Golden Axe on the Genesis. They released it in December of 1989. Golden Axe used a pure fantasy theme straight out of Dungeons & Dragons. You select one of three playable characters in a quest to rescue the king and princess and to ultimately defeat the evil Death Adder.  The three playable characters all feature different moves and elemental magic. The characters are Ax Battler, a barbarian who uses a long sword and has the ground based volcanic magic. The female character is named Tyris Flare who is an Amazonian that uses a standard sword and has the strongest element in the fire magic. The final character is Gilius Thunderhead who is a dwarf that uses a broad ax and has thunder magic. The controls are simple enough with a button for attack, jump, and magic. The player can move freely in eight directions over the scrolling background. You swing your sword or ax into the enemies while trying avoid their attacks. There are moves like double-tapping left or right on the D-pad to run. If you hit the attack button while running you can slam into the enemies knocking them down. You can jump and attack in mid air, timing the attacks so the connect when you come crashing down on the enemies. If you run and then jump you'll get extra air and then you can hold down the attack button for an extra powerful downward attack. Pressing jump and attack at the same time allows for a back attack. All the attacks are animated differently depending on the characters you use. There are some subtleties in the attacks that might not be readily apparent. If you're close enough to an enemy when attacking you can press towards them which will cause your character to throw the enemy if they are small enough to be lifted. You can also time the attacks so that once you've first struck the enemy they will be stunned and unable to attack. As long as you keep the timing correct, you can attack them uninterrupted until they're dead. There are some wrinkles thrown into the mix like beasts that can be mounted and controlled and used to attack. The Chicken Leg enemies from Altered Beast show up for this purpose, as do some red and blue dragons. At the end of each proper stage there is a boss enemy to be slain. Between the level the player character camps for the night. The camp is raided by thieves. It's a chance to restock on magic pots and fill your health back up with food. Attacking the thieves causes them to drop the necessary items. The gameplay is pure hack and slash that controls well. The collision detection works rather good. The graphics are extremely dated now, but greatly impressed in 1989. The music is awesome compositionally. Again it sounds dated now but wowed back in the day. The game is quite short. You could get through it with continues in less than an hour. Getting through the game without using any continues is something else altogether. That took months of practice.

Two years later SEGA released Golden Axe II. The game was released in December of 1991 and was an entirely original entry. It was created for the Genesis without being based on any arcade game. The same style of gameplay is present. It's again pure hack and slash. The same three playable characters return. They're facing off against a new evil in the form of Dark Guld. He's stolen the Golden Axe as part of his revenge at being sealed away. You know the story, he's out, he's pissed and all that. The characters control the exact same way as they did in the original Golden Axe on the Genesis. The game still plays out the same way. You go through the stages with a boss battle at the end killing hordes of enemies along the way. You still have magic at your disposal. This time you're collecting spell books instead of magic pots. The big difference in the magic this time around is that it has been broken down into levels. You hold down the magic button and the meter fills and you release it on the level you want to use. So you don't have to waste your full magic meter to save your life. Or if you see that you're full and there are two books on the ground in the game you can just use the two so you can pick those up and be at full magic. All the characters and enemies have been redrawn and there are somenew enemies thrown in. The game is longer than the original. The graphics are improved, but they're not among the better looking Genesis games by any means. The sound is also improved with some cool arrangements of Golden Axe themes. The game is also tougher than the original. The second game is technically better all around, but it somehow lacks that special something of the original for me. I personally prefer the original even though this entry is widely considered the better title.

SEGA released the third Genesis Golden Axe title in Japan in June of 1992. Golden Axe III was never released outside of Japan in cartridge format. It made an appearance on the SEGA Channel in the US where players could download it to play. A lot has changed from Golden Axe I & II to Golden Axe III. Gilius Thunderhead is in the game but isn't playable any more. Ax Battler and Tyris Flare are still there. They're joined by a man-panther and a hulking barbarian. You can also block for the first time. But so can all of the enemies. Another interesting new concept is earning extra men by freeing the prisoners the enemy have taken. You'll get a marker under your life and magic meters for each prisoner freed. Get five and you'll get an extra life. You actually get all of the old returning moves, and a whole slew of new ones. All the characters have a special attack that's handled in a Street Fighter 2 type motion. For example with Tyris you can hit toward, away, toward and attack + jump for her projectile attack. The tiered magic system from Golden Axe II returns. The big change is in the choosing of your path which greatly increases the replay factor of the game. At certain points in the game you'll be prompted to select a direction to take. You can't see all the possible stages with a single run through the game. The game features some returning enemies from the first games and offers up quite a few new ones. The graphics are slightly improved over Golden Axe II. The sound has some great arrangements of Golden Axe themes and is about on the level of the second game. The challenge is considerable in this one. You'll need to learn how to defeat each enemy type with whatever character you're using. The third Genesis offering is the largest of the three games.

Overall the series is well worth playing through. They're not graphically impressive nor do they offer deep gameplay. I don't think they'll impress many people these days. At the time they were solid fun. Never the cream of the crop so to speak, just simple and fun.