Golden Axe (series)

Golden Axe is a series of side-scrolling hack-n'-slash fighting games published by Sega.

Golden Axe
Golden Axe is a side-scrolling arcade hack 'n' slash game released in 1989 by Sega. Makoto Uchida was the primary developer of the game and also was responsible for the creation of Altered Beast. The game places the player in control of one of three warriors each bent on revenge against the vile dictator Death Adder. Death Adder has taken over the once peaceful land of Yuria and murdered their friend and partner, Alex. According to the Killer List of Videogames, Golden Axe is the most important arcade game of the year 1989. Several ports of the game were created, most notably for the Mega Drive/Genesis and Sega Master System. Several sequels followed. The game focuses on three heroes. One of them is a battle axe-wielding dwarf, Gilius Thunderhead, from the mines of Wolud whose twin brother was killed by the soldiers of Death Adder. Another is a male barbarian, Ax Battler, wielding a two handed broadsword looking for revenge for the murder of his mother. The last is a long-sword wielding Tyris Flare, a female amazon, whose parents were killed by Death Adder. Progress is made through the game by hacking and slashing your way through Adder's henchmen, including men armed with clubs and maces, skeleton warriors (much like those in the film Jason and the Argonauts,) and knights. Aiding the characters in this quest is their ability to cast spells that hurt all enemies on the screen. The force of this magic depends on the number of "bars" of magic power currently available. The bars are filled by collecting blue 'magic potions' found throughout the game. The male warrior Ax, limited to 4 bars, is able to cast Earth spells. The dwarf Gilius, limited to 3 bars, casts lightning spells and the female warrior Tyris can cast devastating fire magic, but her most powerful spell costs 6 bars.

Golden Axe II
Each of the heroes from the first game return to battle the forces of evil villain Dark Guld in this sequel. While Golden Axe II was a Mega Drive/Genesis exclusive from a development point of view, it saw limited arcade exposure in the MegaPlay series of arcade machines. Released in 1991, the game featured new magic for each of the heroes with the trademark magic pots from the first game replaced by spell books this time around. The graphics were noticeably inferior to the original and many video game magazine editors of the time expressed that the game was very likely rushed into production to give Sega another popular title to enable the Mega Drive/Genesis to compete with its new rival, the Super Nintendo. In most respects this sequel was essentially the same as the original, though it had new sprites for enemy characters and new levels. Many fans were disappointed with this title as they were expecting more than a rehash of the first title. However, the title had the virtue of not straying too far from a successful formula and was still quite popular upon its release.

Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder
In 1992, Sega released Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder (GA: TRODA) in arcades. It was the first 32-bit Golden Axe game. Despite its high quality and popularity, as of December 2008, the game remains arcade exclusive. Only Gilius Thunderhead makes a return, riding the back of new character Goah the giant. The rest of the cast is all new and includes Sternblade the barbarian, Dora the female Centaur, and Little Trix, a young lad who carries a pitch fork. The main enemy is once again Death Adder. The game is an overall improvement on the original with better sound, graphics, and gameplay. As well as introducing multiple paths to the franchise, the magic aspect was adjusted. Though still found in the classic Golden Axe pots, the magic spells did not increase in power with the number of pots collected but required a set number to work. TRODA was the only Golden Axe game in which one of the magic attacks was not offensive as Little Trix grew apple trees with fruit that replenished health. Though TRODA was released third and not fourth, it is chronologically the final of the four "main games." At the game's end, Death Adder rises one more time. Gilius sacrifices his life to finally end Adder's. As Gilius appears in Golden Axe III, it can only have happened after the events in Golden Axe III.

Golden Axe III
Released in 1993 a few weeks after Revenge of the Death Adder, the third Golden Axe game on the Mega Drive was not released in the United States. However, the game was available for a while in North America on the Sega Channel, Sega's modem-based game downloading system. The game's lineup of playable characters includes swordman Kain Grinder, swordwoman Sarah Barn, giant Braoude Cragger and beastman Chronos "Evil" Lait. Gilius also appear as a non-playable character at the character select screen. In this game the object is to travel along a number of truly branching paths and eventually defeat the main boss of the game, the Prince of Darkness. You can choose different branching paths in this game toward that objective just as in Revenge of Death Adder. However these paths are more elaborate than in GA:RoDA and do not loop back together. Many of the characters you encounter are good characters that were possessed and once beaten they are freed. A demon with an eagle's head is a recurring boss who seems to be Hellbringer's right-hand man; he is playable in VS mode. As opposed to Golden Axe II, where the characters, moves, and controls remained largely the same, Golden Axe III brought many changes to the gameplay. For one thing, the background scenery was less lush and colorful than in previous games, as were the sprites themselves. There was a greater variety of moves. While in the two previous games, the only attack options were a regular slash, charge, jump attack, running jump attack, and back attack, Golden Axe III added a grab/combo, a 'forward back attack', and a downward swipe. Furthermore, there were several abilities unique to certain characters: for example, the Braoude could throw, while the Chronos and Sarah could double jump and wall jump. Finally, each character had a super-move with its own unique button combination. Some features were returned to the title that had been cut in previous sequels. Golden Axe III brought back the thieves from the original game, rather than the mages from Golden Axe II. Also, extra lives could be gained by freeing prisoners scattered throughout the levels. The magic system was returned to the original version where all pots are used at the same time, as opposed to the improved system in Golden Axe II that allowed the player to only use as many spellbooks as they wanted. Though there were innovations in play not seen in the first two, the graphics were less colorful than other Sega fighting games of the time such as the Streets of Rage series.

Golden Axe: Beast Rider
As part of E3 2006, Sega issued a press release touting a new entry to the Golden Axe franchise for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, being developed by newly acquired game developer Secret Level. Secret Level has worked on the Xbox version of Final Fight: Streetwise, among other projects. A teaser trailer could also be seen during the E3 2006 event. During summer 2007, fans uncovered new art and 3-D models from the game. On October 2007, Play magazine revealed new details. The game is titled Golden Axe: Beast Rider and features the return of Tyris Flare, the female amazon warrior from the first installments of the series. Golden Axe: Beast Rider was released in October 2008.

Golden Axe Warrior
This Sega Master System title tells another epic tale about the Golden Axe. Unlike most of the other games in the series, it is an adventure game very similar to The Legend of Zelda. The story line continued the theme of the original Golden Axe games. The game's unit of currency is horns, and it is to be imagined that the hero cut these off of the enemies he killed (much like Conan in the film Conan the Destroyer).

Ax Battler: A Legend of Golden Axe
Released for the Sega Game Gear, this adventure title follows the legend of the character Ax Battler. Unlike its console counterpart, it is based more on Zelda II: The Adventure of Link than the original game. The player moves around a top-view overworld and enemies randomly attacked. However the player can not see them like in Zelda II. When a battle begins, the game zooms down to a platform-style fighting environment. After killing the foe (or the foe wounding them) the hero returns to the overworld. Unlike previous Golden Axe games, the player can learn new attacks and moves at the training dojos in each town. The currency in this game is pots, the traditional Golden Axe magic-usage item. Pots double as both currency and as an offensive attack.

Golden Axe: The Duel
Released in 1994 in the arcades and in 1995 for the Sega Saturn. Unlike the games before it, Golden Axe: The Duel is a one-on-one fighting game featuring characters who appear to be descendants of some of the characters in the original game. It had a poor reception in both markets; Golden Axe fans shirked from its Street Fighter-like combo moves, but fans of the more popular fighters did not think it had enough combos.