Golden Axe

Although I vastly prefer streets of rage, I have to admit this is a fun beat em up with a quirky cast of characters who have their own move set to encourage replay value to this game.

There's a ton of features this game has to offer, we have potions which help our heroes cast powerful spells to defeat their enemies, said enemies having rather complex Ai for a game made in the 80s. We have monsters serving as vehicles which also help defeat the wave of enemies on screen and we have a medieval setting where our heroes need to complete a quest to prevent evil of the world from taking over. It's a fairly simple game and one that I can't say is among my favourites (I vastly prefer streets of rage) however there's no denying that this is a ton of fun given how simplistic it is, with said simplicity being easily forgivable due to how old the game is. There is also a multiplayer mode which allows you to tackle the campaign with a friend, however that’s fairly standard given how most genesis games offered multiplayer back in the day.

Give it a go if you're looking for old school beat em ups because you'll get a lot out of it.

6

Golden Axe is a really fun arcade game that introduced awesome animals and powerful magic which really spiced up the beat-em-up genre. The ability to choose different characters was also a nice touch to give variety of playthroughs and a reason to test out all the systems. Its only fault, which is a pretty big one is the shortness of the game, its arcade origins, and a difficulty to match that shortness and eat your quarters. This all makes this a fun game to play for an hour, but nothing super memorable to stand the test of time. That cover however is in the conversation for the most super dated and super awesome art work ever.

(Sorry if I spell something wrong, english isn't my 1st language)
Golden Axe is exactly what you'd expect from a beat n' up game made in '89. Cheap difficulty with enemies ganging up on you and giving you no second to breathe, sometimes doing it over and over again taking a lot of your health, little variety in scenarios with a pretty repetitive use of medieval motifs and an overall short lenght. Streets of Rage this isn't.
The sequels are much more worth of your time, this is one of those games you play mostly to experience a piece of gaming history, when Golden Axe was the top beat n' up of the arcades.
It can still be fun, specially because of its short lenght. Speeding through this game is fun when you don't care much about beating it and just wanna a simple beat 'n up to pass time.
Overall, aproach this one with caution and an open mind. Don't give up on the sequels because of this one, they're pretty competent in what they do.

To be honest, I didn't really care much for this. I remember playing it free on PSN during some sort of deal and it really felt like a generic beat em up only in a medieval setting. The game was just way too difficult as well and would throw so much crap at you. It wasn't that memorable and games like Streets of Rage would improve on this genre so much.