Story time. This game came from the another plug n play game console I owned which included Sonic the hedgehog, Kid Chameleon, Flicky, Golden Axe, Altered Beast and Dr Robotnik. This review will be a rather short one since the game itself was short to begin with. It has been released multiple times on many platforms, including the collection for Xbox one which I owned. It was a fun game to say, but does it still hold up after decades since its release? This is Golden axe for the Sega Genesis (played on Xbox one on “Sega Genesis Collection”)

Story: 9 

From the manual, a malicious entity named Death Adder has come to ravage the land of Yuria, massacring thousands of innocent people to capture and kidnap the king and his daughter. Obtaining the legendary Golden axe, three warriors have come to save the royalties from the clutches of the Death Adder. 

The story itself sounds more of a medieval tale of warriors fighting to save the kingdom, or rather land, from the Evil Death Adder. It’s easy to understand and the warriors, from reading the manual, seem to be bent on revenge defeating the villain for killing their loved ones from their respective lands. Back in the day this will be a great attraction for people to play. Wait a little longer and you get the bio of each character and their one sentence story behind fighting death adder. 

A 9 out of 10 

Graphics: 8 

The graphics themselves are good but nothing spectacular. The opening scene to start the game with the letters flying in a circular motion is pretty cool. Choosing a character with a skeleton background is rather impressive to keep the medieval feel. Character models look good and nothing to complain about, especially with the enemies and stages. The stages stand out with its layout where you can walk up and down on the platform and jumping on ledges and such. The animals look pretty neat too, nothing too shabby. I think out of the game’s graphics, I think the magic is the best part of the pixels with explosives, earthquakes, thunder or even a dragon. I say the flickering when using the magic is the only flaw I see but it’s still impressive. 

An 8 out of 10 

Depth: 7

Depth of the game isn’t much in terms of content. Each character has their own set of weapons and how much potion they’re able to hold. I seen not much difference of playing each character but maybe I haven’t appreciate the game enough. The magic is basically the biggest difference between each character with the Amazonian being able to hold the most magic, Barbarian being the balanced type and Dwarf holding the least amount. The levels are pretty straightforward and doesn’t give much variety at all. It does show a story after each level completion to keep you invested on how the story progresses but other than that theres not much replay value after beating the game with the three characters. The ending is pretty neat though, showing information of each enemy from height and weight and their names. It’s a cool edition. 

7 out of 10

Sound : 5 

The sound is quite scratchy not going to lie. Even as an early release game the animals roaring, the enemies screaming, to even dying the audio is quite Sega if you know what I mean. Scratchy and just high pitched that if you wear headphones… poor soul. The music itself is quite ambient to a degree. You can hear the music and it’s nice but it gets cut out with the sound effects and it kinda affects it a bit. Clearly they could’ve done better but it’s an early title so wouldn’t hold too much against them. 

5 out of 10

Difficulty: 8 

The difficulty of the game isn’t that bad until you face the bosses. The bosses will munch up your quarters if this was the actual arcade but losing lives is okay too. I mean yeah you can cheat the game a bit by mounting onto animals (fire breathing velociraptor I call it for one of them) and just spam it’s attack to kill multiple enemies or the boss easily. Each level usually ends with you in a campfire with a little elf running around with a pouch. Hitting it gives you potions that’ll make it easier for you to go through each stage. Sometimes they even appear during the stage and hitting them either gives you potions or health. The difficulty really lies on the bosses or accidental falls. The final boss is the usual quarter muncher itself no matter how you look at it. Reason why the game is a bit more difficult in rating. I mean… Sure being crowded by enemies suck too but it’s more manageable, for me at least. 

An 8 out of 10. 

Addictive: 7 

There’s not much content this game offers. After beating the game, what else do they have? I mean granted I played as the dwarf and exit the game after beating it since I felt like there’s nothing more it contains. The story itself is neat but being an early Sega release I wish it had more so it can at least have some replay ability.

7 out of 10


The game itself was pretty good, probably amazing back in the days when it was first released. People probably blown away by how close it was to the arcade version and such. It’s a shame you can exploit the game with cheap tactics and all to progress the levels more easily. This is a quicker review than usual since this game really had not much to offer. I mean it sold well and reason why it’s considered a classic but this game is probably meant to be played once in a blue moon at most these days. 

My rating : 7/10 

Review rating : 7.8/10

I remember seeing this game. I want to think Sears had it on display when they had the Sega and SNES out. You could play games on the two systems they had out for customers to play. I remember my friends talking about this game. However, I never played it. Sounds like it would be a fun game. Your right the plot based on your review sounds like it is a game based off the middle ages.