1106: Golden Axe PS3 \\ Options, & playthroughs w/ all 3 characters!
1Playing through Golden Axe--part of what they billed as the "Sega Vintage Collection" series of separate game releases--on PS3, Normal difficulty, as all three characters, and also going through the options and talking long and boringly about the rest of the Vintage Collection, the later Golden Axe arcade game, blah blah.
My beat-em-ups playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZO3OPzPjIzMRdL46C-xoiG1dgqjvlgao
0:00 - rambling about Sega Vintage Collection
5:12 - menus and options
11:10 - Ax Battler, The Barbarian
11:44 - visual settings
39:14 - Hardcore (partial, as Ax)
44:14 - Tyris Flare, The Amazon
1:05:37 - Gilius Thunderhead, The Dwarf
1:28:57 - babbling about Revenge of Death Adder, etc
It's another early PS3 port by Backbone, so it's pretty good except that there's a blur filter you can't get rid of (but you can sure add another on top of it! ;P). Also you can't adjust screen size by precise amounts--not easily, anyway!--so I was stuck with a bit of border I couldn't squeeze off, grr.
The game runs in a 16:9 screen, I've just cut off the useless sidebar areas since the classic arcade game is still 4:3 (you could stretch if to 16:9 if you really wanted to; I don't).
As I think pretty much the second isometric arcade beat-em-up after Double Dragon, a lot of my meager quarter supply back in the day went into Golden Axe--mainly if DD wasn't around, I think--but it didn't grab me now or then as much as DD or say X-Men does/do/did. They probably put a lot of effort into getting such smooth animations and graphics on such early hardware, but maybe the down side of that bargain was kinda tame movement, I dunno. And I wish thrown enemies could knock down other enemies, and that the "can't pick stuff up, can't charge attack" invisible walls at the sides of the screen weren't so darn big. ; P It's kind of short, and playing through makes me feel like well I've probably seen about all that has to offer, not much need to go back.
But back in the day, for a while there this was all there was if Double Dragon wasn't available. I probably burnt out on it early. ; ) Don't know if I had played it for 25+ years!
I was thinking Gilius' ability to out-charge-attack everyone would make him by far my most successful, but I think (actually I really like how the game shows you how many lives you used at the end, wish more arcade games and especially shooters, run-and-guns, and beat em ups did that!) that trophy went to Tyris--probably due to her slightly superior speed, oh and hitting the boss and gang with her uber spell at the end probably didn't hurt. ^_ ^
That list of Sega Vintage Collection releases is at https://ultimatepopculture.fandom.com/wiki/Sega_Vintage_Collection .
(Looking up footage of Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder again, I recall that I DID play it in the arcade--I definitely remember riding around on a giant scorpion with mounted mini catapults. Oh, I think I remember those guys with the giant oval masks, too.)
Oh! Apparently it was (is?) free for PS+ users; maybe that's why I didn't buy it before? ( https://goldenaxe.fandom.com/wiki/Golden_Axe#Ports_and_remakes ) Also I forgot it was on the PC Engine CD-ROM², and had a 3D remake 'p' on PS2 (Sega Ages 2500).
Oh yeah! And the art in the PS3 store listing for this Golden Axe uses the Genesis box art, which in the past may have made me think it was just a Genesis port! (Not great thinking by their marketing dept. : P)
9/10/22
#goldenaxe #ps3 #segavintagecollection #videogame #videogames #letsplay #beatemup #beatemups #playthrough #tyrisflare #giliusthunderhead #axbattler #gameplay