Golden Axe II Longplay (Mega Drive/Genesis) [60 FPS]
75Developed by Sega AM7 and published by Sega in 1991
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Al82_Retro
Add me on Google+: http://bit.ly/1tPwL1u
Released exclusively on the Mega Drive in 1991, Golden Axe II is the first sequel to Sega's arcade fantasy smash hit.
Set several years after the defeat of Death Adder, Golden Axe II sees the return of the three brave heroes from the original game in a new quest to retrieve the titular Golden Axe once again in order to save the world from certain doom. This time, the chief antagonist is one "Dark Guld", someone who who should have been imprisoned long ago is most definitely NOT a slightly retouched Death Adder wearing a cape...
When developing video game sequels, the usual approach is to take everything that made the original game great and to remove/redevelop everything that wasn't; more of the same isn't necessarily a bad thing.
To it's credit, anyone who has played the original game already knows how to play this. The characters, moves and abilities are near identical, so at least there's practically no learning curve involved; you can get stuck into the monster-bashing from the start.
Unfortunately, it's not long until you realise that the sequel is perhaps just a bit too much of the same and "rehash" is a definitely a word that springs to mind on more than one occasion whilst playing. There's precious little here that you hadn't already seen in the original game; from the character art to level design, everything about the game feels just a little too familiar and perhaps just a bit too stale for a sequel to one of the greatest arcade games ever.
In terms of positives, Sega reworked the control scheme so that controlling your character is more responsive and fluid. It's possible to attack more quickly than the original, meaning that you're less likely to be exposed to counter-attack if your swing misses the target. It's now also possible to change the direction in which you throw an enemy even if the animation has commenced, which can help to prevent enemies from surrounding you.
The second significant improvement is the inclusion of the alternative, "Special" magic system. This system allows you to hold down the "A" button to control how many units of magic you want to commit when casting a spell, so you are no longer committed to using all your power in one go. Since a magic attack knocks every enemy on screen down, this new system provides additional combat strategies to deal with difficult situations.
Perhaps the most significant (and unwelcome) change is the sharp up-swing in difficulty. Not only will monsters will make it their priority to surround you and to attack from behind, the range and position at which they will attack is both more precise and devastating than ever before.
Of all the fights in the game, the final show-down with Dark Guld is undoubtedly the most difficult. Not only does he summon up to three skeleton warriors to protect him, he will also cast spells that you simply have no defence against. Added to this, he has an instant knock-down attack that has a ridiculously long range, meaning that it's near-impossible to get close to him to attack.
For a game that is actually pretty light on features and strategy to be so brutally difficult means that any sense of fun is banished long before the final stages of the game (should you even make it that far). I suspect that the addition of a friend playing in two-player mode would make things easier to deal with, but that does little for the solo player.
The quality of the game's sound and music is a mixed bag. The music features a rousing assortment of tunes in-keeping with the game's fantasy theme, but then let's itself down with a strange "funky" tune at the title screen that feels completely out of place.
Sound effects are acceptable, but the static screeching that's meant to pass for for a dragon breathing fire is pretty poor, and skeleton's make the same stupid "bleh" sound effect when they die as every other monster does, despite lacking both lungs and a set of vocal chords...
For a game that was designed to be a "Double Dragon" with swords, any sequel needed to be bigger and better than the original game. Golden Axe II isn't a terrible game, but neither is it a worthy successor.
#retrogaming