Game:

Golden Axe (1989)

Duration: 15:25

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Gameplay Performed by: TrevorDFox and Peggion.

Golden Axe is a side-scrolling, beat 'em up, hack and slash arcade video game released in 1989 by Sega for the System 16-B arcade hardware. It is the first game in the Golden Axe series.

Makoto Uchida was the lead designer of the game, and also was responsible for the creation of Altered Beast. The game was ported to the Sega Genesis and Master System consoles, among many other systems.

Lead producer Makoto Uchida was fond of action movies, particularly the Conan films and wanted to create a game influenced by them. He said that the development team for the game was small and development of the game took about a year. Uchida's “idea was to come up with a Double Dragon that was not a Double Dragon… Technos was an experienced rival who had been working on the Kunio-Kun series, so there was no way we could compete if we did the same thing as them. I had a feeling that arcade games should be competitive against the great hit console title Dragon Quest (created by Enix) and therefore studied the world of magic and swords, combined this with the gameplay of Double Dragon, and finally came up with the concept of Golden Axe.”

Several ports of Golden Axe exist for many platforms. The Mega Drive/Genesis version remained largely faithful to the arcade game, adding a level and the aforementioned duel mode, along with a new ending. A one-player only version was later re-released on the Mega-CD/Sega CD as part of the Sega Classics Arcade Collection, with new Redbook background music and new voice-overs carried over from the Arcade version. The Genesis/Mega Drive version was later released in other compilations – Sega Smash Pack, Sega Genesis Collection, Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection. The Mega Drive/Genesis port is also available on Virtual Console. The arcade version is also on the Virtual Console and Xbox Live Arcade. A port of the game was released on PlayStation Network on July 12, 2011 and has been available free for PlayStation Plus users. In August 2017, Golden Axe got an IOS and Android (operating system) release It is now part of Sega Forever

The IBM PC compatibles version released in 1990 is similar to the Mega Drive/Genesis version, but features richer 256 color palette in VGA mode as well as the ability to run in 16 colors (EGA/Tandy 1000), 4 color (CGA) and 2 color (Hercules Graphics Card) modes.The Atari ST and Amiga versions of the game released in late 1990 by Virgin Software are more similar to the arcade. Unlike the PC version, the Amiga version is not a port of the Genesis/Mega Drive version – rather, it is similar to the arcade game, with some palette changes and without parallax scrolling. The ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 versions suffer from the limitations of the two platforms.

Variations of the original game have also been released. The Sega Master System version of the game retells the original story from the perspective of Ax Battler, who is called "Tarik" in this game. While the game is only one-player, it features all of the levels and magic powers of the arcade version. In Japan, Golden Axe was released by Telenet for the PC Engine CD-ROM in 1990 with high-quality resampled music and cut scenes. The game was also released as part of the handheld TV game Arcade Legends Sega Genesis Volume 1. An enhanced remake with 3D graphics and orchestral music was released for PlayStation 2 as part of the Sega Ages line.

The Spectrum version of the game went to number 2 in the UK sales charts, behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and was voted number 66 in the Your Sinclair Readers' Top 100 Games of All Time.

Reviewing the game's appearance in Sega Arcade Classics for the Sega CD, Glenn Rubenstein commented that the game had become outdated in the years since its original release.

In 1991, PC Format named Golden Axe one of the 50 best computer games ever, describing it as "deliciously animated hacking, slashing and generally whaling".

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