Golden Axe The Duel - Sega Saturn - Intro & arcade playthrough as Keel with ending [4K 50fps]
23Full longplay / playthrough / walkthrough / trueplay of the arcade mode as Keel, the somewhat crazed elf whom uses ice and daggers. A direct port of the ST-V (Sega Titan Board) arcade original, however the Saturn port is not arcade perfect and is in fact missing some of the animation from the arcade version.
Jamm and her bear companion suffer the most with Corgon having almost all his background animation removed. Her fight entrance where she was seen riding him is also missing along with a rucksack she wore that was placed next to Corgon after it played out. The load times as you see are also rather long, as this is our first video of the game, we have left them intact to show you how bad they are. This is certainly one Sega game that might have benefited from using the later Sega Saturn RAM cartridges. The music in this home version is also somewhat remixed / altered from the arcade original. Graphically The Duel is the best looking game in the series with rich detailed and colourful sprites and backgrounds, that perfectly match the feel of the rest of the series.
Keel is quite a hard character to master as he lacks the range of other fighters. He does have quite a unique set of moves able to teleport and slide, allowing for him to surprise attack opponents from behind and below. The last Sega made Golden axe game The Duel is set eight years after the events of Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder. It really should also still be regarded as the last game in the series the less said about the dire beast rider the better.
Much like Golden Axe III the game gets a none deserved bad wrap from fans for not being a port of Revenge of Death Adder. As a 2D fighter it is certainly one of the best Sega did during the mid 90's era, most of their other attempts Eternal Champions, Burning Rival and Dark Edge all being subpar. Golden Axe The Duel isn't perfect as a fighter there are some major balancing issues, such as some characters able to use their super attack multiple times in a single magic bar as the Kain Blade fight shows in this video. Other problems include the very defensive A.I. that blocks just about everything you throw at it, forcing you to exploit its flaws as some of the later matches show. It's possible to break your opponents weapons with enough hits, but they take so much damage it rare to see it occur in a match.
The core mechanics are there and a sequel would have no doubt built on what was a promising foundation. This Saturn port is very bare bones with only the same features as the arcade, no training or extra modes and no way to unlock and play as the final boss golden axe. All in all it feels like Sega could have done more with the home port on this one.
Captured from the PAL version at 50fps, this version ends up distorting the sprites due to it's 576i ratio optimisation.
Also known as: ゴールデンアックスザデュエル
Release: 1995
Developer: SEGA AM1 (Arcade)
Publisher: SEGA / セガ
Format: Sega Saturn (SS) / セガサターン
Golden Axe The Duel has not been ported to any other system since release.
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All footage in this video is captured directly from the Sega Saturn console, via an Elgato Game Capture HD60 Pro using a RGB Scart to HDMI upscaler. Upscaled to 4K to improve the video bit rate.