Negative Gamer Retro Review: Golden Axe

Golden Axe was originally released in arcades and became both popular and successful extremely quickly. This resulted in the game being ported to almost all systems available at the time but the Mega Drive version has become the most well known and reproduced.

The game itself is a side-scrolling hack and slash. You have a choice of three characters, either the Barbarian, the Amazon or the Dwarf. Regardless of which character is selected the basic gameplay remains the same. You battle your way through a variety of enemy laden levels culminating in a boss battle.

Along with using your sword or axe, each character also has the ability to use magic attacks. Throughout the game thieves appear which can be hit to gain magic pots. When the player has collected magic, it can be used as a special attack. The more pots that have been collected, the stronger the attack becomes.

There are also beasts that appear throughout the game that can be controlled by the player. The player rides these creatures, which are then used to attack enemies with. In most cases, the creatures deal a great deal more damage than regular attacks so they can become extremely useful.

As for plot, the game takes the typical approach of having the player save the kidnapped king and princess, avenging their fallen comrades along the way. However, the game’s story is not all that significant and only serves as a means for moving the player from one area to the next.

Goddamn enemies.

One of my biggest grievances with the game are the enemies. Considering that the game heralds from the hack and slash genre, the enemies are possibly the most important feature for success. Unfortunately for Golden Axe, the enemies do little to aid the game or create an enjoyable experience.

In general, hack and slash games follow the principle of increasing both the number and strength of enemies as the game progresses in order to increase the game’s difficulty. Golden Axe is no exception to this. However, it does so in a manner that quickly overwhelms the player. Especially when playing alone.

For a hack and slash game to be successful it is vital that whilst the enemy strength increases, the challenge presented to the player should still be possible. Games of this genre should also ensure that the player is not going to be continually subjected to long bouts of enemy attacks without the possibility of escape. Golden Axe though does not adhere to these ideals.

As early as the second level, it becomes apparent that whichever character the player has chosen, they are significantly weaker than most of the enemies facing them. This is especially noticeable through the introduction of enemies mounted on dragons that deal high amounts of damage to the player. While an enemy can quickly whittle down the health of your own character, it seems to take much longer for them to take on a similar level of damage.

One way I have found to deal with this is to repeatedly use my chosen character’s running attack, as it appears to do more damage. The problem with this though is that the enemies tend to mirror your movements. The result is a constant stream of quick time events. Obviously, this has inherent problems as failure to initiate an attack at the correct time means you get hit. This then leaves you open to attacks from other enemies.

Another problem with the enemies is their tendency to move in groups of three. This leads to regular instances of being surrounded and trapped by groups of enemies. The problem with this is that once an enemy begins hitting you it is impossible to issue any commands until they either move away or finish their series of attacks. Usually, this leaves the player with a significantly decreased health bar, which is severely worsened in later levels when large enemy groups all attack at the same time.

Following from this, if you are using standard attacks against an enemy, there’s rarely anything stopping them from cancelling your moves with their own attacks. Again, this is especially irritating when enemies appear in groups, usually preventing the player from issuing any attacks.

The game also has problems with boss-level enemies. As the game progresses, enemies that were at first boss characters reappear as regular enemies. In most cases though they have had their strength dramatically increased and there will likely be more than one of them.

My complaint with reusing boss characters in this way is that they will generally have a group of fairly high-powered enemies with them plus having their own inherent ability to deal a whole bar of damage in a single hit. This makes it increasingly problematic to ensure that they will be despatched before your own character is.

One way in which the player can approach these boss level characters is to use magic attacks. The game provides each character with a series of magical attacks that are increased in strength by the number of magical pots collected. Similarly to regular attacks though, magic attacks again seem severely underpowered compared to the enemies.

The game also implements an ‘˜all or nothing’ policy with regards to magic usage. This means you must use all the magic you have stored or none at all. For example, if you have enough magic for a level four spell but are only battling a small group of enemies you can’t use a lower level attack. But, considering that magic attacks seem to have little affect on bosses anyway maybe this isn’t so much of a bad thing.

I should also note that I have based this mainly from playing single player. When you are playing with a friend, it does lessen the problems caused by enemies to an extent. Having a second player allows you to cause damage much more easily although it still has its problems.

Enemies continue to be able to surround the players and prevent them from moving or attacking. Plus, higher-powered enemies are able to attack both players at once, dealing significant amounts of damage. Playing multiplayer then adds the problem of competing for both magic and health items. In neither case do the number of items increase and considering the sporadic placement of health items, both players still die a lot. Although the game’s design is based around playing together, it improves the game very little.

I’m falling off the edge of the world’¦

Another major problem I found with the game was the ease at which you could fall off the screen and die. In some cases this was a deliberate part of the game’s design such as pits or broken bridges but in other places it’s just a case of not having boundaries programmed.

As the game progresses, the lack of environmental boundaries increases. This obviously means the chance of player death also increases. This coupled with the much stronger enemies that are present and their increased frequency makes it almost impossible to survive. Admittedly this is typical of arcade ports, whereby the original game was designed to make as much money as possible from repeated attempts to continue. However, this does not excuse the difficulty of the console version.

Whilst it is necessary to maintain the general feel of the arcade game, the necessity for unforgiving difficulty is not required. Although it is included as a means of enforcing replayability, completion is based more on luck than increasing the player’s skill at the game.

A few other points worth mentioning:

• The alternative modes offered by the game (Beginner and The Duel) do little to add to the gameplay experience. The Duel is insanely difficult and Beginner mode is just a watered down version of the main game.
• Enemies are differentiated through alternate colours rather than introducing new foes.
• The collection of magic and health at the end of each level is annoying. Rather than just having each regenerate by a set amount you have to chase after little men and kick them to receive items.
• Two players are almost essential to complete the game. Although it is possible to play through by yourself it is much less frustrating if you have someone else there to help.

Golden Axe is one of those games that seemed amazing when you first played it back in the early 90s. Unfortunately, it doesn’t hold up when you return to it in 2009. As a part of the hack and slash genre, the enemies are key in creating a successful game. With Golden Axe though, they are severely flawed and detrimentally affect the gaming experience for the majority of the game. The main characters are severely underpowered, both in physical and magical attacks, whilst enemies (especially bosses) can rapidly deplete your entire health bar. There are also issues with environmental boundaries and as the game gets nearer the end it becomes much easier to simply fall to your death.

As the series continued through Golden Axe II and III, some of the game’s issues were fixed (such as the use of magic) but the series is still sub-standard when played today. Having also now experienced the original arcade version of the game, the lower level graphics of the Mega Drive port also negatively impact on my experience with the game.

You should play this game if’¦
…you want to reminisce on memories from when you first played the game in the early 90s.

Score:
An unforgivingly poor game that will kill you before you even get a chance to rage quit. If you must play it try and find a copy of the original arcade version.

(What does this score mean?)

Release info/availability:
Original release: Sega Mega Drive, 1989, ported from arcade, also released on Sega Master System, PC, Wonderswan Color
Currently available on: Wii Virtual Console, XBOX 360* and PS3* (the original arcade version is also available on XBLA)

*(through Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection)