Golden Axe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Golden Axe | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Sega Corporation |
| Publisher(s) | Sega Corporation |
| Designer(s) | Takosuke, Moto Cbx1000, Ham Tak, Waka (Genesis version) |
| Release date(s) | 1989 August 17 1989 (Genesis version) |
| Genre(s) | Beat' em up, Action, Arcade, Fighting, Medieval / Fantasy |
| Mode(s) | Side scrolling, up to 2 players, playing simultaneously |
| Rating(s) | ELSPA rating : 3+ |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Arcade Legends Sega Genesis Volume 2, PC, Amiga, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Sega Mega Drive, Sega Master System, Wii Virtual Console |
| Input | Joystick/Game controller, 3 buttons |
| Arcade cabinet | Standard |
Golden Axe is a side-scrolling arcade fighting game released in 1989 by Sega. Makoto Uchida was the primary developer of the game and also was responsible for the creation of Altered Beast. The game places the player in control of one of three warriors each bent on revenge against the vile dictator Death Adder. Death Adder has taken over the once peaceful land of Yuria and murdered their friend and partner, Alex. According to the Killer List of Videogames, Golden Axe is the most important arcade game of the year 1989. Several ports of the game were created, most notably for the Mega Drive/Genesis and Sega Master System. Several sequels followed.
The game focuses on three heroes. One of them is a battle axe-wielding dwarf, Gilius Thunderhead, from the mines of Wolud whose twin brother was killed by the soldiers of Death Adder. Another is a male barbarian, Ax Battler, wielding a two handed broadsword looking for revenge for the murder of his mother. The last is a long-sword wielding Tyris Flare, a female amazon, whose parents were killed by Death Adder.
[edit] Story
The very existence of Yuria is now threatened – Death Adder has kidnapped the king and his daughter, the beautiful Princess, and he is holding them captive in his castle. Death Adder has also found the Golden Axe, the magical emblem of the land of Yuria and plans to destroy it and kill the royal family unless all the people of Yuria bow to his will, swearing an oath of allegiance to his evil regime and accepting him as ruler.
[edit] Gameplay
Progress is made through the game by hacking and slashing your way through Adder's henchmen, including men armed with clubs and maces, skeleton warriors, and knights. Aiding the characters in this quest is their ability to cast spells that hurt all enemies on the screen. The force of this magic depends on the number of "bars" of magic power currently available. The bars are filled by collecting blue 'magic potions' found throughout the game. The male warrior Ax, limited to 4 bars, is able to cast Earth spells. The dwarf Gilius, limited to 3 bars, casts lightning spells and the female warrior Tyris can cast devastating fire magic, but her most powerful spell costs 6 bars.
Various steeds found in the game (bizarrians) can be ridden when the enemy rider is knocked off or if one is found dormant. These mounts add further attack prowess to the player by allowing them to attack groups of enemies at a time by swiping the bizarrian's tail and, in the case of the larger dragons, can deal heavy damage by breathing fire.
[edit] The Duel mode
The Duel mode was added to most ports. The main part of this mode was single-player only, although there was a slightly altered two-player option.
In this mode, the player battles enemies in waves. A handful of enemies attack, then when they are defeated the player moves on to the next group of enemies. Sometimes even bosses appeared to challenge the player.
The player had to make do with the health they started with for the duration of this mode, there were no thieves or other sources of health, and the player could not use magic at all.
If played in two-player mode, The Duel became a one-on-one battle against the other player with no enemies or stages.
Golden Axe II featured this mode, and also Golden Axe III did. Specifically in Golden Axe III, you can choose between fighting the whole lineup played by the AI, one at a time, with refilled HP each time, or to play with your friend. There was also one more character added to the lineup, the bird boss from the story mode.
[edit] Ports and Remakes
Various ports of Golden Axe exist for various platforms including the PC, Amiga, Atari St, Commodore 64, and Nintendo's Virtual Console service for the Wii console. The ports of the most significance are listed below.
[edit] Golden Axe (Sega Mega Drive/Genesis)
The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis version of the game retained the gameplay of the arcade game, while adding two extra levels and two extra modes of gameplay, The Duel and Beginner (an easier and shorter quest with an alternate boss at the end). Due to technical limitations (the media distribution was on a 6 megabit cartridge) the graphics took a noticeable hit, and some complex animations had to be cut. Despite not being as colorful as the arcade original, fans considered the extra levels and modes to more than make up for this loss. A strange error was made in that Gilius Thunderhead's "Golden Axe" is no longer golden in the home console translation, it is now silver.
The game was also remade, with new background music, voice-overs, for a Sega CD game collection. Almost all the game's background music are real CD tracks that can be listened to on a regular CD player. The graphics were identical, but a higher frame rate for the animations of the characters. Strangely, this version of the game was only one player even though Streets of Rage, which could also be found on the same CD, retained its two player co-op mode.
[edit] Golden Axe (Sega Master System)
The Sega Master System version of the game retold the original story from the perspective of Ax Battler, who was called "Tarik" in this game. While the game was only one-player, it featured all the levels from the arcade game as well as all the magic powers in the arcade version. At the time of the game's release many video game magazine editors and fans expressed surprise with how close the graphics of this game came to the Mega Drive version, despite the inferior technology of the Master System.
[edit] Golden Axe (PC Version)
The version of the game for IBM PC compatibles came out in 1990. This particular port was well done, with quality of graphics in 256 color VGA mode. However, it was not a direct translation of the Arcade as much as it was a port of the Megadrive version with an improved color palette. The overall number of levels was expanded to eight through the addition of two extra stages. The game supported all major graphics adapters available at the time, including VGA, EGA, CGA, Tandy and Hercules. Although the game would run on a 4.77 MHz IBM PC XT, at least a 16 MHz IBM PC AT was recommended for fluid scrolling and animations in VGA mode.
[edit] Golden Axe (Atari ST, Amiga)
These versions of the game were released in 1990 by Virgin Software. Unlike the PC version, the Amiga version was not a port of the Mega Drive version but was virtually identical to the arcade game with no loss of colors or animations. The Atari ST version was very close to the Amiga version with the exception that it modified the character health status bars from bars to gems at the bottom of the screen and even enhanced the icons for the characters faces. The ST version was less colorful than the Amiga version but retained all of the Arcade animations and detail. Both of these versions came closer than the Mega Drive in terms of graphics, but are missing the extra levels and do not control as well as the home console versions (particularly the Atari ST version with its 2 button controller). Gilius Thunderhead retains the gold color of his axe in the Amiga version.
[edit] Golden Axe (PC Engine CD-Rom Version)
In Japan Golden Axe was released by Telenet for the PC Engine CD-Rom sometime in 1990. It is not well known that this game existed because it is generally conceded by fans and critics alike to be the worst translation of the title ever released. The graphics were actually noticeably inferior to the Sega Master System version; the fault of amateur programmers as the system was more than capable of handling an accurate translation of the title equal to or surpassing the Megadrive offering. The sound and music, despite being a CD-Rom title, was of the same quality as the visuals and play. The game did have a nice anime style intro and new sprites for the character select screen.
Understandably, this title was never released anywhere outside of Japan.
[edit] Sega Ages 2500: Golden Axe
As part of the Sega Ages series of remakes, Sega released a 3D remake of Golden Axe for the PlayStation 2. Originally released in Japan as a budget release (it sold for only 2500 yen), the title has generally been poorly received due to its lackluster graphics, poor animation, and shoddy hit detection. The game is now available in the United States and Europe as part of the Sega Classics Collection, a multi-pack of other Sega Ages remakes. This game is despised by game enthusiasts far and wide due to its poor quality.
There is some theorisation by fans that this and other Ages remakes were actually planned for the original PlayStation or Sega Saturn but were somehow delayed, and then were tidied up for release on the Playstation 2. This theory goes some way to explain the unusually limited graphics. Games were still being published for the original Playstation for a few years after the introduction of the Playstation 2 during which time Sega became an official third party licensee for the Sony console.
[edit] Golden Axe for RealArcade
A re-release of the original Golden Axe was planned for Windows systems, through Sega's partnership with Real Networks' 'RealArcade' subscription-based game download service. It has never progressed beyond the beta testing stage.
[edit] Golden Axe in Sega Smash Pack
Sega made a collection of their games, called Sega Smash Pack for the PC and Sega Dreamcast which was basically emulated version of several Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games (including Golden Axe) on one disc.
THQ's Sega Smash Pack for the Game Boy Advance included a port of the Genesis/Mega Drive version of Golden Axe. The game did not feature multiplayer simultaneous play in arcade mode (though it did support multiplayer for The Duel). The small screen size made gameplay harder than in other ports and there were some notable flaws in presentation. For these and other shortcomings, some fans criticize it as being far worse than the Genesis version, despite being on a technologically superior platform.
[edit] Golden Axe for Next generation consoles
The Genesis version of the game has been made available through Nintendo's Virtual Console service for the Wii console and can purchased in the Wii Shop for 800 credits. It is also compatible with the Wii Remote, the Wii Classic Controller and the GameCube controller.[1]
[edit] Sequels
[edit] Golden Axe II
Each of the heroes from the first game return to battle the forces of evil villain Dark Guld in this sequel. While Golden Axe II was a Mega Drive/Genesis exclusive from a development point of view, it saw limited arcade exposure in the MegaPlay series of arcade machines. Released in 1991, the game featured new magic for each of the heroes with the trademark magic pots from the first game replaced by spell books this time around.
The graphics were noticeably inferior to the original and many video game magazine editors of the time expressed that the game was very likely rushed into production to give Sega another popular title to enable the Mega Drive/Genesis to compete with its new rival, the Super Nintendo. In most respects this sequel was essentially the same as the original, though it had new sprites for enemy characters and new levels. Many fans were disappointed with this title as they were expecting more than a rehash of the first title. However, the title had the virtue of not straying too far from a successful formula and was still quite popular upon its release.
[edit] Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder
In 1992 Sega released Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder (GA: RODA). It was the first 32-bit Golden Axe game. Despite its high quality and popularity, as of May 2006 the game remains arcade exclusive.
Only Gilius Thunderhead makes a return, riding the back of new character Goah the giant. The rest of the cast is all new and includes Sternblade the barbarian, Dora the female Centaur, and Little Trix, a young lad who carries a pitch fork. The main enemy is once again Death Adder.
The game is an overall improvement on the original with better sound, graphics, and gameplay. As well as introducing multiple paths to the franchise, the magic aspect was adjusted. Though still found in the classic Golden Axe pots, the magic spells did not increase in power with the number of pots collected but required a set number to work. RODA was the only Golden Axe game in which one of the magic attacks was not offensive as Little Trix grew apple trees with fruit that replenished health.
Though RODA was released third and not fourth, it is actually the final of the four "main games." At the game's end, Death Adder rises one more time. Gilius sacrifices his life to finally end Adder's. As Gilius appears in Golden Axe 3, it can only have happened after the events in Golden Axe III.
[edit] Golden Axe III
Released in 1993, the third Golden Axe game on the Mega Drive went unreleased in the United States. However, the game was available for a while in North America on the Sega Channel, Sega's modem-based game downloading system. The game's lineup of playable characters includes swordman Kain Grinder (カイン・グリンダー), swordwoman Sarah Barn (サラ・バーン), giant Braoude Cragger (プラウド・クラッガー) and beastman Chronos "Evil" Lait (クロノス・”イビル”・レート). Gilius also appear as a non-playable character at the character select screen.
In this game the object is to travel along a number of truly branching paths and eventually defeat the main boss of the game, Hellbringer (a new incarnation of Death Adder). You can choose different branching paths in this game toward that objective just as in Revenge of Death Adder. However these paths are more elaborate than in GA:RoDA and do not loop back together. Many of the characters you encounter are good characters that were possessed and once beaten they are freed. A demon with an eagle's head is a recurring boss who seems to be Hellbringer's right-hand man; he is playable in VS mode.
As opposed to Golden Axe II, where the characters, moves, and controls remained largely the same, Golden Axe III brought many changes to the gameplay. For one thing, the background scenery was less lush and colorful than in previous games, as were the sprites themselves. There was a noticeable reduction of frames of animation compared to even Golden Axe II. However, there was a greater variety of moves. While in the two previous games, the only attack options were a regular slash, charge, jump attack, running jump attack, and back attack, Golden Axe III added a grab/combo, a 'forward back attack', and a downward swipe. Furthermore, there were several abilities unique to certain characters: for example, the Braoude could throw, while the Chronos and Sarah could double jump and wall jump. Finally, each character had a super-move with its own unique button combination.
Some features were returned to the title that had been cut in previous sequels. Golden Axe III brought back the thieves from the original game, rather than the mages from Golden Axe II. Also, extra lives could be gained by freeing prisoners scattered throughout the levels. The magic system was returned to the original version where all pots are used at the same time, as opposed to the improved system in Golden Axe II that allowed the player to only use as many spellbooks as they wanted.
Though there were innovations in play not seen in the first two, the graphics were significantly inferior to the original or other Sega fighting games of the time such as Streets of Rage I, II, and III leading many to guess that a Golden Axe title had yet again been rushed through development. Many fans were also disappointed that this was not a translation of Revenge of Death Adder. Fan opinion is divided on this game, many consider it the worst of the series, while some still find it enjoyable due to its innovations and familiar gameplay.
[edit] Next-gen Golden Axe
As part of E3 2006, Sega issued a press release touting a new entry to the Golden Axe franchise for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, being developed by newly acquired game developer Secret Level. [1] Secret Level has worked on the Xbox version of Final Fight: Streetwise, among other projects.
[edit] Spin-offs
[edit] Golden Axe Warrior
This Sega Master System title tells another epic tale about the Golden Axe. Unlike most of the other games in the series, it is an adventure game very similar to The Legend of Zelda. Because this game was so similar to The Legend of Zelda it was often rejected by critics and labled as a simple clone. Despite this the game was good in its own rights, with a lot of depth, variety in enemies and weapons. The story line continued the theme of the original Golden Axe games. The game's unit of currency is horns, and it is to be imagined that the hero cut these off of the enemies he killed (much like Conan in the film Conan the Destroyer).
[edit] Ax Battler
Released for the Sega Game Gear, this adventure title follows the legend of the character Ax Battler. Unlike its console counterpart, it is based more on Zelda II: The Adventure of Link than the original game. The player moves around a top-view overworld and enemies randomly attacked. However the player can not see them like in Zelda II. When a battle begins, the game zooms down to a platform-style fighting environment. After killing the foe (or the foe wounding them) the hero returns to the overworld.
Unlike previous Golden Axe games, the player can learn new attacks and moves at the training dojos in each town. The currency in this game is pots, the traditional Golden Axe magic-usage item. Pots double as both currency and as an offensive attack.
[edit] Golden Axe: The Duel
The last original Golden Axe game was released in 1994. Unlike the games before it, Golden Axe: The Duel is a one-on-one fighting game featuring characters who appear to be descendants of some of the characters in the original game. The title was released for both the arcades and the Sega Saturn console. It had a poor reception in both markets; Golden Axe fans shirked from its Street Fighter-like combo moves, but fans of the more popular fighters did not think it had enough combos.
[edit] Other appearances
- Ax Battler, Gilius Thunderhead and Tyris Flare all make a cameo appearance in the arcade version of Alien Storm, they can be found on one of the ingame television screens in that game, a Golden Axe logo can also be seen during that cameo.
- Also in the arcade version of Alien Storm, Gilius Thunderhead makes another cameo appearance, this time as part of a panel of judges to rate the players score.
- In Shining in the Darkness, Gilius Thunderhead takes the role as a blacksmith, he has his axe next to him. Also next to him is a head shot of a blue thief.
[edit] Comic Miniseries
Golden Axe was featured in the British comic "Sonic the Comic", which was published by Fleetway. The series was titled "The Legend of the Golden Axe" and had two six-issue runs, written by Mark Eyles and illustrated by Mike White. Issues 1-6 featured the story "Citadel of Dead Souls", wherein a necromancer attempted to resurrect Dark Guld. Issues 13-18 had the story "Plague of Serpents", which involved a snake-charmer named Cobraxis kidnapping the Queen of Gilius' dwarf race. Although it wasn't based on the original Golden Axe, instead the story takes place in the aftermath of Golden Axe II but it did feature a few notable things from the original such as the thieves that carry the magic potions although they were not the blue thieves, another notable difference is that Tyris Flare has blond hair.
[edit] Trivia
- The death screams of the bad guys are digitized from screams used in the films "First Blood" (several) and one from "Conan The Barbarian." Fans of the game who watch the movies will be able to pick these out easily.
- The Chicken Stinger is a creature you fight in the second stage of Altered Beast. This creature later showed up in Golden Axe as one of the Bizarrians that you can steal from the enemies in the game (it's now called a Chicken-Leg). The Chicken-Leg also showed up later in the arcade game Golden Axe: The Revenge Of Death Adder.
[edit] References
- ^ Parish, Jeremy (2006-10-31). Wii Virtual Console Lineup Unveiled. 1UP.com. Retrieved on 2006-11-01.
[edit] External links
- Death Adder's Castle, pretty much the one and only, and the most thorough fansite around.[citation needed]
- Retrospective Feature from NTSC-UK
- The Revenge of Death Adder wiki walkthrough at StrategyWiki
- Golden Axe Series at MobyGames
- Sega-16's retrospective on the Golden Axe series
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