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

Makoto Uchida was the primary developer of the game and also was responsible for the creation of Altered Beast, a similar game. According to the Killer List of Videogames, Golden Axe was the most important arcade game of the year 1989. Several translations of the game were created, most notably for the Mega Drive/Genesis and Sega Master System.

The kanji that appear in the title screen read as "Senfu" (戦斧, "Senfu"?) meaning "Battle Axe", however both the game and series are known as "Golden Axe", even in Japan.

The game takes place in the fictional land of Yuria, a Conan the Barbarian style fantasy world. An evil entity known as Death Adder has captured the King and his daughter, and holds them captive in their castle. He also finds the Golden Axe, the magical emblem of Yuria, and threatens to destroy both the axe and the royal family unless the people of Yuria accept him as their ruler.

The player controls one of three warriors. The first 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, an amazon, whose parents were killed by Death Adder.

Much of the game consists of the character's journey to the castle. In one of the early stages, the player saves the inhabitants of the ransacked Turtle Village, which turns out to situated on the shell of a giant turtle. The turtle takes the characters across the sea, and they then fly to the castle itself on the back of a giant eagle. Once at the castle the player fights Death Adder, who is wielding the Golden Axe. At the end of the battle Death Adder is knocked down and killed by his own weapon, and the King and his daughter are freed from their captivity.

[edit] Gameplay

[edit] Story mode

Progress is made through the game by fighting through Death Adder's henchmen, including men armed with clubs and maces, skeleton warriors, and knights. Aiding the characters in their 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 are found in the game, which are known as bizarrians. These can be ridden when the enemy rider is knocked off, or if one is found dormant. The least powerful steed is known as a 'Chicken-Leg', which can be used to knock down enemies with a swipe of its tail. The more powerful dragon, which can either shoot fireballs or breath fire, is found later in the game.
The Duel mode
The Duel mode

[edit] The Duel mode

The Duel is a gameplay mode which was a feature of most ports, but not of the original arcade game. It can be played either single or two-player.

In the single-player mode, the player battles enemies in stages. A handful of enemies attack, and 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 the game, and magic could not be used at all. At some stages enemies rode on bizarrians, which could be stolen and used to fight with.

If played in two-player mode, The Duel became a one-on-one battle against the other player with no enemies or stages. Like the single-player duel mode, health could not be regained, nor magic used.

[edit] Ports and remakes

Several ports of Golden Axe exist for many platforms, including: the Sega Mega Drive, Sega Master System, Sega CD, MS-DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Game Boy Advance, ZX Spectrum, Wii and Xbox 360. The ports can be effectively divided into those of the original arcade version, and the ports of the somewhat different Sega Mega Drive version.

[edit] Differences between the arcade and Mega Drive versions

The Sega Mega Drive and 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). However one gameplay difference in the Mega Drive version is that none of the "large" enemies can throw the play at close range.(Which means at very close distances these enemies can't attack the player at all) Due to technical limitations (the media distribution was on a 4 megabit cartridge) the graphics took a noticeable hit, and some complex animations had to be cut. Fewer colors were used on-screen from a smaller palette, background detail was reduced, and parallax scrolling was removed. Despite not being as graphically impressive 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. Death Adder no longer formed from several snakes who slither into a suit of armor, unlike the arcade version. Also unique to the arcade version was the ending in which the Golden Axe characters escape an arcade machine on which they are being played, and chase the humans out into the street. At this point a sign can be seen advertising "Dokari Sweat", a reference to Pocari Sweat, the Japanese sports drink.