In the golden age of video game arcades, scrolling beat-em-ups loosely based on Masters of the Universe archetypes and Tolkienian fantasy lands earned companies like Konami millions from impressionable eighties youths’ pocket money. Perhaps the lord of all these ridiculously similar semi-violent offerings was Sega’s ‘Golden Axe,’ flawlessly converted to home computer format for Commodore’s Amiga 600. PREMISE Golden Axe is the story of three heroes, seeking out the evil knight Death Adder for revenge and plunder. One or two players rely on the characters’ brute strength, fighting tactics, magic powers and helpful monster transport as they ...  Read the complete review

I went round to visit my brother the other day and we played on my old Amiga, which he as a games geek has kept. I bought Golden Axe and for a period in the early 90's found this to be the absolute pinnacle of gaming technology, taking one of three Dungeon and Dragon-esque characters you need to fight your way through a sprawling landscape. One thing I especially liked about the game at the time which felt groundbreaking was the characters could walk up and down the terrain instead of just left and right, although this was limited to the parameters of the screen itself, this felt new and unheralded. Playing it now, we both laughed about this, and about the ...  Read the complete review

Golden Axe is a classic beat-em-up (or should that be slash-em-up) set in a fantasy world. The player takes the role of one of three heroes - Ax Battler the barbarian, Tyris Flare the amazon or Gilius Thunderhead the mighty dwarf. The trio are out to avenge the death of their friends and family who were murdered by the evil Death Adder (a nasty chap who is nowhere near as funny as Black Adder.) Can the heroes take down the villain and save the king who he holds hostage? That all depends on how good your game play skills are. The game is something anyone can get into without too much difficulty. You fight your way past a legion of Death Adder's minions which ...  Read the complete review

This game brings back some excellent memories of trips shopping to buy new joysticks and was probably responsible for the death quite a few of them ! This is really good old fashioned gameplay that I don't think we'll ever see again . Golden Axe on the Amiga was a conversion of the arcade game of the same name - and for a change the conversion improves on the original ( minus the loading times ) . The game follows you (and a friend) in the role of one of three warriors travelling through a mystical side scrolling land to defeat the evil that is Death Adder . Death Adder being the kind of guy he is has been torturing the locals and each of the 3 ...  Read the complete review

Ahhh this one brings back memories. They used to have the arcade amchine version of this in a small little outhouse shed at the bottom of a pub in my old home town as a kid. We used to sneak in through the trees at the back and go in there and play the games until someone would eventually rat on us and the landlord would come and chase us out - this was a regular thing, but I think we were his biggest patrons in terms of these machines. Golden Axe was one of the games they had there along with Double Dragon, Spyhunter and Outrun, all of which I later purchased for the Amiga...well had bought for me for Christmas one year by my unwitting parents...like they would ever ...  Read the complete review