Classic Amiga Hack n' Slash 'em Up (Golden Axe)

Member Name: wampyrii

Product:	Golden Axe
Date:	30/08/01 (128 review reads)
Rating:

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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 know how I knew I wanted these particular games...

Anyway, Golden Axe on the Amiga isa pretty accurate conversion of the Sega Coin-Op. Its a sideways scrolling fantasy beat'em up in which you play either a male or female barbarian or an axe weilding dwarf in your fight against Death Adder, a mean old nasty guy who has been terrorising and torturing the local townsfolk. Each has their own beef with this guy and want to kick a big ole portion of tin head's butt. You get to choose to control one of them and must fight your way past a variety of thugs, skeletons and dragon riders to name but a few before you reach him and teach the big fella a lesson. Basically its a beat'em up but with swords and magic, and there are very few moves you can actually perform considering you have one fire button and a directional stick - a combination of button presses and moves make some more impressive stuff kick in though. Basically its all wild slashing with axe and sword, charging and headbutting, but you can also knock the riders off their dragons and mount them yourselves and breath fire, swipe with your tail, charge etc. which adds variety. You also have magical spells which you can use. You collect potions to build up mana which when released defines how potent the spell will be. Each character h
as their own special spell ability...fire, wind and no clue what the other one is but it looks nice...but the fire is the most impressive, especially on full power. Spells at full power are enormously devastating...and great fun to use...I used to love this part. ;o)

The enemies are quite tough and well animated as are your characters, although the game does run quite slowly on the clunky old A500 which I had which was a bit of a bummer. The graphics look good though, not as good as the coin op of course but they are pretty true to the original in most respects. The most fun is had when playing with a friend because two can play this at once although don't start thinking this is going to make things that much easier because you also get double the amount of enemies....which then double team you. One thing annoying about this and indeed most of Sega's and coin-op conversions in general is the number of lives they gave you. They made it ridiculously easy by giving you something like 5 coins to play on...not that much of a challenge really once you get into the game...but they all did it back then.

Overall its very playable, it looks good and is a pretty accurate conversion of the coin-op by the same name. There are a few slow down and it is a little jerky on an A500 but this might improve with a faster machine....not sure, never tried it. Worth checking out, and still fun to play all these years later.

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