No offense to His Highness Dark Gul, but Death Adder at least cared a bit about hiring quotas. All I see here is the same guys over and over again holding key positions (nepotism?). Sure, he may not have looked into benefits, but at least he tried to diversify; I also heard he gave away concert tickets whenever he could, so that's probably more an issue of management than leadership.

Despite finding somewhat entertaining thinking about Golden Axe II in terms of corporatism, you may have figured that's all I got. Same game as the first, your character doesn't die as easily, hits register a bit better and enemies die faster, but they still try to corner you and\or rush you, stages aren't so memorable but the game looks better in general. Good thing you can still throw enemies into pits, which are still there by the way, guess all they care about at GoldenExec is throwing pizza parties, not setting up safety nets.

Look, maybe I'm not as receptive to the idea of a sword-and-sandal beat 'em up experience anymore. I got it, it's still cool, I wish it was elaborated a bit further upon.

I may be misremembering, despite having revisited the first game recently, but I feel like there are no major differences here. And yet I found it more difficult and frustrating for some reason. I dunno, might just be in a different mood right now.

I think the magic has been nerfed? Might be completely wrong about this, but here it's kinda useless. I feel like it deals less damage than your regular attack. And in situations where you and your enemy attack each other simultaneously, it seems like the game determines completely randomly who attacked whom.

Ultimately though, this game feels kinda pointless. It's just more of the same. The graphics and the gameplay feel almost identical. And seeing how this is a beat-em-up, new levels don't necessarily add variety. I was kinda hoping for an improvement.

You know, I just love the copy ‘n paste tool. It is such a simple, yet incredibly useful tool, copying things and putting them into other things, and it helps out a lot in many different aspects of whatever you are trying to make. And yet, at the same time, if this tool is used incorrectly, it can lead to some pretty disastrous results, or, in the case of video games, repetitive shlock and pure mediocrity. Modern games are insanely guilty of copy and pasting many different elements all over the place, but this has been a thing for the longest time, ever since the earliest days of video games, like with how Super Mario Bros. 2 is just Super Mario Bros. 1 again, except someone in the development team decided to fuck it so hard, that the level design becomes the Mario equivalent of an almost untraversable highway. That being said though, most of the time when games are copy pasted, there are at least some new elements introduced that makes them stand out from their predecessors, and feel somewhat unique in comparison. But, then there are those instances where they literally just make the exact same game again, like with today’s subject, Golden Axe II.

The original Golden Axe, while not being the worst beat-’em-up of the era, wasn’t exactly all that much of a good game. Sure, it had some interesting ideas, such as The Dual, and it had admirable features, like the playable characters and the special attacks, but it wasn’t enough to save it from the clunky, uninspired gameplay that, while still somewhat enjoyable, isn’t something I could easily recommend. So, you can just imagine how unsurprisingly disappointed I was when I came to play the sequel, and found that it was basically the exact same game as the original. Sure, there were of course new levels, new spells, new enemies and what have you, but at its core, nothing about the gameplay has changed, and you would get nothing out of it if you had already played the original game.

The story is “evil is back, go stop it”, which feels appropriate for the poster child of rehashes in video games, the graphics are about the same as the original game, although the enemy and character sprites do look much better this time around, so I will give it that, the music is pretty good, so that is at least one advantage that this game has going for it, the control is exactly the same as in the original game, with the clunkiness being toned down somewhat in this installment, which is appreciated, and the gameplay could be considered just a DLC expansion of the original Golden Axe made into a separate game, even if it does slightly play better.

The game plays exactly (and I mean, EXACTLY) like the original Golden Axe, where you take control of one of three characters, go through several stages, beat up plenty of goons using either your main weapon, with regular or special attacks, animal partners, or with special magic attacks, pick up various health and magic items to help you out along the way, and take down plenty fearsome bosses… or, you know, a couple of fearsome bosses repeated many different times. When I say there is absolutely nothing about the gameplay that has been changed in this installment, I am being completely accurate. There are no new additions to the combat, and practically nothing else added to make this game stand out from the original. Sure, it does feel better to play in comparison to the original, but in this case, that really isn’t enough to justify a completely “new” game that was sold for money.

If you wanted to talk about the new changes that this game does make, there is a bit more emphasis on story this time around, with a cutscene before the game, as well as little dialogues in between each level, which don’t provide that much, but it does make the world feel more alive, so that’s nice. Not to mention, the enemy sprites have changed, and they generally look better in comparison to the original game. But really, that’s about it. There is an options menu that allows you to change the difficulty and health now, which LOOKS like it is different, but in reality, you have no excuse to change it to anything other then Normal, even if the game is easier overall then the original game. If you play through in Easy mode, it acts like the Beginner mode from the original game, which lets you play most of the game, but then stops you to be like “Uh, yeah, no, come back on a harder difficulty”, and I HATE it when games do that. And in terms of Hard mode… I mean, come on, would you really hurt yourself by trying to play this game on hard mode?

Aside from all of that though, The Dual does make a return, which functions just like it did in the original game. And just like in the original game, it gives you nothing whatsoever for completing this mode, so, again, what would be the point of playing this mode whatsoever? I guess you could have fun with this mode, as well as with the main game itself, if you were playing it with friends, which could definitely enhance the experience, but in terms of just playing the game by yourself, there is absolutely no reason to whatsoever.

Overall, this is a sequel that plays things WAY too safe, not taking any risks, as well as not changing enough about the look or the gameplay to make it feel different or worth playing. You could decide whether or not to play through this or the original game, and you would never need to play through the other afterwards, unless you are just a super-fan of these games, which, if you are, then more power to you. So, for the love of god, Sega, PLEASE let Golden Axe III have something different, anything at all! I will greatly appreciate the changes whenever I play the game in like 10 years from now.

Game #265

Another retro classic my brother and I were able to beat while I am over here for the week. Compared to the original this one does not have as much charm, love that they changed up the characters outfits a bit more. If you are able to clear the first few levels with only losing a life or two you are in good shape to make it all the way to the end and clear the game as it is also pretty short. A little bit of an update to the combo system as well as a crowd control move when you press jump and attack at the same time which is very handy and can do a bit more damage. Tyris Flare’s magic is still unmatched and play it smart you can dominate the boss fights and tougher enemies. Definitely the weakest of the trilogy, but also the easiest.

Somehow, they managed to make this sequel more redundant and more frustrating than the arcade original- and this was supposedly designed with home consoles in mind. It's literally the same game with a few different backdrops, two different enemy types and quite frankly it starts recycling enemies even sooner than the first.

I finished the game with an A ranking as Thunderhead, and I don't care to play it again. Even if GA1 is far from the masterpiece the pre-Sonic genesis crowd claim, it's still far more enjoyable.

Same bullshit as the first. The teeming hordes of skeletons and ogres and wizards of the evil barbarian empire have exactly one trick, bum rush you from behind and then try to surround you, fanatically to the point where they'll even cast themselves off a cliff if your back is facing one. What's different about this one? I dunno, the graphics and music are a little better I guess.

Oh yeah, I'd be remiss not to mention that the final boss has a clear screen magic attack move just like you, one you can't avoid. I can't tell you how long I've been playing games and clearing the screen with magic attacks where I've secretly thought to myself "you know, I wish the enemies could do that to me too."

Golden Axe and Streets of Rage represented two sides of the same brawler coin for Sega in the 90's: The garish, tactless Conan-derivative beat-em-up with sloppy mechanics held together by senseless guilty pleasures, and the suave, snappy Fight Fight clone with a more soulful take on the sights and sounds that defined the mold. Hindsight hasn't been as kind to Golden Axe as it has to good ol' SoR, but the nuances were probably a lot harder to see at the time. You'd be justified in saying each respective entry in their trilogy was doing their best for their time.

When the Sonic bucks started rolling in, it came to stand that Sega's other IP's deserved another shake with further passion and budget. Streets of Rage 2 enriched every idea from its predecessor, bringing the visuals up to the same pristine fidelity that anointed its SNES nay-sayers alongside expansions and refinement to the pre-existing format. It was everything a sequel should be - respecting the original while acknowledging the need to innovate.

Golden Axe II, released a year prior, was not so lucky. Its changes largely superficial, its improvements limited to extremely subtle differences in gamefeel, and its content and scope just as limited as the original. If anything, II's failure to innovate makes it come across as the weaker of the two, being 2 years older but retaining the original's issue of feeling like something is amiss. While Sega would later have the chance to right their wrongs with the arcade-exclusive Revenge of Death Adder, console owners would remain stuck in tunnel vision as the Genesis Golden Axe games failed to mature while their contemporaries graduated and moved on to bigger and better things.