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.
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.
I loved this game as a kid. I think I liked the first one more though.
(sonic's ultimate genesis collection 29/40)
see Golden Axe (1989)
(it's minimally different)
see Golden Axe (1989)
(it's minimally different)
once again enemies can be thrown off cliffs, so its a thumbs up from me
one of the laziest game sequels of all time. a lot of stuff is just ripped from the first game and put in worse levels with worse visuals and worse music/SFX. it's just not good.
it's the same fucking game
Even with max health, this was pretty damn hard. It's pretty good though
Certainly better than the original, yet the upgrades to Golden Axe II are very incremental from the first. Still chock-full of annoying enemies, bullshit hit-detection, and somewhat bland level designs. Hopefully, the 3rd entry does something more interesting with this series.
still no cops
Mto doido
there's so little changed here from 1 and it's as barebones of a beat-em-up as you can get
BUT
i do get a lot of enjoyment out of this one regardless
the dash and jump attacks feel good to pull off and everything's just a little bit speedier. The difficulty feels just right too. This is the one Golden Axe game I think is worth your time.
BUT
i do get a lot of enjoyment out of this one regardless
the dash and jump attacks feel good to pull off and everything's just a little bit speedier. The difficulty feels just right too. This is the one Golden Axe game I think is worth your time.