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.

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.

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.