A very cool inclusion on the Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, this is a game I've been meaning to get to for a very long time. Given that I played through Neutopia 1 and 2 earlier this year (and that I already had the PS3 hooked up), this seemed a good a time as any given that GAW, like Neutopia, is a pretty shameless clone of Zelda 1. It does have its own spins on the formula it brings to the table, but to paraphrase someone in the Slack chat, Sega were very content to rest on Nintendo's laurels ^^;. The game doesn't keep play time, but I reckon it took me around ten hours to beat with very heavy save state usage (for reasons we will get to later, oh don't you worry XD).
Long ago, a race of giants threatened to take over the world, but the mighty hero wielding the Golden Axe slew darn near all of them. But one, Death Adder, yet remains and has come back and conquered two kingdoms. The kingdom of Firewood (yes, really) is a peaceful nation protected by its nine sacred crystals, but one day a greedy minister sells the crystals to Death Adder and the country is quickly overrun by his armies. You play as the titular Golden Axe Warrior (whom you give a name to) in his quest to save Firewood and the world from Death Adder's reign of terror. There isn't really a meaningful story in the game, per se, but it does have a smattering of towns, named NPCs, and information givers who help you in your quest (using some of the best looking text I think I've ever seen on an 8-bit console).
In grand old Zelda-clone fashion, you've gotta go to each of those 9 dungeons collecting each crystal gem and getting new items in each as well as exploring around the world map for more items as well. It has some pretty neat things over Zelda 1, but mainly its use of both a sword AND an axe as usable weapons, as well as a series of magic spells you can acquire, is the biggest leg-up this has over the game it takes so much from. It also incorporates things like towns and shops from Zelda 2 and such, so you can buy consumable items if you need them (although the main one that matters is the single full-heal you can buy). That said, I think GAW brings a lot more negative to the table than positive.
While the dungeons are competently designed enough and the world map is big and varied, the biggest issue GAW has is its difficulty. The game's puzzles and cryptic clues for new items aren't quite as bad as Zelda 1's (save for the pretty dick move of being unable to upgrade any of your equipment in the hidden dwarf caves until you happen upon the ONE dwarf that you gotta help before any of the others), the game is very routinely difficult to a fault. I used save states a TON in this game because you are constantly being overwhelmed with very powerful enemies who can rush down your health really quick if you aren't suuuuuper careful and lucky. This is all down to a number of compounding factors.
Your character is right-handed, so he actually sticks his sword out directly in front of him slightly to the right. His sword also isn't very thick, so it can be very tricky to hit things unless they're directly in front of you and to the right. The axe, by contrast, has a swinging motion allowing you to hit things in front of you and to the side, but it also has half the range of the sword, and this is a big problem when combined with how very fast both you and all the enemies move. Running around so fast that you bump into an enemy (especially the ones that need to be hit from only one side) is a very common experience, and a lot of the enemies in the game (particularly earlier ones) have AI that make them randomly bumble around. They don't go for you in particular, so trying to hunt them down with your too-fast running (which is made even faster halfway through the game) and short ranged weapons is a real pain to deal with in a game where health is such a scarce and valuable resource.
This is further worsened by just how aggressive all the enemies are, how weak your weapons often are, and how many enemies you're usually fighting at once. Dungeons are not only full of rooms where killing the enemies MIGHT give you something you need to progress (but you have no idea if they do or not), but also rooms that are simply dead-ends full of enemies to beat you up. This extends to the bosses as well, with basically all of them across the board being various levels of miserable to fight for similar reasons (too fast, random AI, tons of health), with the red giant in particular being a really horrible slog of RNG and you've gotta fight him 3 times in the game. Death Adder, paradoxically enough, is actually one of the easiest boss fights in the game, and he took me 1 whole try with no save states to beat ^^;. I had to constantly use save states to have any hope of finishing this game in any reasonable length of time because it is just so constantly obsessed with spilling your blood in any way it can.
The magic spells in the game are interesting, but ultimately repeat the mistake of bombs in the original Zelda in that they're not much use as a weapon because you need them for puzzles. The earth magic, one of the first ones you get, is needed to break destructible rocks, and these rocks very often are the triggers to unlock doors in dungeons. You need to kill enemies to replenish magic, so it's quite a precious resource you can't afford to waste. It's nice that you have magic and all, but you're really heavily discouraged from using it with how dangerous it is to fight enemies for more magic and how little magic you can afford to waste.
The presentation of the game is adequate to quite good in many ways. It's quite funny seeing 8-bit, Zelda-ized versions of so many familiar Golden Axe enemies, and this is a very pretty Master System game. The text, as I mentioned earlier, is really really well detailed and they can fit a ton on screen at a time, and the sprite art too looks quite nice as well. Even down to the little speedy swishing of your character's feet below them (like a Peanuts character X3), this is a really nice looking 8-bit game (which you'd hope for one released when the Genesis was about to have its 3rd birthday). The music is pretty forgettable on the whole, but it's not actively bad or anything. It's very standard fantasy fare that sets the mood as well as it has to.
Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. Though I certainly criticized far more than I praised in this review, there is still some fun to be had here. If you don't mind a much harder Zelda-like experience, this game might be right up your alley. Aside from the difficulty, it's a really well done Zelda clone, but because the difficulty IS there, it's at the bottom of the barrel of Zeldas or Zelda clones of the 8-bit era. If you've got one of the collections it's on, it's certainly worth giving a look, but it's physical cart is a really pricey pick up, and I certainly can't recommend it at that price.
Long ago, a race of giants threatened to take over the world, but the mighty hero wielding the Golden Axe slew darn near all of them. But one, Death Adder, yet remains and has come back and conquered two kingdoms. The kingdom of Firewood (yes, really) is a peaceful nation protected by its nine sacred crystals, but one day a greedy minister sells the crystals to Death Adder and the country is quickly overrun by his armies. You play as the titular Golden Axe Warrior (whom you give a name to) in his quest to save Firewood and the world from Death Adder's reign of terror. There isn't really a meaningful story in the game, per se, but it does have a smattering of towns, named NPCs, and information givers who help you in your quest (using some of the best looking text I think I've ever seen on an 8-bit console).
In grand old Zelda-clone fashion, you've gotta go to each of those 9 dungeons collecting each crystal gem and getting new items in each as well as exploring around the world map for more items as well. It has some pretty neat things over Zelda 1, but mainly its use of both a sword AND an axe as usable weapons, as well as a series of magic spells you can acquire, is the biggest leg-up this has over the game it takes so much from. It also incorporates things like towns and shops from Zelda 2 and such, so you can buy consumable items if you need them (although the main one that matters is the single full-heal you can buy). That said, I think GAW brings a lot more negative to the table than positive.
While the dungeons are competently designed enough and the world map is big and varied, the biggest issue GAW has is its difficulty. The game's puzzles and cryptic clues for new items aren't quite as bad as Zelda 1's (save for the pretty dick move of being unable to upgrade any of your equipment in the hidden dwarf caves until you happen upon the ONE dwarf that you gotta help before any of the others), the game is very routinely difficult to a fault. I used save states a TON in this game because you are constantly being overwhelmed with very powerful enemies who can rush down your health really quick if you aren't suuuuuper careful and lucky. This is all down to a number of compounding factors.
Your character is right-handed, so he actually sticks his sword out directly in front of him slightly to the right. His sword also isn't very thick, so it can be very tricky to hit things unless they're directly in front of you and to the right. The axe, by contrast, has a swinging motion allowing you to hit things in front of you and to the side, but it also has half the range of the sword, and this is a big problem when combined with how very fast both you and all the enemies move. Running around so fast that you bump into an enemy (especially the ones that need to be hit from only one side) is a very common experience, and a lot of the enemies in the game (particularly earlier ones) have AI that make them randomly bumble around. They don't go for you in particular, so trying to hunt them down with your too-fast running (which is made even faster halfway through the game) and short ranged weapons is a real pain to deal with in a game where health is such a scarce and valuable resource.
This is further worsened by just how aggressive all the enemies are, how weak your weapons often are, and how many enemies you're usually fighting at once. Dungeons are not only full of rooms where killing the enemies MIGHT give you something you need to progress (but you have no idea if they do or not), but also rooms that are simply dead-ends full of enemies to beat you up. This extends to the bosses as well, with basically all of them across the board being various levels of miserable to fight for similar reasons (too fast, random AI, tons of health), with the red giant in particular being a really horrible slog of RNG and you've gotta fight him 3 times in the game. Death Adder, paradoxically enough, is actually one of the easiest boss fights in the game, and he took me 1 whole try with no save states to beat ^^;. I had to constantly use save states to have any hope of finishing this game in any reasonable length of time because it is just so constantly obsessed with spilling your blood in any way it can.
The magic spells in the game are interesting, but ultimately repeat the mistake of bombs in the original Zelda in that they're not much use as a weapon because you need them for puzzles. The earth magic, one of the first ones you get, is needed to break destructible rocks, and these rocks very often are the triggers to unlock doors in dungeons. You need to kill enemies to replenish magic, so it's quite a precious resource you can't afford to waste. It's nice that you have magic and all, but you're really heavily discouraged from using it with how dangerous it is to fight enemies for more magic and how little magic you can afford to waste.
The presentation of the game is adequate to quite good in many ways. It's quite funny seeing 8-bit, Zelda-ized versions of so many familiar Golden Axe enemies, and this is a very pretty Master System game. The text, as I mentioned earlier, is really really well detailed and they can fit a ton on screen at a time, and the sprite art too looks quite nice as well. Even down to the little speedy swishing of your character's feet below them (like a Peanuts character X3), this is a really nice looking 8-bit game (which you'd hope for one released when the Genesis was about to have its 3rd birthday). The music is pretty forgettable on the whole, but it's not actively bad or anything. It's very standard fantasy fare that sets the mood as well as it has to.
Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. Though I certainly criticized far more than I praised in this review, there is still some fun to be had here. If you don't mind a much harder Zelda-like experience, this game might be right up your alley. Aside from the difficulty, it's a really well done Zelda clone, but because the difficulty IS there, it's at the bottom of the barrel of Zeldas or Zelda clones of the 8-bit era. If you've got one of the collections it's on, it's certainly worth giving a look, but it's physical cart is a really pricey pick up, and I certainly can't recommend it at that price.