Golden Axe

created and published by Sega in 1989, running on Arcade

type: beat 'em up
genre: Fantasy, Belt scroller, Hack and Slash
series: Golden Axe
perspective: side view
player options: single player, shared-screen

languages: eng

4.2/5

Find at ADB

Official description

In Turtle Village, the invaders are ugly, brutal and 12 feet tall. They roar with laughter as they pound you into the dirt. Swing Axe Battler's mighty sword and shatter them with Mushroom Magic. Smash and blast with Tyris Flare's Curtains of Fire. Somersault and strike with Gilius Thunderhead's axe or scorch the brutes with lightning!

It's a spellbinding age of magic, fiery dragons and skeletons in armor. Battle the invaders on the back of a giant turtle. Fight on the feathered wings of a soaring eagle. Conquer and ride flame-spewing monsters to victory!

Rescue the kidnapped King and Princess to return peace to the world. The score is Death Adder, thousands -- you, zero. Grab your weapon and change the score!

# 2024-03-08 00:26:20 - official description

Technical specs

software: Emulated on MAME,

hardware: Sega System 16B arcade hardware,

display: raster

Editor note

This is the game from which the entire series grew. The timeless world of LOTR/Conan-style fighting was an instant hit with arcade-goers, and inspired a heap of other games that tried to be like it, but failed miserably.

Trivia: (from MobyGames)
'The game is banned in Germany for violence (ban issued on 30.05.92). The game 'Golden Axe: The Duel' is not affected.'
--I have looked into this, and it appears all ports may have been affected, but certainly the Genesis, Arcade, and Amiga ports.
Ban has since been lifted as the content was (apparently), but no longer isn't (apparently), harmful.
Even More Trivia from Mame.dk Golden Axe page
'The kanji [Japanese character] on the title screen actually reads 'Senpu', meaning 'Fighting Axe'. This is an example of 'gikun', where Japanese artists use the phonetic value of a character to determine the game's name, and not the meaning of the character itself.'

(Garrett) - # 2006

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External reviews (6) - average: 81.7% - median: 80.5%

review source		issue	date	score
C&VG (Computer & Video Games) (085-173)	uk	93	1989-07	80/100	80%	view
Commodore User (62-77)	uk	69	1989-06	89/100	89%	view
Génération 4 (001-082)	fr	13	1989-07	90/100	90%	view
IGN		2009	*	7/10	70%
Sinclair User 76-134	uk	89	1989-08	80/100	80%	view
Your Sinclair 41-93	uk	44	1989-08	81/100	81%	view