Golden Axe was one of my very first CD games. After getting ripped for $500 from a store adverting in EGM, I was still dying to get a Turbo CD.
The local electronics store in my home town had a Turbo CD and Fighting Street and Monster Lair.
But after a visit to japan, they brought back Golden Axe, Side Arms Special and Super Darius.
Once I managed to order another Turbo CD from Radio Shack, I Golden Axe and Super Darius(2 or 3 months before the actual Turbo CD arrived) and later Side Arms Special.
I used to look through the manuals everyday imagining what the games would be like and wondering why we couldn't get nice color art filled manuals over here.
Before this, Golden Axe was the one game that the store had opened to demo the system.
Everyone was blown away by the overall pesentation(menus and such), especially the CD voice(more so than the cinemas). And even the Genesis lovers(during the console wars) wouldn't knock the in-game content too much since even they understood how limited the original Golden Axe is gameplay-wise anyways.
Like all Turbo games I owned, I played the game to death. After mastering it, I would play through and finish it again and again.
The gameplay is pretty much intact, but some of the enemies are too cheap and Death Adder in particular is just ridiculous.
Its easiest with Tyris, not too bad with Axe Battler but near impossible with Gilius Thunderhead.
The ending cinemas are satisfying but not too long and are similar. But at least each character does get their own ending.
I don't know if the developers had access to the original content that went into the arcade original or anything, but it is unfortunate that the didn't take advantage of the PC Engine's abilities to produce what should've been the definitive version of the game.
I still love it, flaws and all. But knowing the games as well as I do, I realize that the aesthetics aren't THAT far off, the gameplay is more or less intact except for the excess cheap spots. I've always found the biggst short-coming to be the sound effects.
I'm just glad that I was able to experience it as I did back in the day so I can appreciate itto this day. Otherwise I wouldn't give it a chance either.
However, the game is worth it for the soundtrack alone if you're a 'classic' arcade fan.
Let me first start off by stating that I really liked "Golden Axe" when it first came out. The genesis version was pretty rocking and I have many fond memories playing it over and over again with each character.
So when I saw Golden Axe up on Ebay for the PC-Engine, naturally I was interested. "One of my favoirte games on my favorite system? And it's even on CD! This MUST be good!" So I hit the 'Buy it now' button and shelled out about $30 for it without giving the price a second thought. I mean, I was going to get GA on my TG-16! What's there NOT to be excited about!
A week later it arrived. I eagerly rushed upstairs and popped the disc into my beloved Turbo and fired it up. WOW! Nice cinemas! They show how Death Adder was born and everything! The character select screen looked promising as well. (Although I don't remember Ax Battler being quite so anime looking, but hey, it's Japanese.) Then I was treated to another nice introductory cinema. So far, so good!
Right about this point in game development, the programmers must have decided to quit. Either that, or they are the most sadistic SOBs that ever walked the face of the earth. The game is practically unplayable. The controls are horrible, the character animation is looks like it was done using two frames only and there is massive slow down whenever more than three things are on the screen at once. And forget about getting past the first level as the bosses are insanely difficult.
I'd challenge anybody to to try to beat this game, but I wouldn't want to wish this sort of steaming pantload upon anybody. I suppose the CD music was nice, but nice music and pretty cinemas do not make up rest of this failed abortion of an acrade port. Save your money, boys and girls, it's just not worth it. If anything, I learned a valuable lesson in researching a game prior to purchase.
