Golden Axe III

[Melf]

Title: Golden Axe III
Platform: Mega Drive
Publisher: Sega of Japan
Developer: Sega of Japan
Difficulty: Adjustable
No. of Players: 3
Released: 1993 (Japan)

About a decade ago, I got all excited about this sequel to my favorite hack-n-slash when I saw some pics in a game magazine. I eagerly awaited its arrival but it never came out. Well, some games it seems, are better left unreleased. GA3 is a dreadful game that craps all over the good name of the series (what’s left of it anyway). Return of Death Adder, where are you??


It starts out bad

This installment has you on a quest to retrieve the Golden Axe from the Prince of Darkness (original, isn’t it?) after having been rescued from a dreadful curse by……the dwarf? You must now save your companions from the effects of the curse by beating the snot out of them, so that they can run off and leave you to complete your quest, all alone.



You get four characters to choose from: Amazon, barbarian, panther man, and a big gladiator-type brute. All play more or less the same, with the difference being the amount of damage dished out. The gladiator is slow but deals the most powerful blows, panther man is quickest but is also the weakest of the bunch, etc. Your energy is now displayed by a long health bar, as opposed to the individual bars from the previous games (Yeah! Leave the game play to rot over two sequels but change the health bar!).

You can bring (drag) a friend along in the two player mode, through either normal or hard difficulty levels. The overall game play scheme hasn’t changed, which is both bad and good. While it’s nice that you can jump right into the game and kick some ass without having to learn a control scheme, I’d have preferred a few combos or some buddy moves at least. The game play hasn’t progressed in this series at all and it becomes tiresome rather quickly.




It Gets Worse

As you progress through the game, you get the option to choose your path. Although they all eventually lead to the same place, it’s nice that you don’t have to go through the same stages every time you play. When you finish or die, you’re shown a route screen that displays your progress and score (much like Outrun). The names of the stages you played are only shown here, so you can get an idea of what route you want to choose next time. Of course, this is assuming that you’ll actually go back and play it again.

There is a little interaction in the stages in that you can smash some barrels to retrieve magic bottles. The little gnomes return to steal from you as you sleep (you’d think they’d have learned by now) and to give up food and magic.



The graphics are bland and uninspired, with a bare use of parallax. The backgrounds, though sometimes colorful, have very little detail. Your characters move very stiffly, which was a disappointment. Being the third in the series, I had hoped that the animation would haven been better than in the original. Moreover, there are only five enemies in the whole game. You fight tall skinny guy, short fat guy, a gladiatrix, and big knights with swords (they block your rush attack!); over and over again. Only their colors change. Even worse, the animals you can mount are downright awful. Be it the snail with legs (!) that whips out its tongue or the lizard that throws flame across the floor, you’re better off on foot. At least the skeletons make a return, even though they’re harder than some of the bosses.




It Isn't Over Yet

Music is dull and of very poor quality. No tune is worth listening to, and you’ll quickly forget the music is on while you play. It’s that bad. There are some decent stereo effects when you use magic and they at least removed the annoying “blahs” from part two. Sounds like clangs and crashes have been recycled from previous installments but they're also of lower sound quality.

None of this is as bad, however, as the horrendous magic effects. This is a downright travesty, honestly. Nothing is worse than saving up all your magic for the boss, only to see a few rocks or a wavy cloud (a cloud!) pass across the screen. Pathetic. I remember choosing Tyris Flare (the Amazon) in part one, just to see that badass dragon reign flaming death over my enemies. Well, the magic effects here aspire to be as good as those from part one that used only one bottle. Did I mention you can’t choose how much magic you use? Have one bottle or all of them, once you press that button, your wad is shot.


Finally, the Pain is Gone

All in all, I can only recommend this game if you just have to have the complete trilogy or if a friend’s little brother trades it to you for a pack of Yugioh! cards. Aside from that, stay far, far away.

SCORE: 3/10


Props to Death Adder's Castle for the pics and for having such a cool GA site!

[NeoZeedeater]

Good review.

The game is an insult to the series. I was disappointed with the Genesis GA2 but GA3 was much worse. Without comparing it to the other games, I don't think GA3 is that bad of a game though. I would give it a 6/10.

[Melf]

Thanks!

I was going to rate it a bit higher until I saw all the magic effects. The magic was one of the best parts of this series to me, and part 3 just takes a massive poo all over it.

[Jeremy]

Very nice review, I love the use of screens to compliment the text. Good job.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

My buddy has this, and one night I decided to play it. I've always heard it was shit, and it didn't change my impression at first, but the further into it I got, the more I liked it. Certainly not up to par with the rest of the series, but I have to admit, I did have fun whilst palying it.

[Rocca]

Really good review, i thought everyone but me loved GA3, u give good views on the game that are well timed at every point of your review. Like every other one you wrote, very nice

[raystorm]

Another good review here. This piece of crap is really a Master System game disguised as a genesis game (I love the SMS so that comment isn't an insult to the SMS). Horrible 8bit graphics, crap sounds, ugly sprites.. UGH.. unbelievable. This is the one game I am that Sega did not release here. wow what a stinker.

GA2 was ok, but the first one is still good fun. plus.. it has the great CHICKEN LEG!

[Frogacuda]

Honestly, I don't think Golden Axe was all that great to begin with. But it really is amazing that a sequel made some 5 years later could be that much worse in every regard. Terrible game. Good review.

[gameoverDude]

It's hard to believe that GA3 is an 8 Mega cartridge- there's a lot more that could've been done graphically with it and both prequels stomp it in this area. I played this on Sega Channel and found it a bit lacking. Although the panther is cool to play as, the true arcade sequel is leagues better. Sega should probably have just tried porting that over to MD the best they could instead of making this one from the ground up.

It looks as if SoJ pimped this whole game out to one of their lesser teams.

[lithium]

Did this game come out in Europe or Japan? Is this a beta or something? Any idea why it's so bad? Did Sega pawn it off on some third rate developer, or was it just rushed? Was this ever in the arcade?