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The Greatest Golden-Axe game ever released!
- Thread starter RAIDEN1
- Start date
flibbertyjibbert
Banned
Played this a bit in MAME. It's fun AF.
Problem with the arcade-only games is that there's no pre-set difficulty. It's just how many coins you decide to give yourself. Kinda makes the whole thing redundant imo
Goldenaxe 2 still the best for me
Problem with the arcade-only games is that there's no pre-set difficulty. It's just how many coins you decide to give yourself. Kinda makes the whole thing redundant imo
Goldenaxe 2 still the best for me
DunDunDunpachi
Patient MembeR
What, not Golden Axe: The Duel?!?
Kidding, this is clearly the right choice. I think the original is kinda crappy although it was fun mindless killing when I was a kid. Revenge of Death Adder only showed up in one local arcade, and only briefly. Give M2 the keys to make a port.
Kidding, this is clearly the right choice. I think the original is kinda crappy although it was fun mindless killing when I was a kid. Revenge of Death Adder only showed up in one local arcade, and only briefly. Give M2 the keys to make a port.
molasar
Banned
In many arcade games a difficulty level can be set by operator.
Anyways, my favorite one is Golden Axe III.
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lock2k
Banned
xool
Member
Did anyone actually played the 360 era reboot .. riding around on the creatures was a ton of fun, and the combat was ok/worthwhile.
Other bits were a little sucky - like the actual ax. No idea why reviews got such a hate boner for it though https://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/golden-axe-beast-rider [lack of multiplayer maybe ?]
Their loss. Not mine.
Other bits were a little sucky - like the actual ax. No idea why reviews got such a hate boner for it though https://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/golden-axe-beast-rider [lack of multiplayer maybe ?]
Their loss. Not mine.
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spandexmonkey
Banned
I enjoyed it too, bummed it never got a sequel or PC release.
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Bootzilla
Banned
I was waiting for this to be a hot take, but no, you just correctly identified the best game in the series.
I think Revenge of Death Adder suffered from bad timing. It came out at a time when the home hardware wouldn't have been capable of a very good port, so they did GA3 instead. But it was old news by the time Saturn came out.
That said it's pretty crazy that it hasn't made its way into one of the Sega Ages releases by now. Even arcade GA seems to get the shaft with ports, while they release the Genesis one over and over. Which was, to my memory, not that good.
I think Revenge of Death Adder suffered from bad timing. It came out at a time when the home hardware wouldn't have been capable of a very good port, so they did GA3 instead. But it was old news by the time Saturn came out.
That said it's pretty crazy that it hasn't made its way into one of the Sega Ages releases by now. Even arcade GA seems to get the shaft with ports, while they release the Genesis one over and over. Which was, to my memory, not that good.
cireza
Banned
I doubt so. The sizes of the sprites, the smoothness of the animations, the scaling of both sprites and backgrounds, the number of colors on screen... This is Saturn territory.
Surely a fantastic game though.
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alabtrosMyster
Banned
There could have been a port of some sort, but as you said, this is Saturn territory.
I would have liked Sega to make a serious effort in re-porting the first one for the Sega CD, showing off some, better animation more detailed backgrounds and sprite scaling in the process, not just put the Genesis version there with the no multi-player bug in it.
Alexios
Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Doesn't look too good honestly. I mean gameplay wise. The graphics are technically pretty sweet though I don't think the diagonals quite work out. I'd sooner play the Capcom fantasy beat 'em ups (if not the rest of their output). Knights of the Round, Dungeons & Dragons (either), Warriors of Fate, etc. Or Streets of Rage.
Most arcade games have difficulty settings in the menu/dip switches. Asshole cab owners would increase it past normal! But the good ones are technically completable with 1 coin in any difficulty so it's all about getting (really really) good.
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MR ARCADE FOREVER
Member
Holy crap I had no idea this existed. Loved the original on the arcade
Wolfgang Jr
Banned
Agreed. 10/10 Golden Axe.
MiguelItUp
Member
I love Golden Axe so much, and I totally remember playing this in arcades. Ugh, it was so good! I WISH we'd get a new and proper Golden Axe.
bhunachicken
Member
Maybe Bluepoint's next game is a PS5 3D remastering of Golden Axe..?
(there's a parallel universe out there where this is a thing and it's absolutely amazing)
(there's a parallel universe out there where this is a thing and it's absolutely amazing)
Bootzilla
Banned
The Capcom D&D games did manage to one up this concept but they were also a bit later. I would take this over KOTR or WoF.
Kazza
Member
The game doesn't look massively more advanced than Final Fight, which got a near perfect port on the Mega CD. The colours and number of enemies on screen would have to have been reduced (as it was with Final Fight), but the small scaling sections would have been fine (albeit at a reduced framerate). This and Outrunners were two big missed opportunities for the Mega CD.
Kazza
Member
I bought it a couple of years back, but haven't got around to playing it yet. It's this review from Classic Games Room that convinced me to buy it despite the lackluster reviews:
I mean, who doesn't want to burn people with monsters and cut them in half? (especially while playing a bikini wearing babe)
theclaw135
Banned
I can't make heads or tails of Sega sometimes. It's not like there's any good reason to leave games like Wrestle War out of collections, the Genesis one was last seen on Dreamcast I think.
Dev1lXYZ
Member
What killed GA2 for home release was the fact that it did very poorly in arcades. The scene had moved to strictly fighting games at that point, and beat em ups were viewed as dinosaurs. We would gawk at GA2 on our way to play X-Men COTA. I would have bought it on the Saturn had it been released which even back then, we thought was going to happen.
molasar
Banned
???
Say hello to AvP in 1994 and gazillion of others after GA2 Arcade.
jadefire66
Member
cireza
Banned
It does to me. Many more frames of animations. This would already be a huge downgrade. Smooth scaling of big objects and even the entire background ? The only examples of intense scaling are less than 20fps and sprites or of limited sizes.
Heimdall_Xtreme
Jim Ryan Fanclub's #1 Member
Why this game never come to consoles?
xool
Member
Before you start, and this really isn't a spoiler (stupid gameplay section) :
there's a jump at near (3/4s) the end that screws everyone
- just some bad game design, real retro stuff - if you get stuck try here. https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps3/933096-golden-axe-beast-rider/faqs/54565 (actually I'd take a point off the score just for that..)
I wanna go play it now (don't have it) - shame it's stuck in 360 era gray textures.
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lock2k
Banned
lock2k
Banned
Recently finished AvP. What a JOY of a game.
Dev1lXYZ
Member
AvP didn’t do well either. Hence, the only home port is on an expensive joystick console. The licensing costs alone for those properties was covered in cost. It did feature fighting game type motions, but again we played it through once and moved on.
EightBit Man
Member
The best game in the series, no doubt. I did play it in the arcade back in the day, and never understood why it didn't get a home release...either on the Saturn or through the SEGA PC-line of games.
RAIDEN1
Member
This game was bread and butter for the Saturn after all it was a 2d powerhouse first and foremost...hell they could have even brought it to the Neo Geo!
molasar
Banned
'AvP didn’t do well either.'
Where did you get that information from?
The joystick console is considered probably as an arcade machine according to a licensing agreement. So Capcom did not have to pay for a new license.
What dose it mean 'we'? You mean you and your partner? What about gazillion of other players and beat'em up games released after GA2?
Nobody moved nowhere. The issue was 3D graphics which are not so effective for beat'em ups i.e. gameplay is better in 2D ones.
Reon
Member
It's pretty fun all things considered, one of those mid-tier AA games that we don't see too often from large studios anymore.
Dev1lXYZ
Member
I was a teenager during that era. ‘We’ refers to my friends and I at that point in time. Belt action games time had passed at that point. They were considered boring because the gameplay they offered was simplistic compared to the fighting games at the time. 3D fighters didn’t get big until Tekken. The belt fighters didn’t do well at all and were actually very rare to encounter in arcades by 1992. Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat were the machines that made money. Belt action games were dead in the US and made next to zero dollars. Golden Axe 2 and AvP bombed in arcades. No one played them. That’s why their companies haven’t taken the time to port them. I’m not saying they sucked, there was just no audience for them, which still holds true today. Very niche. Plus, everyone that wants them can get them for free via emulation. It’s a lose/lose. Would I like to have them on my Switch? Yes. Would they break 10,000 sales? I doubt it. The only other belt fighter that came out after AvP in that era was Battle Circuit, which I never saw in the wild. I wasn’t impressed with it when I got it in the Switch belt action collection. I’m glad it was included and all but........it got played through once and that was enough for me.
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molasar
Banned
The thing is I was a teenager as well and 2D beat'em ups were still popular until they disappeared because a push for 3D graphics. That is why they released gazillion of them which does not make sense if you can not make money. I just guess you were not lucky with your local arcades and you are not into this genre. Therefore you have not experienced games like The Punisher, Cadillacs & Dinosaurs, Streets of Rage 2 - 3, Super Double Dragon, Golden Axe 3, Dungeons & Dragons to name a few. Their main point is simplistic gameplay i.e. easy to execute moves besides audio-visual aspects. So they are easy to pick up by anyone in comparison to 2D fighters. However games like AvP and console ones extended simple mechanics with more variety of moves.
I do not have any data about US sales of arcade machines and profits made by operators but general decline of arcade machines was coming with appearance of 32/64-bit consoles.
GA2 Arcade and AvP were too advanced for 16-bit consoles but latter was supposed to be ported to 32x add-on. Not to mention time and platform license issues of the latter. Anyway there was always audience for beat'em ups and still is. Especially those made in retro 2D style. Check infamous 'Paprium' for example.
Emulation is not for everyone and it is generally illegal.
There were more arcade 2D beat'em ups released in the 90s after AvP besides Battle Circuit. Those are Armored Warriors, Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara and less known ones like Gaia Crusaders for example.
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K1Expwy
Member
In my younger days I remember seeing/playing
Konami's X-Men (blaring Colossus' super and the Savage Land music)
Simpsons
Turtles in Time
Captain Commando
Captain America & The Avengers
Knights of the Round
Warriors of Fate
Revenge of Death Adder
The Punisher
Cadillacs & Dinosaurs
Alien vs Predator
Die Hard Arcade
D&D Mystara
Dynamite Cop
Gauntlet Legends (elf needs food badly, there's no time)
in the wild at arcades. I played Spikeout and Sengoku 3 at arcades later on. I missed out on Battletoads, Bucky O'Hare, Slashout, Battle Circuit and others.
Beat em ups were falling out of favor, while fighting/racing/gun games dominated arcades in the 90s/2000s
Konami's X-Men (blaring Colossus' super and the Savage Land music)
Simpsons
Turtles in Time
Captain Commando
Captain America & The Avengers
Knights of the Round
Warriors of Fate
Revenge of Death Adder
The Punisher
Cadillacs & Dinosaurs
Alien vs Predator
Die Hard Arcade
D&D Mystara
Dynamite Cop
Gauntlet Legends (elf needs food badly, there's no time)
in the wild at arcades. I played Spikeout and Sengoku 3 at arcades later on. I missed out on Battletoads, Bucky O'Hare, Slashout, Battle Circuit and others.
Beat em ups were falling out of favor, while fighting/racing/gun games dominated arcades in the 90s/2000s
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molasar
Banned
I did not notice it besides a bad transition of gameplay mechanics into 3D i.e. simplistic playability was not there anymore.
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K1Expwy
Member
Right, the latter part of the 90s were a difficult transition for all arcade style games, when 2d was discouraged in the industry, and 3d control and polygon budgets couldn't handle them well.
I couldn't tell you the general public's reception of these games. In my experience, it wasn't hard to get friends or strangers for a full co-op run in the titles I listed.
By the 2000s, you saw fewer beat em ups in arcade or home (what was there, aside from Dynasty Warriors, Final Fight Streetwise, Urban Reign, God Hand). Especially 2d. While the gameplay was integrated to DMC/Ninja Gaiden-type games.
But they were still making beat em ups throughout the 1990s, and they were certainly available at the arcades in my hometown. Mid-80s to mid-90s was the genre's heyday I believe
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Dev1lXYZ
Member
I owned a multitude of the games you listed, but many were released outside of the arcade for consoles. I didn’t play Golden Axe 3 until the collections with it started coming out. Since I grew up in that era, I love a lot of the games in the genre and still play them today. I try to get through them without using continues, but so far I can only do it consistently with Streets of Rage 2. Did you know Final Fight was inspired by a film called Streets of Fire? The movie even has Willem Defoe as the main bad guy. It’s worth a watch just because the main character, Tom Cody..... IS Cody from FF!
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molasar
Banned
Yes, I knew about it and I like the film a lot (watched it multiple times). Another film, I believe, that inspired FF and a creation of Haggar was The Wanderers (1979).
