Review:
Let me first start off by stating that I
really liked "Golden Axe" when it first came out in the arcade. The
genesis version
was pretty rocking and I have many fond memories playing it over and
over again with each character.
When I saw Golden Axe up on Ebay for the PC-Engine, naturally I was
interested. "One of my favorite 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 looks like it was
done using two frames and there is massive slow down whenever more
than three things are on the screen at once. You can 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 pant load 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 arcade 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.
I'd rate 3\10. I gave it two extra points for nice cinemas and good
music.
