Golden Axe is one of the best 1989 coin-op hack n' slash games released for multiple home computers and consoles.
Review
STORY / GAMEPLAY
You travel through the fictional world of Yuria, to find Death Adder. Death Adder is a warrior who kidnapped the King and the Princess of the land and found the great Golden Axe. He threatens to kill everyone if they don't accept him as a ruler. You can fight through Yuria, facing multiple enemies by choosing one of the three available characters: Gilius the Thunderhead, is a dwarf who lost his brother by Adder's soldiers and he wields a battle axe. Ax Battler is a Barbarian with a strong two-handed sword seeking to avenge his mother's assassination. Tyris Flare is a beautiful but cruel amazon, who can slash everyone in her path with her long-sword. Her parents were killed by Adder's soldiers as well. Apart from each characters main weapons, you can use magic by gathering energy bags from other dwarfs that show up in the game after completing a level and resting on a campfire. The game is absolutely gorgeous, entertaining and fun, especially when played in 2-players mode. You slash and blast foes around, you avoid traps or even ride dragons that spit fire and crash your enemies with their tails. Death Adder's army varies from simple warriors to armed skeletons and other "nice" creatures. Golden Axe is pure fun and looks fantastic even today!
GRAPHICS / SOUND The graphics are detailed and colorful on the Amstrad CPC. The designers did their best to include most of the original backgrounds but the sprites' animation is a bit "jerky" though! Thankfully, the game is playable enough. The sound is good featuring a nice intro tune but only a few sound effects during gameplay and no in-game music. Comparably, the C64 version features either in-game music or sound effects only.
CPU: ZiLOG Z80 4MHZ MEMORY: 64 KB or 128 KB of RAM depending on the model (capable of being expanded to 512k using memory extension boards) GRAPHICS: Motorola 6845 address generator, Mode 0: 160x200 / 16 colors, Mode 1: 320x200 / 4 colors, Mode 2: 640x200 / 2 colors, A colour palette of 27 colors was supported SOUND: The CPC used the General Instrument AY-3-8912 sound chip, providing 3 channels Mono Sound (via internal speaker) but capable to offer Stereo Sound provided through a 3.5 mm headphones jack (with pretty impressive outcome!). Also, it is possible to play back digital sound samples at a resolution of approximately 5bit. This technique is very processor-intensive though.