Golden Axe

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
Technically the PC-Engine / Turbografx-16 version could have been a lot better! Well, it has more than ample power to produce a copy of this game that looks even better than the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis (OK not always!) Although this version features smooth scrolling, lots of colors and nice scrolling, generally speaking, it seems like a Master System's version rather than a true PC-Engine game! As far as the sound, the CD music tracks are cool and this was necessary to make up for the game's bad (very bad) sound effects!