Golden Axe

About This Game

Gameplay

Progress in the game is made by fighting through Death Adder's henchmen, including men armed with clubs and maces, skeleton warriors, and knights. Players are able to attack by using their weapon and casting spells that hurt all enemies on the screen. The force of this magic depends on the number of "bars" of magic power currently available. The bars are filled by collecting "magic potions" attained by kicking the blue thief character who then drops the potions. This character appears during regular levels and bonus stages in between levels. There will also occasionally be a green thief character that drops food which replenishes health. The dwarf Gilius is able to cast lightning spells. The barbarian Ax casts earth spells and the female warrior Tyris casts fire magic. Each character has a different maximum number of magic bars and varying ranges of attack. Various steeds known as bizarrians are found in the game. These can be mounted when the enemy rider is knocked off, or if one is found dormant. The least powerful steed is known as the Cockatrice (which also appeared in Altered Beast), that can be used to knock down enemies with a swipe of its tail.

History

Lead designer and producer Makoto Uchida was fond of action movies, particularly the Conan films, and wanted to create a game influenced by them. He said that the development team was small and making the game took about a year. Uchida's "idea was to come up with a Double Dragon that was not a Double Dragon… Technos was an experienced rival who had been working on the Kunio-Kun series, so there was no way we could compete if we did the same thing as them. I had a feeling that arcade games should be competitive against the great hit console title Dragon Quest (created by Enix) and therefore studied the world of magic and swords, combined this with the gameplay of Double Dragon, and finally came up with the concept of Golden Axe.