The once-peaceful kingdom so familiar to fans of the original Golden Axe is under threat once again. The Prince of Darkness has stolen the invaluable Golden Axe, taken over the kingdom and rendered its warriors harmless with an evil curse. One warrior breaks free from the curse and must defeat the prince and regain the Golden Axe to save the kingdom.
In this one- or two-player action game, play as a giant, a panther or a sword-wielding human and fight your way to victory once again.
Review by Damien McFerran
If you’ve played Golden Axe 2 then you will no doubt be aware that it’s a little too similar to its predecessor. When Sega came to create the third game in the Megadrive trilogy it obviously realized that a sweeping change was in order. Sadly, too much has been changed and ultimately Golden Axe 3 represents a step back rather than an advancement.
Golden Axe 3 is a bit of a mess, in all honesty. Although it has much to recommend - such as a nice range of playable characters, a deeper combat system with more moves and a neat branching level design - the game is plagued by some near-fatal issues.
Although each character now has a better arsenal of attacks at their disposal, taking out enemy fighters is often a matter of luck more than anything else. Collision detection is disappointingly inconsistent and this problem is amplified by the fact that many opponents have unavoidable attacks (mainly the bosses). Many of the encounters are therefore tremendously frustrating.
Level design is quite varied but generally uninspiring; there are loads of stages to explore but sadly Golden Axe 3 lacks much of the charm that made the first (and to some extent, the second) game so enjoyable. Character design is generally pretty goofy, with some dumpy-looking enemy sprites possessing all the menace of a shaved poodle. The music is a bit of a mixed bag with some of the tracks being markedly better than others, but there’s nothing here that will stick in your memory.
Ultimately Golden Axe 3 is a brave attempt to revitalize the series after the underwhelming second game. Sadly it doesn’t quite pull it off. Sega would have been better off converting the second arcade game (which is called Revenge of Death Adder and is totally different from the second Megadrive release) rather than producing this.
Average reader rating: 3.36 (22 ratings)
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1. KeeperBvK
15 Sep 2007, 23:38 GMT
Wow, I always thought this would have been released both in the US and Europe. ^^
2. Bass X0
05 Oct 2007, 01:05 GMT
I remember playing a demo of Golden Axe: The Duel from Sega Saturn Magazine which was pretty fun at the time.
Never really wanted to play any of the main Golden Axe side-scrollers though.
3. Paulymate
05 Oct 2007, 12:17 GMT
As this wasn't released in Europe, is the VC version full screen and 60Hz? Or have they given it a thorough 'PAL'ing?
4. diablos79
05 Oct 2007, 22:03 GMT
i thought this was released in europe? im sure i remember playing it on my megadrive.
5. KeeperBvK
05 Oct 2007, 23:51 GMT
Wow, I just played it and...OMG, it sucks. I thought Golden Axe II was about as good as the first one, but the third just changed everything to the worse.
6. The Holg
08 Oct 2007, 13:58 GMT
As opposed to most people here I quite enjoy the game.It's considerably better than the second one and I haven't come across the collision detection issues mentioned above. Level design and enemy design is better than in part 2. The new playable characters add a nice new touch to the game. I'd give it 3 1/2 stars.
the European versions runs with borders and slow speed. Please let's all contact Nintendo about te 50/60Hz issue!
7. 30 Oct 2007, 13:25 GMT
The technical enemy and level design is better, but graphically they are a step down from both the prequels. The soundtrack is also worse and sound effects aren't as satisying as in the SOR or FF games.
8. Mad Bomber
11 Feb 2008, 17:06 GMT
I downloaded this on a whim mostly because we had several slow weeks as far as new releases go.
This is not a horrible game and if you've played the original to death at least the third game offers up some new gameplay ideas. Not really that attractive and the controls are no where near as slick as the Streets of Rage series but still pretty fun with 2 players.
Not really worth 800 points though so it’s hard to recommend.
9. Beau Skunk
07 Aug 2008, 06:10 GMT
I honestlly don't think this game was so bad. It offers more fighters, more levels, and stuff then previous Golden Axe titles. And in some ways I found it a bit more enjoyable. Most normal enemies don't seem to take forever to defeat like in previous games, wich makes some parts of the game a bit easy, but it's still fun.
My main gripes were it's hard to keep the rideable animals for long, (You now hafta press a button to mount them) and they arn't as common, or as cool as the ones in previous GA games. And some of the bosses's magic attacks are a bit cheap. Still a decent game, I felt.
10. Mixer152
18 Aug 2008, 06:03 GMT
"Character design is generally pretty goofy, with some dumpy-looking enemy sprites possessing all the menace of a shaved poodle" that line was hilarious haha nice one.
Nah seriously though this games pretty poor compared to the first and second, and not really feeling the deserty theme, makes it look kinda crappy tbh
11. Rootbeer
19 Sep 2008, 18:41 GMT
Man I wish they had tried harder on this game. A Golden Axe game with the quality of Streets of Rage 2 would have been incredible. Unfortunately, the game is sadly crappy when you consider it was released in 1993. Maybe that's why it didn't get a US release...since things like Streets of Rage 2, Final Fight 2, TMNT, and all those great beat-em-ups were out by that time and made GA3 look awful.
12. BJ
24 Sep 2008, 18:07 GMT
Is anyone getting Golden Axe: Beast Rider?
13. Corbie
19 Oct 2008, 01:41 GMT
I thought Sega basically just "mailed it in" with the two sequels to the original Golden Axe. They had a great foundation, but unfortunately they just never took the time to adequately build from it. Decent games, but nothing to write home about.
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