Golden Axe is one of the best beat'em up games for the DOS system. The graphics are fantastic for it's time, top notch sound effects. However there are mixed opinions about the controls. Some people hate it and others don't complain at all, but we'll get to that later.First, the story: an evil warrior, know as Death Adder, hsa taken over the kingdom and it's your job to take him down and free the people. The story is not very original, however the level design is indeed. There are a lot of creative levels like Turtle Village, which is a village situate on the shell of a giand turtle. There are other similar levels, but I won't spoil it for you.The gampeplay of Golden Axe is similar to other beat'em up games, such as
The Simpson, but with a few diferences. At the beggining of the game, you have a choice of three characters: a dwarf, a barbarian and an amazon. Each play differently, due to ther special abbilities. Progress in the game is made by defeating Death Adder's minions. There are some gnomes in each level, who will drop potionsm when hit, used for charging up your special abillity. The more you collect the better. You can even ride some creatures in the game, like a dragon, which help a lot to defeat the enemies on screen. There are two game modes in the DOS version: an Arcadre mode, which is the standard game, and Duel Mode, which is bassicaly a survival mode. With that said, I can say what's wrong with the controls. Well, if you are like me, trying to play the game on a laptop without a keypad, your only option of playing is either a gamepad or the mouse, which is the worst type of control I have ever seen in a beat'em up game. Sega had put a choice of controls in the option menu, however without the possibility to chnge the input. Fortunately, this is a minor complaint.All in all, Golden Axe should be in everyone game collection, either on the Sega consoles or on PC and if you have a laptop with no keypad and want to play this game, you will have either buy one or play it on a normal computer, or if you prefer buying a gamepad.
