Hardcore Gaming 101 Article - Golden Axe Ports


Genesis Box Art	Sega Master System Title
For being such a popular game both the arcade and Sega Genesis version of “Golden Axe” spawned a lot of ports. Interestingly enough a lot of the ports are based off of the Sega Genesis version instead of the arcade version. The ports go from computers, handhelds, and consoles. The ports comparisons are as follows.
		Sega Genesis Duel
The Sega Genesis version is one of the more popular and well known ports. It looks almost like the arcade, but they took out and censored some things. The intro where you see Alex die was removed and replaced by the hero explaining the story, the Sega Beer Barn in Turtle Village I was taken out, they removed the ending with the arcade and replaced it with playing baseball with the text, and they removed all instances of blood. This is very interesting considering that the cartridge is a world version. This version also had a hidden stage when you defeated Death Adder and contained a mode called Duel were you fought various enemies from the game. The hidden stage is really poorly designed containing pits that are really easy to fall into. Another difference is when you save the king and queen they give you some BS reason why you have to go through the door and save the kingdom. This version is 2 player and was also released on the Genesis in a package called "Sega 6 Pack". which included “Columns”, “Sonic the Hedgehog”, “Streets of Rage”, “Revenge of Shinobi”, and "Super Hang-on", obviously a great selection. The box art was so bad it was featured in an article on 1up.com about some of the worst art ever to grace a videogame box.
		Sega Genesis
Sega did a really good job with the Master System version. The game's story was retold to revolve around Ax Battler and included all of the magic, enemies, and stages of the arcade version. The graphics are actually pretty close to the Genesis version, but it is only a 1 player game.
		Sega Master System ingame
The Sega CD version is one of the best conversions. The colors are arcade perfect and the character animation is more fluid that the Sega Genesis version. The only thing that sucks about this version is that they replaced the cheesy death sounds with the word "OW". The music is slightly remixed as well. The game was included in "Sega Classics Arcade Collection" that included “Streets of Rage”, and Columns. The game was included in "Sega Classics Arcade Collection" which also included "Streets of Rage" and "Columns". Oddly enough, this version is only single player even though the version of "Streets of Rage" that is on the disc has 2 player support!
		Sega CD
8-bit Computer versions suffer from the most limitations such as only one enemy being able to appear on screen at a time due to their weak hardware. The graphics on the Amstrad are especially blocky and the character animations are off, too. These ports are some of the worst ones available due to these reasons.
		Commodore 64
The Dreamcast version came packaged in a collection called "Sega Smash Pack Volume 1" that contained a bunch of classic Genesis games and a Saturn title. This port is a disgrace due to horrible emulation. The music sounds particularly grating, doing little justice to the original arcade and Genesis versions, and this is really sad considering it's running on an official Sega emulator.
		Sega Dreamcast
The Gameboy Advance version came with "Sega Smash Pack" and is 1 player only. The music sounds okay, but the proportions for the characters were changed to fit the smaller screen. it is also hard to play due to the limited room.
		Gameboy Advance
The PC version is one of the better ports. The PC version supported all major graphic adapters at that time. They also improved the character icons and changed the health icons into gems for some reason.
		PC DOS
The Amiga and Atari ST versions are a direct port of the Arcade version and its almost arcade perfect. The music synths sound incredible and the graphics are on par with the Sega Genesis version.
		Amiga
The PC-Engine CD version is so bad it's not even funny. As a victim of amateur programming it suffers from poor hit detection and is overly difficult.. The Graphics are worse than the Master System version and the remixed music is unimpressive.
		PC Engine CD
The PS2 and PSP versions were contained in "Sega Genesis Collection". The game is a port of the Genesis version and the emulation is spot-on. Otherwise not much else really has to be said, but if you're looking for a copy of the Genesis version, this is the best pick.
		PS2
The Windows version is the exact same as the Genesis port and was contained in "Sega Smash Pack". This port was going to be distributed via a download service, but it never got past the beta stage.
		Windows
The Wonderswan Color Version is one of the worst ports of "Golden Axe". Everything is really hard to see due to motion blur and the small screen doesn't help. To make matters worse the sound is horrific.
		Wonderswan
Remember when you bought Tiger Handhelds because you wanted to be like your friend who had a Game Boy or a Game Gear but you didn't want to mow enough lawns to get the money for it?. Well Tiger released a "Golden Axe" handheld that is cheaply made and plays not much better than it's construction.
		Tiger Handheld
The Xbox 360 is the definitive version of "Golden Axe". It is an Arcade perfect port that suffers from a wide screen aspect ratio and muddy graphics. Otherwise everything else seems to have been retained from the arcade version. Their was also a PS2 remake that wasn't very good and is talked about right here at this very site.
		Xbox 360 Live Arcade
Other Screen Shot Comparisons

Atari ST	Amstrad CPC	Sinclair Spectrum

PC CGA	PC EGA	PC VGA

Arcade	Wii Virtual Console	Playstation Portable

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