Hardcore Gaming 101 Article - Golden Axe Warrior


Box Art		Title
In order to cash in on the “Golden Axe” bandwagon even more Sega released “Golden Axe: Warrior” for the Sega Master System in 1991. “Warrior” is an RPG and was a pretty drastic departure for the series. You may think, “Wow a Golden Axe RPG sweet!” and then be utterly disappointed by it when you play it because it fails for being what it fails for being what it is: a generic "Zelda" clone and a bad one at that. When you play it you really notice how the designers rushed development for this in order to get it out the door as fast as possible. It's not like the Master System didn't already have a "Zelda" clone and it's much better: it's called "Golvelius: Valley of Doom."

The story of “Warrior” is generic and straight forward to anyone who've played an RPG let alone a “Zelda” clone. The story is so cliché that anybody could figure out what is happening even if they aren't reading the text boxes. Death Adder (Ganon) destroys a bunch of kingdoms in his rise for power while you the hero must set out to collect 9 crystals (Triforce Pieces).

The gameplay of “Warrior” is a total knock off of “Zelda”. You go through and kill enemies with a sword that's about one pixel long and hope you don't die until you reach the first dungeon. In the dungeons you collect keys and special treasure. You reach the boss and kill him, get a health upgrade and a crystal (Triforce piece). Then you explore the overworld map some more and realize, “Wow they even copied the exact “Zelda” layout in a couple of areas”. Then you put the game away and hope you don't have to play it again. Your character can equip a variety of weapons and armor. The hero can also use magic, but he has to by it. If you die, the game starts you off where you last saved or at the start of a dungeon and penalizes you by taking away some of your money. This really sucks because enemies rarely drop money, let alone health, but it also makes things a bit easier as enemies rarely regenerate in the dungeons.

The music really gets on your nerves in this game especially the dungeon theme due to it's repetitiveness and blandness. The sound effects are just as bad to.

The graphics which are bland fit in with the staleness of the game perfectly. In some areas the characters are hard to see due to flickering, which makes it much easier to die. The font for the text boxes is pretty gorgeous though.

Music Town Overworld

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