Golden Axe II, Megadrive/Genesis

Golden Axe II is a sequel to the classic Sega arcade game, Golden Axe, and was released exclusively on the Megadrive/Genesis* in 1991 in Japan and 1992 in North America and Europe.

*= It was eventually released as an arcade game using ‘Mega Play’ hardware, which is essentially a Megadrive/Genesis in an arcade cabinet, but the game was initially marketed as a ‘killer app’ on Sega‘s famous home console.

Golden Axe II features one or simultaneous two-player gameplay, where you can choose between three playable characters (the same three as seen in the previous Golden Axe), and play either a “Normal” game or “The Duel”.

The “Normal” game is basically ‘story mode’, where you have to fight your way through seven different stages in order to retrieve the mythical ‘Golden Axe‘ from the evil ‘Dark Guld‘. Gameplay is the same as before: defeat a number of enemies in each portion of a stage before moving on, then defeat a boss – or a number of tougher enemies – at the end.

“The Duel” is the same as seen in Golden Axe – fight a succession of increasingly more difficult battles with either one or two players.

Golden Axe II, I think, is much more difficult than the other, second Golden Axe sequel – Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder – that is: unless you’re able to master the more advanced moves in this to avoid getting battered. Golden Axe II is still fun to play, though – especially with a friend. It’s also still available to buy on Steam (at the time of writing).