I very much recommend consulting a FAQ for this games complete move list. It’s so much deeper than most people realize. gamefaqs.gamespot.com/genesis/586215-golden-axe-iii/faqs/55783
Hey I just wanted you to be aware of an awesome listing on eBay. It’s the original Xbox 2tb memory and it’s a small company that refurbishes these and sells them for 199$. The kicker is they come fully loaded with the entire Xbox library plus 2 previously unreleased games. The entire libraries for nes, snes, Genesis, Sega Cd, gb, gb color, gba, atari, etc but the main reason I thought of you is with it’s coin ops and Mame it has the entire Astro City collection on it. Yes Revenge of Death Adder and the others. So many Mame games I’ve not seen in other collections. It’s 4200 Mame ps1 32x Turbo grafix etc I cant see how you could possibly be let down even the Xbox library to me is honestly worth 199. It’s built like a pie with the menus etc and themes but it’s not pie obviously. I’m not savvy enough to speak technical terms but I know it’s worth 199$ just an FYI
I never understood why this game has been shat on so much. When we were kids, my brother and I played the shit out of this game. Especially since we figured out the co-op moves, and it was NUTS
what was your source about the release dates? because based on sega retro website, this @7:54 is not true since Golden Axe III came out 9 months after Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder and not "years after" (Golden Axe III = june 1993 while revenge of death adder = september 1992) as for my opinion on the game, see my comment :)
For me, it was a surprise when I found out how this game is hated on the internet. Back in the day, this was the first Golden Axe I played on Genesis, and my favorite of the Sega Genesis trilogy.
Me too!! Me too exactly; my sister and I first played it when we were in middle school on one of those crappy atgames genesis consoles, and we both liked it the best of the three
@@eskanda3434 Such statements are really an exaggeration! Along with statements "looking like a Master System game!" :S While the first one is my favorite GA3 is surely a great game to play in terms of visual, soundtrack and in gameplay. Sometimes I don't understand the negativity towards some games from Sega Lord X. While of course I am taking the factor of personal liking still some comments on the game are unexplainable.
Actually, this was the only Golden Axe I played on my Mega Drive as kid, and I loved it since. Recently, I found out that it was never officialy released in Europe, so obviously I played it on some chinese bootleg cartridge or something like that, which was a common case in 90's Serbia. :D
No coverage of the co-op attacks and magic? Some of the co-op magic looks pretty good. And I get that the background isn't that detailed, but the stages themselves overall are pretty great. The first stage, The Vast Field, actually gives you that very same feeling and the background shows it too. And let's not forget Crystal Cavern's background, and the soundtrack there. Really fitting in my opinion. Not all of them are winners sure but credit where its due, the stage designs are varied and interesting even if the background and enemies are a bit repetitive. The movesets are actually more detailed than covered. Some characters actually have projectile attacks (well all but one actually, and that guy has an unblockable and uninterruptible attack that you can spam to win the game easily). The more complex movesets means that you'll take more time to master them, but the rewards for doing so are very rewarding. As far as a beat em up goes, Golden Axe 3 has one of the more comprehensive movesets I've seen for this sort of game at the time. 2 of the characters can even wall jump and double jump, that's not something you see often. I've mentioned before that I don't think there's a single bad track in the game, and some of them are downright excellent. Ride The Whirlwind has always been one of my farvourite Genesis tracks. Oh yes, and who could forget the hilarious mistranslation that is on the same level as "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" from Zero-Wing. If you get a game over, the game will show the route your character took through the game, and when the route reaches the stage where you died, a line of text that says "And you dead!" appears. I always found this funny, shame this never got the same attention and coverage as "All Your Base Are Belong To Us".
GA3 is my favourite Mega Drive GA game overall; 2 just didn't feel like it added much from 1 apart from replacing the thieves with wizards (being able to charge magic never came into play for me because I always saved it for bosses so having to hold the button to use the strongest spell was just an annoyance).
Yeah, this was my favorite Golden Axe game. Now I can the that the backgrounds are weaker, but the gameplay is still the best and the music is very good too.
GA3 actually aged pretty well. I think it's more appreciated now than it was back when it was released. If it weren't for the graphics, this would be the GA we all remember. Gameplay and options are the best of the series on genesis.
What always irked me is: Why, oh why, did Sega never use the Streets of Rage 2 engine to make a Golden Axe game? It would have looked awesome, Return of Death Adder quality possibly. In an ideal world they should have let Yuzo Koshiro's Sister's development company make a sequel. But oh well... :(
If there’s any truth to the competitive environment Sega ran with its dev teams, using pre-existing engines from other games was a real no no back then. Everyone wanted to protect what they created and/or make their mark with new engines.
This game is great actually! Specially with 2 players! This game should have been 16 Megs, the large sprites and music took most of the 8 megs that they had to cut down and compressed the hell out of the levels!
This is my favorite Golden Axe game. The gameplay is the tightest, with precise hitboxes and a huge variety of attacks. Forward B+C is very useful, and there is also a special attack done with a complete circle and B+C (quite overpowered though). Having many paths helps replayability a lot and I like this. As the game is fun and the soundtrack is fantastic, I often want to replay this game. It is not the most pretty game on the console, but everything else is good enough to have some great fun.
I wonder if this game influenced the design of Guardian Heroes, Treasure's beat em up on the Saturn. That game had many SF2 type command inputs, and had path choices at the end of the levels.
@@lazarushernandez5827 I think that Guardian Heroes is an evolution of a MegaDrive game they made called Yu Yu Hakusho, which featured battles on two lines, zooming for the characters, and up to four at once. It was an outstanding achievement for the MegaDrive, and Guardian Heroes basically takes this formula, adds a third line, scrolling and many enemies at once. They also used this type of gameplay later on the first two Bleach games on DS (great games). I really like this channel by the way, but I feel that Japanese exclusive games are overlooked. There are plenty of fantastic games that got stuck there, and things happen even today. For example, Lord Monarch was translated to English a few weeks ago, and it is one of the best RPGs on MegaDrive.
@@cireza_ Mad Stalker Full Metal Forth is also very influential on the development of Guardian Heroes. That one has recently finally been released on the Mega Drive after being cancelled in 1994.
I remember playing this on Sega Channel back in the day. Through the lens of a 6 year old kid, I actually liked it over Golden Axe 1 and 2. A lot of it was the amount of control you had over your character. The grappling system was improved, you could dash across the screen and attack, even jumping felt a bit more refined. The music was great too. Funny thing is that I didn't remember the backgrounds looking like that so maybe it was something I wasn't paying attention to.
I was a Sega Channel owner growing up, and I had a great time with this game, so when I see people treating it like a leper, I just kind of give a confused look. "Golden Axe III is way below our standards" - the people who okayed Xperts and Garfield: Caught In The Act
I actually played all three Genesis Golden Axe titles for the first time on the PS2's Sega Genesis Collection over a decade ago, and I remember liking the third one quite a bit, but it just feels really different from the first two, I'm actually surprised that it was developed by the same team that made GA2, it feels like it was from a totally different developer
Funny thing about this is on the Sega Channel they did refer to them as Ax Battler and Tyris Flare. So if it did get a physical release I wouldn't be surprised if they planned on referring to them as Ax and Tyris in the U.S. manual aswell.
@@DeludedOne No, in Golden Axe II they definitely are Ax Battler and Tyris Flare. It's in Golden Axe III where they aren't. They don't show up in the arcade sequels either.
I really liked this game. For some reason I Never cared neither of the amount of different characters on screen nor of the graphics in particular. To me, the graphics is just a nice addition. To me, a game is the gameplay and emotions I get. I remember the argue I had with my elder brother regarding the Golden Axe III and the Judge Dredd on the Mega Drive (he insisted to exchange the GAIII for the Dredd). My bro said that the Dredd was better because it had better animations. Well, yes it did have better animations, but it Never gave me that chill and vibes from the GAIII intense action and simply outstanding medieval style epic soundtrack.
It should have been a 16 Mb game, just some improved graphics and sound and more enemy variety would have it a legendary title. Anyways, in playing terms, it is one of the best console beat'em ups of it's time.
Loved Golden Axe 3 as a kid, combat system was nice, fluid an polished, different "classes" added that much loved by me RPG'ish depth to the game. Couple years ago having a nostalgia blast, I just re-visited the game using an emulator on my smartphone, 20 years later, had such a blast playing it.
Love this game. A really great challenge. I don't understand why they put so little effort into the graphics though. It really is below par. The music and gameplay are more important though, so I still really like the game.
I have to agree with you on the visuals. But I actually enjoyed the gameplay on GA3, especially the improved combat and character movement. I wasn't aware of it having multiple endings, so I might have to replay it and check it out! Thanks
I've been really enjoying Golden Axe III lately in the SEGA Genesis Classics collection on Switch, so I was happy to see a review from you come up! I appreciate the perspective of it being below expected standards for 1993. But in terms of gameplay, it's actually my favorite of the Genesis trilogy.
Wow you were kinda harsh on the graphics. The screen clearing Snake magic looks amazing! The game definitely has its moments and I think it's the best Golden Axe game on the platform
The best magic graphic wise would be the co-op magic with Chronos (the panther man), it summons a grim reaper with a scythe in the middle of the screen with fog and lightning flashing all over (its eyes light up each time the lightning strikes). It's accompanied with strange alien beeping for some reason I cannot fathom and lasts for quite a while actually.
This video has convinced me to at least try Golden Axe 3.Reading the bad impression EGM had back in the day did affect my perception of the game, so it's good to hear a different take on it. The music does sound really good.
❗I loved this Game ever since first playing it back in early-2000 on a PC via Emulation (which I thought was sorcery back then). I had already played GA1 via an actual MD and thought GA2 was OK via the same Emulator. What I also loved about GA3 is the multiple paths you could take. I've since bought this on the 3DS E-Shop.
The original Golden Axe was a system seller. I rarely played multiplayer - but one game I played for years with my friends back then was Golden Axe and it's the reason two of my friends bought a Genesis.
@@Aragorn7884 in 1989-1990 it was amazing - it's only competitor, for multiplayer, was Altered Beast, which was also incredible at the time. Not sure if you were around back then but getting anything that was close to the arcade at home was a huge deal. Ghouls n Ghosts was clearly the best game available at the time, but that wasn't multiplayer.
I was actually lucky enough to play this on Sega Channel during the mid-90s. I consider myself pretty blessed for that and a whole bunch of other great games that never made it here otherwise - Alien Soldier and Pulseman, anyone?
I traditionally looked at Golden Axe as a more primitive version of the Streets of Rage series. This felt like an advanced form for the Golden Axe series, with much more advanced battle mechanics. I had a lot of fun with it. And Golden Axe games rarely had visually impressive backgrounds, so I didn’t worry about it.
That has nothing to do with it. The game started developent in late 92' and released in June 93'. Sega Channel launched in Dec 94' and wasn't widespread until mid 95'. Also the Sega Channel supported lots of 24Mb games so rom size wasn't an issue.
Interesting fact, I noticed yesterday that enemies death's synthetised screen in Golden Axe comes from Conan movie when Sven-Ole Thorsendies at the end :D
Yeah there were two big mean fellows I remember in Conan The Barbarian, one that looked like Lemmy Kilmister from ''Motorhead'' and another that looked like Bruce Dickinson from ''Iron Maiden''. The one with the huge mallet got impaled in the movie and he let out that Death-Adder scream.
I don't think I played it until Sonic's Genesis Collection on PS3. I mainly compared it to the first Genesis Golden Axe, so I was actually really impressed by the visual background effects and set pieces like the wagon chase. The first game is a very static affair with tiny stage maps. I was surprised when I later found out people talked badly about this game.
When I picked this title up years ago on the Wii shop, I never knew it existed. Played Golden Axe I & II for hours on end as a kid, and loved both, so had to give this a look. It seems “off” in comparison to the prequels, different feel to it for sure, but once I played it a few times it grew on me. Not my favorite of the three, but enjoyable.
I just don't fucking get it. If you asked me what was my favorite SEGA game ever, this comes to my head immediately. I played it as a kid, in the console, for years on end, with multiple friends, and had none of these complaints. The backgrounds are a little shallow, but the sprites are huge and detailed. You had 4 (5) characters, a huge moveset, branching stages... Plus the music and the gameplay are fantastic. It blows away all other Golden Axe games. Everyone around me was hooked to this game. We'd play it hardcore in Christmases and Summers, trying to do perfect runs, until the PS1 came. And then, I grow up, and the Internet comes, and everybody hates it. What? Just... WHAT? Golden Axe III is the Rocket Knight Adventures of Beat 'em ups. As in: extremely good, and very underrated. This competes head to head with Streets of Rage II. And if you were alive in the 80's, grew in the 90's, and had the pleasure to have a black market copy of this at home, you agree.
@@atom_zero5413 Both have cool stage concepts, a bunch of special attacks (though GA3 has more), 4 characters, and great gameplay. Yeah SOR has better graphics, but this has an awesome-er setting and even better music. What's there not to love?
I agree with most of the post other then competes with Streets of Rage 2. The graphics, sound effects are not in the same league. GA3 is extremely underrated though and if it were on a 16-Mb cart like SOR 2 I think they could have fully realized the true potential of GA3 being one of the best beat em ups ever.
This game was included in the genesis collection for the ps2 and my friends and I played it so much. Such an awesome game with multiple paths to take; we took all of them.
I've never gotten on with the Golden Axe series. It has always seemed that the enemies have very small hit boxes that make them difficult to hit, whereas they can hit you if they're even glancing in your general direction.
I never could never understand Golden Axe. Every other beatem up I could figure out and get good at but these games punished me no matter what. Also the controls feel really stiff too.
This game every char has 2-3 special moves and one super move... you can make some great combos. I discovered all those myself when I was kid. So that magic attack is weakened compared to 1 or 2 because you can use different way to beat enemies
The panther has fast hunting move with paw.... also when you hitting enemy and hold back it will do back flashback. Jump hold down and attack is another attack.
@@leomonz That fast hunting move is unblockable and uninterruptible. It's also spammable, making it the cheesiest move in the game if one wants to play that way.
@@DeludedOne That was how I beat the game first time.. it is almost invicible. I think the move was like -> B+C. It was almost 26 years ago... The big guy tornadoes is full circle + either B+C ... dont remember... I love this game.. a lot combo especially two players
Easily the best installment on the platform. While it does drop the ball when it comes to backgrounds (the sprite work is actually really great and well-detailed), it more than makes up for it by its gameplay, with tighter controls, multiple routes and a well fleshed out moveset. The enemies also don't feel as dumb as 1 or cheap and unfair as 2. Couple it with coop attacks and special moves (and coop magic, which is where all the spectacle went) and you got yourself an insanely replayable game that easily trumps the previous two entries. Also come on, Chakan wasn't trash.
I know that it's difficult to guage certain aspects when RU-vid heavily compresses video, but it seems to me even if the backgrounds are poor, the sprites are an improvement and also the animation is better from the previous two games. I've never played the game, so I can't back that up with true facts however. I do prefer the second game to the first, so I will find a way to play this third installment. Thanks again for another great video.
I guess I look at this game differently. When I discovered this game through emulation, it became my favorite Golden Axe game for the 16 bit era. Nice review nonetheless.
Funny story growing up this was the first and only Golden Axe Game in my Sega library and let me tell you when going back to Golden Axe 1&2 after playing GA3 I found both to be lacking as I was too spoiled with multi paths, characters and special moves. I still prefer this over the prequels
I got my SNES at age 9, in 1991, i have been a nintendo fanboy ever since. Never played Sega as a kid. But i enjoy your channel not for nostalgia. But for showing me what i missed
This is an excelent game in its own right. The soundtrack is phenomenal, gameplay is good and the panther character is just so good. You can easily cheese the game with the panther's special move (the one you do a 360 on the dpad + B+C). It's so overpowered!
I have this game on the Ultimate MegaDrive/Genesis Collection on the PS3 and XBox360. SEGA were kind enough to include all 3 Golden Axe games in that 40+ Game Collection during the 7th Gen Consoles.
Agree with this review. The graphics held it back a lot during a time the graphics and first impressions were so important. I'd even say it was released unfinished as there's a lot we know the team can improve on based on their previous work. Maybe they ran out of development time. The music was great and had more of a dance element this time which was pretty cool to hear.
Golden Axe 1s aaaahhh will forever be burned into my head an as an early genesis/megadrive title i felt that it was definitely an early showpiece for the hardware
No playable Gilius Thunderhead!? 0/10. Yeah, it is kind of a shame Sega didn't green light this game for a full physical release in the US. The game doesn't seem that bad honestly. I mean, it doesn't look as striking as other games that were coming out in 1993, but it seems like nice little beat-em-up. I guess they figured it just wouldn't sell and there was too much competition to pour money into its marketing and promotions. I'd love to see a proper Golden Axe IV come out as a digital title for modern consoles much like Streets of Rage 4. It would be great to see this series come back...well, I mean the classic formula and *not* like Golden Axe: Beast Rider. 😅
I play it on the PS3 via the Sonic's Sega Genesis Ultimate Collection, however the shadows beneath the characters flicker, I guess the original one on the Genesis doesn't? It is one of the games I play the most. It is a very deep game in terms of gameplay compared to the previous games.
Golden Axe III is the best game in Golden Axe trilogy on Sega Mega Drive in my opinion. Its not very impressive in visual appearance, but has the best playability. 4 very different characters to choose and each is played differently and have unique attacks. Characters has an energy bars. The blocks are introduced and new unique techniques. You can throw enemies in different directions, perform ranged attacks by throwing weapons, or even perform special coop attacks, or special coop magic attacks. Characters are greatly animated nad move even when they stay in place. This game is heavily inspired by the Golden Axe Revenge of Death Adder which was running on Sega System32 arcade hardware. So there is for example fight on a back of the flying eagle or other "inspirations". Another new thing is freeing prisoners, if you rescue 5 of them you will get extra life. And of course there are branched paths, and different endings which adds a lot of replay value.
What a great coincidence...after many years, today i played this game ...i like it so much... i prefer Golden axe 3 than the second. Greetings from Brazil!
I remember playin this on Sega Channel!! Along with Pulseman, The Punisher, Ranger X, and of course Mega Man Wily Wars Wish I still had that cartridge with the cable port haha But yeah this game is criminally underrated, much more goin on than many realized, movesets, combo magic, evade moves too This soundtrack is one of the best til dis day!!! 😂🤣
I for one actually really like the game over the first two and like the art design of the characters even though the stages do lack a bit of variety. It took me a while to get used to the controls but once I did I enjoyed the more in depth style which would probably put most off compared to the first two. The sound is also probably the best in the series. I remember seeing bad reviews for this at the time and some saying it's a good thing it wasn't released outside of Japan. For me I think the negativity is because it was a Golden Axe game that played so differently if it had a different name I personally think it would have been received better.
My father got me this when it first came out as MD overseas. It didn't work on my u.s. genesis, but recently i found out it works with my genesis clone.
More characters? More moves? Branching stages? Sega really should have splashed out on a 16Mb cart like they did for Streets of Rage 2. Still, some of the background graphics are basic to the extent that I wonder if the game had much of a budget at all.
Golden Axe 3 is the best in series. I like it even more than Revenge of Death Adder. Play it numerous times alone and with my friends. The first two games plays like total shit after you’ve played the third part. Never understand people who don’t like it.
Golden Axe 3 is one of the most popular Mega Drive games in Russia correct? I think it's getting more respect in United States and UK as people have had a chance to play it with all the collections it's been included on.