Golden Axe Warrior
Sega Master System
Nostalgia Factor:
Ah, the Sega Master System. I was getting the urge to play something for this console, but I only have two Master System titles in my video game library. It was either going to be the original Phantasy Star or it was going to be Golden Axe Warrior. Both games I have never played, so expect this “nostalgia factor” segment to be short. Phantasy Star is an old school turn based RPG, and I didn’t want to play anything too overly long so I decided on Golden Axe Warrior instead.
Silly me. I thought that this was going to be a side-scrolling beat-em-up like all the other titles in the Golden Axe series, and that I’d be over and done with this game in one day’s time. Nope.
I never would have guessed from the game’s title that it would be a Legend of Zelda clone. That’s right, a Legend of Zelda clone. And when I say clone, I mean clone. I thought Dante’s Inferno ripping off God of War was bad, but this is THE most blatant video game rip-off I have ever seen.
Clone or not, was the game at least fun to play? Read on and find out.
Story:
This game’s storyline takes several different characters and plot points from the traditional Golden Axe games and adapts them to an action RPG format. The game’s main bad guy, Death Adder, is trying to take over the world. In order to take him down you need to collect these power crystal thingies which are locked away in hidden dungeons scattered all over the game’s map. These dungeons are very similar to the dungeons in The Legend of Zelda. You have to fight through them, beat the boss at the end of the dungeon, and collect the crystal that the boss was guarding. Collecting all the crystals opens up the final dungeon of the game. Inside this dungeon is the Golden Axe, the only weapon that can defeat Death Adder. Collect the axe and defeat him and you have beaten the game.
Gameplay:
I could just write "this game is a straight up Zelda clone" and move on to the next segment of my review, but I am going to assume that not everyone out there has played the original Legend of Zelda or is familiar with the game.
Golden Axe Warrior takes place from a top-down perspective. Taking control of your character, you have free reign to go check out anything you want. You can move up, down, left, or right, The attack button swings your sword, but that is all you can do at the beginning of the game.
Moving off the side of the screen brings you to a brand new screen. Each screen is filled with its own different enemies or obstacles. I look at each different screen as a coordinate on a map. You definitely have to remember where you are and where you have been when you are out exploring. The goal of the game is to explore the overworld and discover the game's nine dungeons, each of which hold a magic crystal. Once you have collected them all, you become powerful enough to storm Death Adder's castle, claim the Golden Axe, and take him out of the picture once and for all.
You start the game with a sword, but you gain new weapons as you play. I became very comfortable using the axe, until I got too far into the game and it ceased to be effective against more difficult enemies. Defeating enemies can get you horns (the game's currency), health, or magic bottles. You definitely gotta save up those horns, as this game is super challenging, and you are going to want to use your money to upgrade your equipment and learn new spells as soon as you possibly can.
The map of this game is absolutely enormous. I think I read somewhere that this game is two or three times the size of Zelda for the NES. There are an overwhelming amount of places for you to explore, enemies to fight, and secrets to uncover. I remember it took me almost an hour to find the very first dungeon in the game. In the original Zelda, you find it within minutes. The game encourages you to search for secrets, as well. I was constantly chopping at bushes with my axe to see what I could uncover. It is fun to look for things in this game. Things aren't hidden so obscurely as they are in the original Zelda, and it is most definitely not as tedious to search for things.
Another thing this game does that Zelda doesn't? Villages! Yes, you can go in and out of houses, talk to NPCs about things happening in the game's storyline, sleep at inns, and shop at stores. I do have to give Golden Axe Warrior credit for really trying to create a believable fantasy world for this game. This storyline for the game isn't very original or creative, but boy do they really try to sell the world of the game to you.
Luckily I was playing this game on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for the PS3, because I was able to take advantage of the ability to save my game at any time. On the original Master System, you can only save at designated save points outside of dungeons on the game's map. Being able to save at any time was a huge advantage because this game is HARD. I got massacred routinely trying to make my way through each dungeon. Enemies come at you from every direction, and they do massive amounts of damage to your character. Their patterns are unpredictable. They can be hard to hit. The game is extremely stingy with leaving health power-ups behind when you kill enemies, which makes it even harder to make it through a dungeon without dying. What happens if you die? Back to the beginning of the dungeon you go, with only 3HP and 3MP left. You lose a sizable chunk of your horns as well. This is where being able to save at any point came in such handy. I could manually save the game after each room I cleared. If I took too much damage or got killed, I could just reload my last save and give it another try. That way I could keep my health at maximum and hang on to my hard earned horns at the same time. Even with the save states, I still had a tough time scraping through the game. I can't even imagine how difficult this game would have been to play on the old Master System.
Graphics:
Golden Axe Warrior came out a couple of years after the Legend of Zelda, and it definitely shows in its visuals. This game looks MUCH better than the original Zelda. More color, more detail in the game's world, better textures, better designed characters, a bigger enemy variety, everything. This game is so lush and vivid looking. I would almost believe this was a 16-bit game, if I didn't know it was only 8-bit. Very impressive. Way to go, Sega Master System!
Sound:
This game has a good musical score, but it definitely pales in comparison to the Legend of Zelda's. You can tell it is trying so hard, too! It is not bad though. I will give it that. I like the game's overworld theme. The music overall throughout the game is pretty good. The only track I found annoying was that really obnoxious lullaby-like tune that plays when you enter some of the game's interiors.
Sound effects are really good too. There's this one sound in particular that I kept hearing that I swear to god was also used in Metroid. It was driving me nuts all game long. But yeah, sound effects: good. Check. Music: good. Check. Let's move on.
Overall:
I truly wanted to hate on this game for being such a blatant ripoff of The Legend of Zelda, but I just can't. It's a good game! Golden Axe Warrior takes everything that was good about The Legend of Zelda and makes it even better. A bigger map, more diverse enemy types, better graphics, better weapons, more magic to learn, a better storyline. This game even makes it easier for players to find its hidden secrets. In Zelda, it was a pain trying to bomb random walls, or use one flame attack at a time on a giant row of 20 bushes, 20 times. In this game, you can just swing your axe at bushes to chop them down. If you need to blast open a rock or something, the game usually makes it pretty obvious that that is what you have to do. You don't have to go around testing every single wall you see for a hidden boor behind it.
Technically, this is probably a much better game than The Legend of Zelda, which is a game I hold in pretty high regard. I haven't reviewed that game yet, so it will be interesting to see what score I give that game when I review it, in comparison to this game's score.
Golden Axe Warrior started off a bit slow for me, but then it picked up steam the more familiar I became with its nuances. The game is incredibly hard at times and requires a ton of trial and error. This can make the game pretty inaccessible for casual gamers. Even I was getting frustrated as I played. I had to just suck it up and keep plugging along. Plus, I am not ashamed to admit that I used an online walkthrough to help me through this game. Normally I try to steer clear of them if I can, but I knew I would get lost or stuck if I played without one, and I would end up wasting just a massive amount of time.
All in all, despite its difficulties, I had a fun time with Golden Axe Warrior. Given my massive backlog and the equally massive amount of games out there that I haven't even played yet, chances are I am not ever going to play this again. But I am glad I got to experience it this one time.
Overall:
B
UP NEXT:
A Sega Genesis game!
A Sega Genesis game!
Probably Ren and Stimpy: Stimpy's Invention or Toy Story
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