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Post by Ex on Mar 29, 2019 11:26:37 GMT -5
Apparently, they are all side-scrolling beat-'em-ups.
Not quite. The initial run of Golden Axe games were indeed beat 'em ups:
Golden Axe (1989) Golden Axe II (1991) Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder (1992) Golden Axe III (1993)
So the series started off as arcade releases with GA and GA2. GA and GA2 were ported to other platforms. GA:TRoDA remains an arcade exclusive beat 'em up. Golden Axe III is a Genesis exclusive.
Golden Axe Warrior (1991) attempted to be a The Legend of Zelda knockoff for SMS.
There's also Ax Battler: A Legend of Golden Axe (1991) on Game Gear, which takes a lot of inspiration from Zelda II: Then there's Golden Axe: The Duel (1994 - Arcade/Saturn) which is not a beat 'em up, but rather a 2D fighter: And lastly there's Golden Axe: Beast Rider (2008 - PS3/360) which is a 3D beat 'em up with some action-adventure elements mixed in. Golden Axe: Beast Rider is straight up terrible though. Avoid.
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Post by Sarge on Mar 29, 2019 12:01:09 GMT -5
I'll go ahead and warn folks against Ax Battler as well. Only play out of curiosity. It's much worse than GAW.
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Post by toei on Mar 29, 2019 12:12:55 GMT -5
I can never figure out which ARPGs bonesnapdeez is going to like, haha! Anyway, yeah, Golden Axe was very popular in its time. Was it the first belt-scrolling fantasy beat-'em-up? I can't remember. I'm almost positive it was, unless you're one of those people that think Rastan is a beat-'em-up (which IMO is way off). Tecmo put out Tecmo Knight/Wild Fang the same year (the exact release date is unknown) in Japan. It's more violent than Golden Axe, but much, much less playable. I'm almost certain another company put out a really bad fantasy beat-'em-up the following year or so, but I can't remember what it's called. It didn't have combos, if that helps - if you kept pressing the attack button, it just kept doing the same attack. Capcom's King of Dragons and Knights of the Round came out two years later in 1991. I know a lot of people claim Golden Axe has aged poorly (people have been saying that since like 1995), but I feel that the arcade original is still a highly playable game. The problem with the Genesis game is that it was actually made harder, so if you're playing solo you have to use the tackle a lot to stay in control and you can hardly ever stay on the Bizarrians before you get knocked off (enemies were programmed to be much more aggressive about knocking you off).
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Post by Sarge on Mar 29, 2019 12:26:26 GMT -5
I don't think it's aged all that poorly, either. I don't think it's the greatest beat-'em-up at this point, but it's certainly quite playable. Of course, this is coming from someone who still likes Altered Beast as well, so your mileage may vary!
I honestly didn't remember if the arcade version was harder or not, but I do know it's shorter. I can generally jump right in and beat the Genesis version, at the very least. As you say, though, you have to really play carefully, and especially stay off of an enemy's plane because they love to ram you themselves. I shy away from using most melee attacks because combos are slow and enemies will gang up on you quickly. Jumping slashes are usually very effective in boss fights, and I'll use them a ton.
Using Gilius is probably the best move, too, since he is quicker than the rest with his moves. Magic might look impressive, but at the same time, it ends up being a sort of one-shot deal that in later stages doesn't even kill all the enemies. I think that's true even if you're using Tyris Flare.
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Post by bonesnapdeez on Mar 29, 2019 12:50:23 GMT -5
I can never figure out which ARPGs bonesnapdeez is going to like, haha! As far as the classic console top-down stuff goes, I almost indiscriminately enjoy everything. There are admittedly some 8-bit clunkers. Golden Axe Warrior is bad, but stuff like Valkyrie no Bouken and Seiken Psycho Caliber is on another level altogether (virtually unplayable). 16-bit is where the genre really comes together. Ys Book I & II is the best thing ever released. Oh, and I let my daughter play the original Golden Axe and the wifey got mad. She and I have different definitions of "violent video games" apparently.
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Post by Ex on Mar 29, 2019 13:05:00 GMT -5
I don't think it's aged all that poorly, either. I for one enjoyed years ago, and still enjoy today, all the Golden Axe beat 'em ups. I like the arcade and Genesis versions equally. I'd rather play the Golden Axe series than the Streets of Rage series. I let my daughter play the original Golden Axe and the wifey got mad. I'm just glad you game with your kids dude. When my daughter was young, I gave her a SNES and a GameCube, with lots and lots of games, and she played both of those platforms very often. I also got her a DS when she was a kid, and she played the hell outta that. We played lots of emulated stuff together, and legions of Wii games together. Nowadays my daughter is about to turn 21, and she barely plays video games at all. When she does, it's smartphone stuff. I tried guys.
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Post by Sarge on Mar 29, 2019 22:02:39 GMT -5
I'm probably done with this theme, unless I boot something else up tonight. As it is, I managed to get through 11 games! I'm not sure how many SMS games I've actually beaten over the years, but it's not many. I probably more than doubled my count, though. Land of Illusion was my easy favorite.
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Post by Sarge on Mar 31, 2019 23:40:26 GMT -5
I snuck one more in. It's Psychic World. I'll try to blabber more tomorrow.
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Post by Ex on Apr 1, 2019 0:55:02 GMT -5
I snuck one more in. It's Psychic World. I'll try to blabber more tomorrow. I'll be interested in your thoughts. I beat the SMS version of Psychic World myself back in 2015. These were my thoughts from four years ago:
Psychic World is a very forward thinking platformer held back by archaic difficulty choices. Forward thinking (for its time) in that the protagonist is female and uses psychic powers instead of guns to progress. Said psychic powers are used in multitudes of ways to solves puzzles throughout the game world, leading to a rather unique action platformer. However the designers are quick to kill the player often in ways the player could not predict beforehand, leading to unfair trial and error gameplay. Unless the player possesses their own ESP powers, it will take super human patience to see them through this game's challenging world. 5/10
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Post by Sarge on Apr 1, 2019 10:25:54 GMT -5
I think my run was considerably smoother, mainly because I ran the MSX2 version last year. I was interested in seeing the differences between the two, which are already fuzzy in my head. I'm pretty sure this one was more truncated and shorter. As for difficulty, I didn't have too many issues, mainly because that "barrier" power (first aid cross) makes you invincible for a big chunk of time. It pretty much short-circuits the challenge.
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