Game Review: Golden Axe (Mobile)

Golden Axe is another direct port to iOS from Sega with few changes to the original game.

If you’ve never played a version of this game…have you been living under a rock? It is one of the most famous hack & slash games from yester-year.

The story is simple…in the land of Yuria the evil Death Adder has captured the king & his daughter & has taken over the castle where he keeps them imprisoned. He finds the legendary Golden Axe & threatens to kill the King & destroy the axe if the people of Yuria refuse to recognise him as their new ruler.

3 warriors set out to stop him…first we have a male barbarian, Ax who wields a broadsword. Then we have the dwarf Gilius who uses an axe & finally we have the female amazon, Tyris who uses a longsword.

Each character is playable from the start & each has their own playing style.

Regardless of whom you do play as the game will play out the same none the less. The aim of the game is to make your way through several different areas of the world while fighting Death Adders troops & henchmen.

You can attack with each characters main weapon as well as jump to combine attacks. Each character can also cast magic that varies in strength depending on how many bars of magic are available.

These bars of magic are replenished by collecting blue magic potions. These come from kicking small characters that appear during levels or at the end of levels (kind of like a bonus). Magic is pretty important to getting through the game as it can be very tough at times.

Players have few lives, limited health & limited continues before its game over. Playing smart is the only way to make it to Death Adder with enough lives to see him off. There are numerous creatures you can climb on & control for added speed & damage which helps tremendously throughout.

Unfortunately it isn’t anything special & the controls take much away from its overall quality. They take up far too much of the screen & there are times when you just won’t be able to see an incoming enemy as your finger is covering their approach.

Multi-player is an option if you can find someone to play. All I’ve ever seen is the searching for compatible devices screen.

Golden Axe is a classic game & one that holds up really well however this conversion offers little to get excited about. While not expensive (79p) it’s hardly worth recommending if you’ve played other versions.