Golden Axe II

Three heroes must once again band together to defeat an evil force in this hack-n-slashin' sequel to the arcade classic.

Genesis

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PlayStation Network (PS3)

iPhone

iPad

Nintendo Switch

Overview

Golden Axe II is a side-scrolling 2D Brawler developed by Sega released for the Sega Genesis in 1991. Unlike Golden Axe, which was ported to a large amount of consoles, Golden Axe II was exclusively a Genesis release at the time.

It did eventually find a release on other consoles a decade and a half later in 2006, appearing in the Sega Genesis Collection for the PlayStation 2. And in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection in 2009 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It is also available as a stand-alone digital download on the PC.

Gameplay

Like the previous game in the series, Golden Axe II is a 2D brawler, in vein of Final Fight, but with 'hack-n-slash' elements similar to Knights of the Round.

The game features a singleplayer or two-player co-operative mode. Players can choose between 3 characters:

Ax Battler: The Barbarian
Gilius Thunderhead: The Dwarf
Tyris Flare: The Amazon

The player can choose between three difficulty settings: Easy, Normal and Hard. However, when playing on Easy the game can only be played up to the end of Level 5.

Golden Axe II plays mostly the same as its predecessor and thus reuses some mechanics. The player can restore their life meter by eating foods scattered throughout the level and dropped by various enemies. Magic can be used once the player has collected a Magic Book, found throughout the level and by defeating Wizards. At the end of each level, Wizards will attempt to steal from the player. The player can also attack the wizards to regain their items and obtain additional ones as well. Green Wizards will drop magic books, while Red Wizards will drop food. The player can hold up to 8 Magic Books. The more Magic Books the player has, the more powerful the spell they cast can be. By holding down the magic button, it will charge until the player lets go. The first spell only requires one, with the next powerful spell requiring four, then subsequent spells requiring an additional book.

The Duel

A gamemode returning from the Genesis version of the previous game, the player fights through 15 increasingly challenging duels against a group of enemies. The player's life carries through subsequent stages, so risk increases the worse the player performs. After completion, or death, the player receives a rank depending on how well they performed. In two player mode, players fight alone to the death.

Battle 1: Longmoan
Battle 2: Longmoan, Chicken Bizarrian
Battle 3: Lizardman
Battle 4: 2x Longmoan (Green)
Battle 5: 2x Longmoan (Red Armor), Chicken Bizarrian
Battle 6: 2x Skeleton
Battle 7: 2x Longman (Gray Armor), Chicken Bizarrian, Dragon Bizarrian
Battle 8: 2x Lizardman (Red)
Battle 9: 2x Minotaur
Battle 10: Headless Knight
Battle 11: 3x Longmoan (Gold Armor)
Battle 12: 2x Lizard (Purple)
Battle 13: 2x Minotaur (Purple)
Battle 14: 3x Neo Skeleton
Battle 15: 2x Headless Knight (Red)

Levels

Levels
Ravaged Village Boss: Minotaur
Ruins Boss: Headless Knight
Tower The stage has many opportunities to knock enemies off ledges for instant kills. Boss: 3x Lizards (Purple)
Dragon's Throat Cave Boss: 2x Minotaur (Red), 2x Lizard (Red)
Castle Gates Boss: 1x Longmoan (Gold), 2x Heninger (Gold), 2x Headless Knight (White)
Castle Boss: 3x Lizard (Red), 1x Headless Knight (Gold)
Dark Guld's Chamber Boss: Dark Guld

Enemies

Enemies
Longmoan The most common and simple enemy in the game. However, they can still be fearsome in numbers even towards the end of the game due to their dash attacks.
Heninger
Skeleton Neo-Skeleton A more powerful and agile version of the Skeleton.
Wizard When defeated, they drop items.
Lizard-Man
Minotaur First appearing as a boss at the beginning of the first level, by level 3 they become common enemies.
Headless Knight Another enemy that starts off as a boss on the second level, before becoming a regular enemy.
Dark Guld The final boss of the game.
Bizarrian Chicken Bizarrian Dragon Bizarrian. Bizarrians are mounts ridden by the enemy, but can be knocked off and used by the player. They can jump, tail-whip and in the case of the dragon bizarrians, breath fire. They will flee if they are left alone for several moments, or attacked too many times.

Soundtrack

Golden Axe II was composed by Naofumi Hataya, his debut soundtrack for Sega. It did not see an official release until 2008, when it was compiled in the 3 Disc set Golden Axe: The Music.