Golden Axe III - Sega Mega Drive Review

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-ii…

Gameplay > graphics . This is one of the most replayable games for Mega Drive. OST are gorgeous

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.

Underrated gem. It takes a few play throughs to understand the mechanics and enjoy it.

I'm really surprised about such a negative review. This actually is one of my favorite genesis games and I always liked it way more than prequels.

The Giant guy looks like a juiced up Ultimate Warrior

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".

In Golden Axe 3 If you use your magic while an enemy is eating chicken he will drop it and you can pick it up to replenish your health! Absolutely amazing touch and I was in shock the first time this happened. This feature pretty much sums up GA3 most people have no idea all the little touches this game has to offer. GA 3 definitely doesn't make the best first impression, but aside from the mostly medicore visuals this game is criminally underrated and one of the best beat em ups of the 16-bit era. If you enjoy depth in the genre the more time you sink into it the more you will appreciate it. Of course there are some people who like their beat em ups to be the mash one button and watch one combo play out the entire game types you all won't appreciate GA3 at all. GA3 is the best Genesis installment because of the extremely expanded moveset that includes 4 different combos two close and two longe range, projectile attacks, sweep attacks, 3 different jump attacks, team attacks, team magic and blocking. All of this adds up to one of the deepest and most rewarding combat systems of any beat em up ever. , branching paths, and multiple endings. While the enemy diversity definitely could have been better it easily beats out GA 1 and GA2 in this regard. They also did the next best thing by having the enemies get progressively harder throughout the game and using different harder to defend attacks in the later levels. Example the fat guys can breathe fire later in the game and enemies use different combos which inflict more damage. Additionally, enemy A.I. is vastly improved and they don't jump to their death or walk off ledges. Also the game is filled with nice little touches like enemies crawling away, the guy gets caught on fire animation, breakable objects, saving 5 prisoners for a 1-up.

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.

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

That's some good Genesis music 🎶

10:05 They even got Boris Vallejo to paint that cover art!

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.

1:43 - To be fair, all of the characters are half-nekkid...if not more so.

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!

The music is excellent. I really enjoy this game, probably my favourite Golden Axe, especially with two players.

One thing I always loved about it is the combining magic between characters!

I tend to forget the Ax Battler and Tyris lookalikes are completely new characters.

Sounds like they put a few of those extra megs into sound effects. Picking up magic and life sounds way better than the earlier games.

Race: Human Class: Half-naked