Golden Axe was one of my very first CD games. After getting ripped
for $500 from a store adverting in EGM, I was still dying to get a
Turbo CD.

The local electronics store in my home town had a Turbo CD and
Fighting Street and Monster Lair.

But after a visit to japan, they brought back Golden Axe, Side Arms
Special and Super Darius.

Once I managed to order another Turbo CD from Radio Shack, I Golden
Axe and Super Darius(2 or 3 months before the actual Turbo CD
arrived) and later Side Arms Special.

I used to look through the manuals everyday imagining what the games
would be like and wondering why we couldn't get nice color art filled
manuals over here.

Before this, Golden Axe was the one game that the store had opened to
demo the system.

Everyone was blown away by the overall pesentation(menus and such),
especially the CD voice(more so than the cinemas). And even the
Genesis lovers(during the console wars) wouldn't knock the in-game
content too much since even they understood how limited the original
Golden Axe is gameplay-wise anyways.

Like all Turbo games I owned, I played the game to death. After
mastering it, I would play through and finish it again and again.

The gameplay is pretty much intact, but some of the enemies are too
cheap and Death Adder in particular is just ridiculous.

Its easiest with Tyris, not too bad with Axe Battler but near
impossible with Gilius Thunderhead.

The ending cinemas are satisfying but not too long and are similar.
But at least each character does get their own ending.

I don't know if the developers had access to the original content
that went into the arcade original or anything, but it is unfortunate
that the didn't take advantage of the PC Engine's abilities to
produce what should've been the definitive version of the game.

I still love it, flaws and all. But knowing the games as well as I
do, I realize that the aesthetics aren't THAT far off, the gameplay
is more or less intact except for the excess cheap spots. I've always
found the biggst short-coming to be the sound effects.

I'm just glad that I was able to experience it as I did back in the
day so I can appreciate it to this day. Otherwise I wouldn't give it
a chance either(everyone trying it nowadays just hates it).

However, the game is worth it for the soundtrack alone if you're
a 'classic' arcade fan.