Golden Axe III

[GEN ESIS GAMER]

On this site golden axe 3 did not get a good score it seems reviewers hate it but the traditional fan of the series love it.

[metalliqaz]

profound statement.

[Zebbe]

I beat this game today with my brother and I disagree with the review. Some things are just incorrect about it. For example there are some Street Fighter/Streets of Rage 3 style moves and some throws that weren't in the previous games, which contradicts the statement "The gameplay hasn't progressed in this series at all". And as I read it it seems like the reviewer isn't aware that the dragon IS in the game, and it comes when you have full magic and use it with the amazon. Discussing the audio is quite pointless, but I'd definitely say it is of at least higher QUALITY than the previous two games. All in all, GAIII did many more changes and much more progress compared to the second game, which to me felt like the exact same game as its prequel.

[Jesse813]

I think GAIII is pretty good, though not quite as good as I or II

[TmEE]

like Fonzie once said, it puts its prequels to the grave, and I agree with it. GA3 is much nicer than GA1 or GA2

[Alianger]

Needs more dragon mounts and giants.

[vintagegamecrazy]

We didn't need another thread for this game, every game reviewed has a thread for it already.

[Melf]

Everything here is below what you'd expect for the third game in this series. The visuals are awful, the magic, dragon or not, is just laughable compared to the awesome effects of the first game, and the gameplay received a few new moves just to prove that it was aware Streets of Rage had been released. Terrible, terrible game.

Like I said, there's a reason Sega kept this game in Japan.

[Jesse813]

Everything here is below what you'd expect for the third game in this series. The visuals are awful, the magic, dragon or not, is just laughable compared to the awesome effects of the first game, and the gameplay received a few new moves just to prove that it was aware Streets of Rage had been released. Terrible, terrible game.

Like I said, there's a reason Sega kept this game in Japan.

Well your welcome to your opinion just like everyone else is to theres, though I think yours is wrong

[Melf]

Mine is the only opinion that matters!

[Phexar]

I'm neutral on my thoughts about this game... I did initially like it more than the previous two because of the ability to block and some other added moves (along with a few nice tunes), but it feels a bit fiddly nowadays and I hate whenever the giant-four-armed-goat-headed-demon fellows show up, especially in Cursed City where they cram you into a small area with two of them. Chronos (the panther) is the only character I can comfortably take them out with, thanks to his dashing spin attack (which cuts through pretty much everything in the game, in fact).

I also didn't like that they went back to the original Golden Axe magic system after the upgrade they had in Golden Axe 2, or the new Bizarrians, half of which were mostly useless. That said, I think it is a decent game, though a little lacking in several ways compared to Golden Axe 1 & 2 even if it does add some things of it's own to make it stand out from the previous two.

[Baloo]

Mine is the only opinion that matters!

He's got everyone there.

[GEN ESIS GAMER]

After playing Golden Axe III several times, to me it doesan't feel like a true Golden Axe title. kind of like the way Beast Rider is.

[Aarzak]

Everything here is below what you'd expect for the third game in this series. The visuals are awful, the magic, dragon or not, is just laughable compared to the awesome effects of the first game, and the gameplay received a few new moves just to prove that it was aware Streets of Rage had been released. Terrible, terrible game.

Like I said, there's a reason Sega kept this game in Japan.

Took the words right out of my mouth.

I'm glad they kept this turd in Japan. Its the least they could've done.

[Christuserloeser]

to me it doesan't feel like a true Golden Axe title.

It's developed by a different team - like all Streets of Rage games are developed by different teams, or all Shinobi games. Of course there are some team members, producers, directors, level designers, graphic artists, that are involved in more than one of the games - like Yuzo Koshiro did the music for all the Streets of Rage games, and Motohiro Kawashima was involved in the music for both Streets of Rage 2 and Streets of Rage 3. Also, "Team Streets of Rage", the guys behind Super Shinobi and Streets of Rage, is fully credited in Streets of Rage 2", although it was developed mainly by Koshiro's Ancient (Beyond Oasis).

In case of Golden Axe 3 it seems to be developed by at least some of the GA2 staff - like the music. Naofumi Hataya and Tatsuyuki Maeda composed the music of GA3, Naofumi Hataya also did the music for GA2, which is why GA3 sounds so similar to GA2.

Chronos (the panther) is the only character I can comfortably take them out with, thanks to his dashing spin attack (which cuts through pretty much everything in the game, in fact).

If I remember correctly, all of the character's have a special that cuts through everything - e.g. Sarah's thrown sabre. But yeah, I think the game's the most fun with Chronos and Sarah.

Everything here is below what you'd expect for the third game in this series.

Have you recently played the first two games ? - Like TmEE and Fonzie, I really think GA3 wipes the floor with GA1 and GA2. It just plays so much better.

That said, I really enjoy playing GA1 and GA2 nowadays.


Anyway, here's a pretty good review of the game:

The visuals are awful

I agree that some stages do look pretty 8-bit. Others however do look impressive for its time - like the stage when you ride the giant eagle's back.
The game came out along with games like Mazin Saga, Fatal Fury, Jurrasic Park, Taz-Mania, and Ecco The Dolphin, and I think it holds up very well to those.

It also does look a lot like GA1 and GA2, but in comparision to GA1 and GA2 there are some things that did improve:

- much bigger, more detailed character sprites
- twice as many stages
- more playable characters & more bosses


Here's a map of the different routes you can take:

the magic, dragon or not, is just laughable compared to the awesome effects of the first game

No. When previously you had three characters with three spells, you now got four characters with four spells, two of which are as impressive as the most powerful spell of each character of the previous games.

Here are screenshots of the co-operative team specials along with their equivalent magic spells:

The co-op moves are an idea they obviously 'borrowed' from Streets of Rage 1. (Streets of Rage 2 was released just a few weeks before Golden Axe 3, and does not include the team moves anyway.)

and the gameplay received a few new moves just to prove that it was aware Streets of Rage had been released.

It plays totally different in comparision with GA1+2 (which play almost identical) or Streets of Rage.

Like I said, there's a reason Sega kept this game in Japan.

Which would be what exactly ?

The number of Japanese [Sega] games from 1993-1996 they've released in the US went down to way below 50% of SOJ's output. Most of these games are among the very best games ever released for the machine, see Monster World 4, Battle Mania 2, Dragon Slayer, Pulseman, Langrisser 2, Pengo, or Surging Aura.