Golden Axe II review - Sega Megadrive

As a big fan of the original, I can only express my disappointment at this sequel. All the programmers have done is altered the graphics, changed the magic spells and given each player a new special move (none of which are any good). Otherwise it's exactly the same as the original. The gameplay's basically identical, the dinosaurs are all very similar, the music is worse, the baddies are killed using exactly the same tactics, the map layouts are surprisingly similar, and, to cap it all, it's not even as challenging as the original - I finished it on my first go! If you already own Golden Axe, Golden Axe II simply doesn't offer enough challenge or new features to be worth buying, and if you don't, buy the original game instead - it's far more fun.

Despite all the improvements made in Golden Axe II, it somehow isn't as enjoyable as the original. For one thing it lacks atmosphere, there's no real sense of involvement. The graphics are a mixed bag, really, with some excellent sprites but some surprisingly poor backgrounds. The sound is also disappointing, with few decent effects and weedy tunes accompanying the action. If you haven't got the original, I suppose Golden Axe II might be a worthwhile purchase. But to be honest, the original game is of a more consistent quality, is more challenging and is ultimately a lot more fun.

When the first solitary screenshot of Golden Axe 2 appeared in Mean Machines, I nearly wet my Spiderman Y-fronts. Being a massive fan of the original I simply could not wait to play this - graphically, it looked even better than the (amazing) first game. As the MM team quite rightly point out, this actually turned out to be a disappointingly lazy update by Sega. The core gameplay remains entirely unchanged. However, having said that, the graphics are better and although the complete audio package isn't up to the standard set by the original (the sound effects are terrible - most of them sound like someone farting in a bath), some of the tunes really are amazing (the opening levels background music remains one of my all-time favourite Megadrive themes). It's a shame that Sega expected the general public to pay good money for a game they'd already played to death over a year beforehand, but Golden Axe 2 is still a worthy purchase for fans of the series.