As many kids did, I was spending all my money on Golden Axe in the arcades. The brutal action, cool magic effects and multiplayer action just drew me in making me play again and again. Since 1989, there's been a variety of attempt to bring back the series through a variety of platforms with only one game being as good if not better than the original: Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder. Sadly that arcade game was not played by as many people nor ever seen again. Anyways, to capitalize on the popularity of retro games, Sega decided to bring back the series with Golden Axe: Beast Rider.

Unlike the main Golden Axe games within the series, Golden Axe: Beast Rider has only one main character, Tyris Flare, the hot Red Sonja clone that has the most kickass magic. Her tribe of equally hot women have been slaughtered by Death Adder, the bad guy from the original Golden Axe with the weird spelling Death=Adder. With the help of the coolest non-Lord of the Rings dwarf, Gilius Thunderhead, she will repair the Golden Axe and put the stabbing to Death Adder.

There's a bit of old and new that make up this game. Some bits of the old Golden Axe gameplay include the use of beasts(hence the name), fire magic attacks, and those little gnomes that run around that you have to attack to get some magic, food, or the case of this game, gold.

Putting it simply, this game is a hack-n-slash that's been updated from the original games. It has the typical "strong", "weak" attacks, and a push attack leading to the combos created by mixing up the three attacks. Timing comes into play within these combos because pressing the buttons at just the right time will make Tyris' sword aflame causing more damage to the enemies. Along with the attacks comes a two way of defense. Rather than having to cleverly move around enemies to avoid their attacks, Tyris has both a block and evade button. Both buttons require good timing to allow for counter attacks which become a requirement when facing many enemies or more difficult enemies.

Thankfully, the combat system isn't that bad. With enemies surround Tyris, the use of the left stick will have your attacks focus on whichever direction thus keeping the action from being annoying when fighting multiple enemies. In fact, it's a bit satisfying defeating enemies because the brutality of the attacks. Heads, arms, and torsos will be sent flying after the right amount of damage is done. Enemies will even give the audible death groan used in the original Golden Axe game.

Magic is available in a variety of forms. Tyris has a magic gauge which is in the form of several magic bottles. Depending on the choice of magic, one or more bottles will be used to use the magic with each magic varying on damage and area of effect.

To help Tyris is a variety of beasts. These beasts either become available in certain parts or will be carrying enemies on their backs. Once you have control of these beasts, you'll have access to the beasts' special attacks allowing for some major ass kickery. While in the old games the beasts would leave after a certain amount of time, these beasts have their own health bar eventually dying when the bar is depleted. While the beasts are cool to look and cause great damage, they simply control like tanks especially one giant beast you control which looks just like a big tanks. Also, one particular gripe of have regarding the enemies is that the enemies take much more damage on a beast than Tyris does letting them stay on for much longer unless you use a jump attack.

The enemies have a similar approach to the older Golden Axe enemies. Many barbarians in a variety of sizes will be thrown to you where you destroy them as you see fit. Tons of other enemies will stand in your way begging to be taken down. At the end of the stage, depending on how well you do against enemies and a variety of other factors, you will be given a grade.

I have to say that surprisingly, this game looks pretty good. Tyris has great, albeit it overly sexy, look that really is some nice eye candy. Throughout the levels, there are times where the characters and environments look awesome together, but not nearly as often as it should be. As for the score and voice acting, I just put it down as ok. Nothing stellar about it, all pretty standard.

At around 8-10 hours, once beaten there's not a big reason to play the game again. Although there are unlockables for getting better grades on levels, only those that truly loved the game will want to do it. As a hack-n-slash game, Golden Axe: Beast Rider doesn't do a poor job but it's not stellar. Instead, it's just a bit above average. If there was a true multiplayer mode and a better plot, this game could have been great.

Score - 6.7/10.0

- O.G.