History YMMV / GoldenAxe

* ThatOneAttack: [[TrueFinalBoss Death Bringer]] is already a hard final boss in the Genesis version to begin with, but, as explained in the LetsPlay/{{Whoisthisgit}} [[https://youtu.be/dhcGTV5WUeE?t=231 video on him]], his shockwave attack is incredibly dangerous. While the original Death Adder only created one shockwave with his similar attack, Death Bringer creates ''six'', which makes it far harder to effectively dodge the attack. If you're knocked down by one, he'll unleash his own version of Tyris's dragon spell if not interrupted quickly, which will deliver a whopping three bars of damage to both players.

** From the Genesis version of the first game, we have [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WRrvRZM2eA Showdown]], an imposing tune that plays when you reach the final boss, Death Bringer. It starts out as threatening as the boss you're fighting, but later grows into a more hopeful sounding tune, pumping up the player to finish the battle. This track even got an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWPFZS7rTUY upgraded version]] in the UsefulNotes/PS2 remake!

* AssPull: Partially due to being a CanonForeigner in the Platform/SegaGenesis and MS-DOS ports, the existence of [[spoiler:[[TheManBehindTheMan Death Bringer]]]] is not [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadowed]] at all.

* BestKnownForTheFanservice: Probably the best-remembered element from the games to a lot of people is the [[Creator/BorisVallejo Vallejo]]-esque [[MsFanservice Tyris Flare]] in her ChainmailBikini. Tyris was one of gaming's earliest popular sex symbols (preceding [[Franchise/TombRaider Lara Croft]] by half a decade), being {{Stripperiffic}} enough to make her blatantly sexually appealing, while also being rendered in enough graphical detail to make her visually attractive. Ax also provides a similar service for female and gay gamers.

* BestKnownForTheFanservice: Probably the best-remembered element from the games to a lot of people is the [[Creator/BorisVallejo Vallejo-esque]] [[MsFanservice Tyris Flare]] in her ChainmailBikini. Tyris was one of gaming's earliest popular sex symbols (preceding [[Franchise/TombRaider Lara Croft]] by half a decade), being {{Stripperiffic}} enough to make her blatantly sexually appealing, while also being rendered in enough graphical detail to make her visually attractive. Ax also provides a similar service for female and gay gamers.
* CompleteMonster: [[TheWormThatWalks Death Adder]] (specifically his PC Engine version, ''The Revenge of Death Adder'', and ''The Duel'') is a monstrous tyrant who [[BigBad leads]] an army of evil to Firewood Kingdom, [[RapePillageAndBurn massacring]] everyone within the country such that Firewood utterly ceases to exist, exhibiting his personal sadism by murdering the king and queen in front of their young daughter, Princess Tyris Flare. Seeking even greater power, Death Adder invades Southwood kingdom to do the same thing, slaughtering villages and enslaving the populace. Upon his return from death, Death Adder opts to massacre and enslave everyone he can for revenge, with the consequences of his victory being death on scales such as the world has never before seen.

* GameBreakingBug: In the arcade version of Golden Axe, each character has his or her own algorithm to determine if that character should use a longer range melee attack or a shorter range melee attack. In the Genesis/Mega Drive version, all characters share Ax Battler's algorithm. Therefore, attacks that would have hit a target if the longer-range sword attacks were used would whiff if the algorithm mistakenly picks the shorter range sword attacks. This bug is carried over to Golden Axe II. This bug severely negatively affects Tyris's game play. This bug also affected Gilius, but did not sabotage his usability.

* PortingDisaster: In the arcade version of Golden Axe, each character has his or her own algorithm to determine if that character should use a longer range melee attack or a shorter range melee attack. In the Genesis/Mega Drive version, all characters share Ax Battler's algorithm. Therefore, attacks that would have hit a target if the longer-range sword attacks were used would whiff if the algorithm mistakenly picks the shorter range sword attacks. This bug is carried over to Golden Axe II. This GameBreakingBug severely negatively affects Tyris's game play. This bug also affected Gilius, but did not sabotage his usability.

** The third Mega Drive game is a noticeable improvement over the first two, boasting a FightingGame style special attack system, branching paths and less ambiguous health gauges. [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks Some fans regret it, preferring the simple, frantic action of the first two games]]. It's also not as pretty as the first two arcade games, being a Genesis game.

* PortingDisaster: In the arcade version of Golden Axe, each character has his or her own algorithm to determine if that character should use a longer range melee attack or a shorter range melee attack. In the Genesis/Mega Drive version, all characters share Ax Battler's algorithm. Therefore, attacks that would have been hit by Tyris's longest sword attack but missed by her shorter sword attack would whiff if Ax Battler's algorithm calculates that the shorter range attack should be used. This bug is carried over to Golden Axe II. This GameBreakingBug severely negatively affects Tyris's game play. This bug also affected Gilius, but did not sabotage his usability.

* PolishedPort: The Genesis version of the first game had dumbed down sound and graphics, but compensated by adding a new level, a new final boss, Easy Mode, Duel Mode, and more palette swaps. The PC version had all that and more colorful graphics, though at the expense of sound quality.

* CompleteMonster: [[TheWormThatWalks Death Adder]] (specificallly his PC Engine version, ''The Revenge of Death Adder'', and ''The Duel'') is a monstrous tyrant who [[BigBad leads]] an army of evil to Firewood Kingdom, [[RapePillageAndBurn massacring]] everyone within the country such that Firewood utterly ceases to exist, exhibiting his personal sadism by murdering the king and queen in front of their young daughter, Princess Tyris Flare. Seeking even greater power, Death Adder invades Southwood kingdom to do the same thing, slaughtering villages and enslaving the populace. Upon his return from death, Death Adder opts to massacre and enslave everyone he can for revenge, with the consequences of his victory being death on scales such as the world has never before seen.

* CompleteMonster: [[TheWormThatWalks Death Adder]] (specificallly his ''The Revenge of Death Adder'', & ''The Duel'' version from the PC Engine) is a monstrous tyrant who [[BigBad leads]] an army of evil to Firewood Kingdom, [[RapePillageAndBurn massacring]] everyone within the country such that Firewood utterly ceases to exist, exhibiting his personal sadism by murdering the king and queen in front of their young daughter, Princess Tyris Flare. Seeking even greater power, Death Adder invades Southwood kingdom to do the same thing, slaughtering villages and enslaving the populace. Upon his return from death, Death Adder opts to massacre and enslave everyone he can for revenge, with the consequences of his victory being death on scales such as the world has never before seen.

* CompleteMonster [[labelnote:Primarily]]UsefulNotes/PCEngine's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z89ZJ7QfbfU cutscenes]]; ''The Revenge of Death Adder''; & ''The Duel''[[/labelnote]]: [[TheWormThatWalks Death Adder]] is a monstrous tyrant who [[BigBad leads]] an army of evil to Firewood Kingdom, [[RapePillageAndBurn massacring]] everyone within the country such that Firewood utterly ceases to exist, exhibiting his personal sadism by murdering the king and queen in front of their young daughter, Princess Tyris Flare. Seeking even greater power, Death Adder invades Southwood kingdom to do the same thing, slaughtering villages and enslaving the populace. Upon his return from death, Death Adder opts to massacre and enslave everyone he can for revenge, with the consequences of his victory being death on scales such as the world has never before seen.

* CompleteMonster (primarily the UsefulNotes/PCEngine's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z89ZJ7QfbfU cutscenes]]), ''The Revenge of Death Adder'', & ''The Duel'': [[TheWormThatWalks Death Adder]] is a monstrous tyrant who [[BigBad leads]] an army of evil to Firewood Kingdom, [[RapePillageAndBurn massacring]] everyone within the country such that Firewood utterly ceases to exist, exhibiting his personal sadism by murdering the king and queen in front of their young daughter, Princess Tyris Flare. Seeking even greater power, Death Adder invades Southwood kingdom to do the same thing, slaughtering villages and enslaving the populace. Upon his return from death, Death Adder opts to massacre and enslave everyone he can for revenge, with the consequences of his victory being death on scales such as the world has never before seen.

* ContestedSequel: ''III'' is either considered the best game of the series by far with tighter controls, much more varied moves and characters, or an ugly, slow mess that doesn't come close to the quality of the two prequels.

* EpilepticTrees: The skeletons in the third game don't look like human skeletons, and some even have tails. They might be remains of lizardmen from the second game.

* SignatureScene: The game's resident fire magic user summoning a dragon with the highest level spell.

* TierInducedScrappy: Ax Battler is considered to be the worst of the three due to being a MasterOfNone, while Tyris Flare excels in magic, and Gillius excels in his superior range with melee attacks. To add insult to injury, both Tyris and Gillius have higher priority when using charge attacks, while Ax Battler will almost always get attacked first if he uses it against stronger enemies.

* FirstInstallmentWins: Most of the fanart in the series usually are about the main trio (Ax, Tyris and Gillius), and mostly in their original design. Good luck finding art of any of the characters from the arcade and Mega Drive sequels. Averted with Death Adder. His cameos in other games tend to use his design from ''Revenge of Death Adder'', rather than his original incarnation.

** From the Genesis version of the first game, we have [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WRrvRZM2eA Showdown]], an imposing tune that plays when you reach the final boss, Death Bringer. It starts out as threatening as the boss you're fighting, but later grows into a more hopeful sounding tune, pumping up the player to finish the battle. This track even got an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWPFZS7rTUY upgraded version]] in the PS2 remake!

** ''Revenge of Death-Adder'' had [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRvz-69HcDQ&index=2&list=PLFd0cOtWTWTModEsJOdD06U7gN9tI4uo8 some rocking tunes]], too.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpSRB-qgyRs& Second Boss Theme]] from ''II'', first played on the boss battle in [[LethalLavaLand lava cave]] against two [[GiantMook minotaurs]] and two [[EliteMook lizardmen]]. Later it's also played during BossRush outside enemy's castle gates and finally during the fight against the DragonInChief in the penultimate boss battle.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1_xSBHBQlU "Wilderness"]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFoN1ZMmNUA the main theme of the game]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pvlk8ngkfYU no matter which version]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIpfi6djLw4 you are playing]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjOUAIyfm7E is great]].

** The "fighting" Mantis in ''RoDA'' has a grab attack where it grabs the enemy, pulls them close, and you hear the same loud [-CRUNCH-] you hear where your character eats food.

* DemonicSpiders: The skeletons. They inflict twice the damage of normal mooks, tend to come in duos along with other enemies, are common in the last 3 levels, are fast, have to be comboed at least 3 times to kill, and like all enemies have the annoying tendency to flank you whenever possible. They also have a jumping attack that does almost as much damage in one hit than their whole ground combo combined, which by the way is 1.5 bars of health. Naturally, two show up to assist Death Adder in battle... and the ones assisting Death Bringer have ''[[NighInvulnerable 256 HP]]''. Worse still, in the FanRemake ''Golden Axe Legend'', their shields aren't just for show or [[ShieldBash klonking over the heroes' heads in a short ranged combo]]; they block attacks, and in fact do so ''very'' often.

* CompleteMonster (primarily the UsefulNotes/PCEngine's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z89ZJ7QfbfU cutscenes]]), ''The Revenge of Death Adder'', & ''The Duel'': [[TheWormThatWalks Death Adder]] is a monstrous tyrant who [[BigBad leads an army of evil]] to Firewood Kingdom, [[RapePillageAndBurn massacring]] everyone within the country such that Firewood utterly ceases to exist, exhibiting his personal sadism by murdering the king and queen in front of their young daughter, Princess Tyris Flare. Seeking even greater power, Death Adder invades Southwood kingdom to do the same thing, slaughtering villages and enslaving the populace. Upon his return from death, Death Adder opts to massacre and enslave everyone he can for revenge, with the consequences of his victory being death on scales such as the world has never before seen.