Gogan on the top, Prince Sirius below.
The Legendary Axe is an arcade-style Platformer / Hack and Slash hybrid made by Victor Musical Industries for the TurboGrafx-16.
In a faraway High Fantasy-themed land infested by assorted monsters, you are a Barbarian Hero, Gogan of Minofan, on a quest to rescue your Love Interest Flare who's abducted by a hostile Beast Men tribe. Armed with the titular weapon - the Legendary Axe "Sting", you set off on a quest that leads from your village to hills and caves (called "zones" in-game) to reach the beast men's domain, the "Evil Palace".
The game is successful enough to spawn a standalone sequel, simply called The Legendary Axe 2 (released in Japan as Dark Legend, oddly enough). This time you play as Prince Sirius, a noble Warrior Prince out to reclaim the throne from your evil brother Prince Zach. A variety of different weapons are introduced in this follow-up (compared to the first where you use an ax from beginning to the end), with your default weapon being a sword while you can obtain assorted equipment like axes, flails, and of course an ax.
Often draws comparison with the Rastan trilogy, another fantasy-themed series of games popular back then.
Legendary Axe contains examples of:
- Bears Are Bad News: Every bear that appears in the first game is an enemy that tries ripping Gogan apart on sight. The first two are a Dual Boss before more appears later on, degraded into common enemies.
- Big Bad: Jagu the Beast Man lord leads the dark tribe, and abducted Gogan's Love Interest Flare for a ritual. Gogan's rescue mission leads to the story's main plotline.
- Charged Attack: Holding down the attack button allows Grogan to perform a charged swing with the Sting.
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: In his penultimate monstrous form, Jagu appears to have eyes covering all over his body, including protruding ones on his kneecaps and shoulders.
- Giant Spider: One of the bosses of the original is a massive spider hanging on a cave's ceiling with its web, who attacks dropping down periodically and firing its webs on Gogan. This particular spider shows up on most box arts of this game.
- Indy Escape: Shows up in the first game's caverns. Though thanks to wielding the Sting, Gogan instead destroy the boulders rolling towards you before you're crushed.
- Killer Gorilla: Gogan's enemies includes gigantic gorillas (with brown fur, oddly enough) who attacks by flinging boulders on him.
- Magical Mystery Doors: The original's 5th Zone is made up of an annoying series of corridors and rooms with one-way doors at each end. Alternate doors are obtained by falling down the pits near the end of some of the corridors.
- Named Weapons: The titular weapon is a Legendary Ax called "Sting".
- Oculothorax: The third zone has a cluster of giant floating eyeballs as a Wolfpack Boss which can hurt Gogan with a single touch.
- One-Winged Angel: Jagu from the original game turns into a gigantic, ogre-like creature for his inevitable boss fight. For reference, Gogan is roughly below his kneecaps.
- Playing with Fire: The Nightmare, a demonic entity and second-to-last boss, whose attacks have him spamming fireballs at Gogan.
- Rock Monster: Rock Men are common enemies that look like squarish rocks until approached.
- Rolling Attack: The original game has a centipede-like monster that can roll towards Gogan with a tackle attack.
- Smooch of Victory: After defeating Jagu, saving Flare and completing the game, Gogan is rewarded with one from Flare as the credits appear.
- Super Drowning Skills: In both games there are water pits that you don't drown in, just fall through like Bottomless Pits made of air.
Legendary Axe II contains examples of:
- Artifact Title: The sequel is still called Legendary Axe, despite the new protagonist Prince Sirius wielding a sword by default.
- Attack of the Monster Appendage: Prince Sirius can sometimes be attacked by skeletal arms, legs, and Dracolich heads sticking out from holes in walls, that he can destroy, but whatever creature the bony appendages are attached to never appears.
- Big Bad: Prince Zach, the Evil Prince who took over the throne and enforced a rule of tyranny over the kingdom.
- Blade on a Rope: A morning star attached to a chain is one of the early available weapons in the sequel, granting better range than the default sword.
- Bolivian Army Ending: Prince Sirius has defeated Prince Zach and King Drodam, and reclaimed his throne. As Drodam's followers bows before him, an assassin, scimitar in hand, suddenly appears and leaps towards Prince Sirius before the game quickly cuts to the credits.
- Bowdlerise: The above-mentioned Bolivian Army Ending. In the Japanese version, the assassin's completely nude, but in all other versions, she's wearing a red leotard.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: From an ax-swinging barbarian who lives in the mountains to a sword-wielding prince trying to reclaim his castle.
- The Evil Prince: Prince Zach, the evil brother of the lawful protagonist Prince Sirius.
- A Head at Each End: The Worm, a massive red subterranean serpentine monster with two heads, one in it's tail. The front head does most of the attacking during the boss battle however.
- Mirror Match: In the final stage, when Prince Sirius finally meets his evil brother Prince Zach, it turns out they use the exact same sprite, albeit recoloured, and fight identically. The first stage of the battle has Prince Sirius fighting a doppelganger of himself, but if he wins, Zach then summons his One-Winged Angel form.
- One-Winged Angel: Much like Jagu in the previous game, when defeated by the hero Prince Zach then calls for King Drodam, a demonic lord who he fuses with, turning into a massive horned monster for the second phase of his fight.
- Stab the Sky: The sequel begins with Prince Sirius grabbing the Royal Sword and thrusting it straight upward as the screen flashes dramatically. It's also his Victory Pose.
- Stepping Stones in the Sky: Occurs in the waterfall climbing level of the second game, where Sirius need to jump upwards on falling rocks.
- Temporary Platform: In II, some of the skull platforms in Stage 4 and normal blocks in Stage 6 crumble when stepped on.
- Throne Room Throwdown: Prince Zach, the main villain - and later King Drodam whom he summons - is fought in front of the throne during the final stage.
- Warrior Prince: This time, instead of Gogan you play as Prince Sirius, a capable fighter on his own who battles his way through his evil brother's army.
- Wolverine Claws: Worn by some enemies early on, who try slashing Prince Sirius with them.
