GOLDEN AXE REBORN
Original Release: Sega, 2020, PC
A short demo of a planned-but-axed series reboot from over a decade ago
Golden Axe Reborn (PC, Sega, 2020)
Where to Buy: Freeware - Was only officially available on Steam for one day in October 2020, standalone version can be downloaded from Internet Archive
Review by: C. M0use
"Golden Axe Reborn" is a short demo of a canceled game, released as part of an odd little tranche of goodies in 2020 on Sega's 60th anniversary as a company. It only consists of a segment of one level, and with just one playable character, but it's an interesting look at Sega's reboot plans for the series circa 2012-ish before they went in a different business direction.
Sega's Australian division had been tasked with creating reboots of three of the company's classic Genesis-era franchises: this, Altered Beast and Streets of Rage. This was apparently the first one down the pipe, but got no farther than this mockup that was put together in a matter of weeks right before Sega decided to shutter the Australian operation.
You play what appears to be a late-game level segment, with Ax Battler storming a trashed castle occupied by Death Adder and killing off a dozen or so of his mooks. You actually get to see Death Adder on his throne, though the game just fades to black after you clean up after all the available mooks and it's back to the title screen.
The thematic changes are interesting, though. It looked like they were going for a slightly slower overall pace, but with the ability to attack in eight directions and a greater variety of moves. The fundamentals of gameplay were retained with the quick swipe basic attack, charging with your shoulder and hammering jumping attacks that see you getting big air. But a slower and stronger attack button was also added, sort of replacing the powerful turn-around swing from the original game ... you can also combine this with the quicker attack for a sweeping swing that tosses enemies backwards, and when an enemy is stunned you also use it to cave his helmet in then kick him away. The game also added the ability to toss and kick enemies into each other to knock them over.
But the story of the development came out after Sega fumbled the release of the demo (calling it janky, which offended one of the developers - linked below), and if true it makes clear that Sega didn't have a coherent plan for this reboot series and was basically just looking to cash in on formerly popular names that hadn't had games made for them in a while. It nevertheless looked like the development team were fans of the franchise and looking to modernize it while doing it justice, despite being subject to some brutal work conditions.
It would have been interesting to see what came out as a finished product, and it may well have been pretty good, though after hearing the developer describe the work schedule I don't know if I would have wished that experience on anyone. Between the slower pace, greater variety of moves and new more "realistic" and "Western" art style, it almost seemed more like a modernization of Doman than Golden Axe.
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