Gilius, the dwarf with his HUGE axe!

I first discovered Golden Axe the way most of my generation probably did: in arcades. Standing in front of a cabinet, with its sound cutting through the general chaos of the room, and with the character selection feeling almost as important as the game itself. Ax Battler, Tyris Flare or Gilius Thunderhead?

For me, the choice was easy. Gilius.

The dwarf with the huge axe was a big favorite of mine. I don't know if it was because he immediately stood out from the other two or because I simply loved the sense of power behind every swing, but whenever the game appeared on the screen, that was the character I picked. Ax Battler could be the classic barbarian and Tyris Flare had spectacular magic, but I wanted the little guy with the axe.

And then something happened that, especially for the time, was a pretty big deal.

Golden Axe was released for the PC.

Not just for some more modern PC that could handle pretty much anything. For an 8086/8088 with 512KB of RAM. And that was exactly what I had at home. With EGA.

So you can imagine my surprise when I realized that I could play on my own machine a game that, until then, I had associated exclusively with the arcades. And the even better part is that this memory actually holds up. The DOS version of Golden Axe listed an Intel 8086/8088 and 512KB of RAM as its minimum requirements and supported, among others, EGA, VGA, CGA, MCGA, Hercules and Tandy.

The 5.25" floppy version came on two 360KB disks, while there was also a 3.5" version on a single 720KB disk. Two floppy disks to bring the world of Yuria into your home. Today it sounds almost ridiculous. Back then, it was perfectly normal.

And that was how Gilius Thunderhead made the journey from the arcade cabinet to my EGA monitor.

Golden Axe originally appeared in arcades in 1989, created and led by Makoto Uchida, a member of SEGA AM1 who had previously worked on Altered Beast. The development team behind the game became known as Team Shinobi, and Uchida had a pretty clear idea of what the game needed to be: a fantasy beat 'em up that would give the player the feeling of a grand adventure without having to explain everything.

And really, it didn't need much explanation.

Death Adder has conquered Yuria, captured the king and princess, and the three heroes set out to stop him. Ax Battler, Tyris Flare and Gilius Thunderhead each have different characteristics and a different relationship with magic, but the objective is the same: move forward, fight, reclaim the land and reach Death Adder.

That was Golden Axe.

And precisely because it was so straightforward, it worked so well.

There was no need for dozens of pages of lore or cutscenes explaining what was happening. The screen itself told you the story. A barbarian with a sword, a dwarf with an axe, a warrior with magic, soldiers, skeletons, giants and creatures you could ride. By the time you reached the end, you already understood exactly what kind of world you were trying to save.

The fantasy aesthetic wasn't accidental. Uchida had been influenced by the action and fantasy movies of the era, particularly Conan the Barbarian. SEGA took that aesthetic and put it into an arcade beat 'em up, giving it a much stronger identity than many other games in the genre had at the time.

One of the elements that made Golden Axe stand out was its beasts. Enemies could ride various creatures and, if you managed to knock them off, you could ride them yourself. It wasn't just an impressive visual detail. The creatures had different attacks and could change the way you approached a group of enemies.

Magic was, of course, another huge part of the experience. The little blue creatures carrying the magic pots were almost like small, moving rewards. You hit them, collected magic and waited for the right moment to unleash your spell. Tyris could create the most devastating effects, while Gilius and Ax Battler had their own different levels and forms of magic.

And this is where you start to understand why a game from 1989 could make such an impression.

SEGA didn't need to fill the screen with hundreds of objects. It needed a big boss, a great magic effect and a dragon you could ride. Scale was created through contrast. Small heroes facing enormous creatures, simple attacks suddenly followed by a screen filled with fire and magic.

Uchida himself placed a great deal of importance on playtesting. The team had people at SEGA play early versions of the game and watched where they got stuck, where they struggled and what made them want to keep playing. It was an approach that fit the arcade philosophy perfectly: the game had to make you want to put another coin in.

And Golden Axe did exactly that.

The reception in 1989 was particularly positive and its arcade performance was strong. The game became a significant success for SEGA and was subsequently ported to numerous platforms, with the Mega Drive version playing an important role in spreading it beyond the arcades.

There is also a great story behind the name. During development, the game was originally called Battle Axe and later Broad Axe. Golden Axe came later, with the suggestion coming from SEGA USA. The change wasn't limited to the name. Death Adder's axe itself was adapted to become the Golden Axe that ultimately gave the game its title.

And when a game becomes a success, a sequel is almost inevitable.

Golden Axe II was released in 1991 for the Mega Drive, keeping the three original heroes and the basic formula. It was a natural continuation of the first game without dramatically changing the recipe.

A year later came Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder in arcades. This time SEGA went considerably further. The game used the System 32 hardware, introduced new characters and supported up to four players simultaneously. Gilius returned, this time riding on the back of Goah, and the series showed what it could do with much more powerful hardware.

Golden Axe III followed in 1993 on the Mega Drive, initially only in Japan, with new characters and more moves. Then, many years later, in 2008, SEGA tried something completely different with Golden Axe: Beast Rider, taking the series into 3D and putting Tyris Flare at the center of the experience.

Looking back at the series today, what strikes me most is how clear the idea behind the original game was. It didn't need to become an RPG, it didn't need a huge open world and it didn't need dozens of mechanics layered on top of each other. It was an arcade fantasy game that knew exactly what it wanted to offer.

And for me, there is always that small personal detail that makes it stand out even more.

The image of Gilius in the arcade and, not long afterwards, that same character on the EGA monitor of my 8088. A game that until then had meant coins, arcade noise and a few minutes of play was suddenly sitting at home, on a computer with 512KB of RAM and two 5.25" floppy disks.

And, to be honest, the EGA version couldn't visually compete with the arcade cabinet. It didn't matter.

Because at that moment I wasn't looking at an inferior port. I was looking at Golden Axe running on my own computer.

And Gilius was there.

With his axe.

Just as I remembered him.

And man, did I spend countless hours with that guy!