After the failure of 'Golden Axe II' in 1991, Sega bravely decided to give it another go two years later. 'Golden Axe III' duly got underway in 1993 but changes were made. None of the original characters appear, apart from Gillius Thunderhead who appears at the start of each level as a non-playable character who gives advice to the player. The special moves also were dispensed with. Despite these changes, 'Golden Axe III' was superior in every way to its predecessor, however its critical reception with other gamers was even less well received than its predecessor, which would possibly explain its lack of releases outside of Japan.
The story is again as before. The golden axe is under threat yet again, this time by Damud Hellstrike, the prince of darkness, so it is up to the four warriors - Proud Cragger ( a giant barbarian ), Kain Grinder ( who bears a strong resemblance to Ax Battler, Sahra Burn ( who bears a strong resemblance to Tyris Flare ) and Chronos Lait ( a humanoid panther ) - to take him down and lift the curse from the land and its people.
'Golden Axe III' will never compare with the first game but overall was an enjoyable enough play. Unfortunately, this was when a decline in the franchise started to hit hard. Sales of the game in Japan were extremely poor and as a result there was never a 'Golden Axe IV'. A couple of attempts to revive the game on other systems proved fruitless.
'Golden Axe III' got the chance in 2009 to reach a new audience for the first time outside of Japan when it was included on the 'Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection' disc ( released on both the XBOX 360 and the PS3 ), which is how I came to play it. As I said before it is not classic 'Golden Axe' but it is well worth a play!
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