Golden Axe: Beast Rider

The graphics and sound are great, and the numerous challenges and arena modes offer some diversity. If you're up for a quick hack-and-slash game, rent it. If you want a game with depth, however, this Axe needs sharpening.

Although Golden Axe: Beast Rider honors its roots and does a nice job of storytelling, it fails to deliver on the all-important technical side of things.

Eschewing the expected hack-n’-slash mindlessness, a timing-based evasion and blocking system is required to master the melee. It’s not enough to save an otherwise lackluster effort, but Secret Level was definitely on to something with the combat.

Golden Axe: Beast Rider confuses the tribute to retro with the flat and boring gameplay. The new game of SEGA is mediocre in every aspect, and comes as a failure in its attempt to recover a legendary name and turn it into a worthy product of Next-Gen platforms.

Ditch the “Golden Axe” moniker and just call this baby “Beast Rider”. Like those old ‘80s barbarian fantasy flicks that also had their share of serious faults, Beast Rider is blunt, exploitative, and plenty of fun when no one else is watching.

While it’s kind of cool to see a new take on such an old game, the presence of a muddy palette and outdated game mechanics combined with the inexplicable absence of co-op makes Beast Rider forgettable and so much less than it could have been.

Not even the inclusion of co-op would have made this one any the better, no matter how angry you might be that it was excluded.

This half-hearted revival attempt leaves Golden Axe lifeless and dull.

This game is initially promising, stunning even. Graphics and animation are impressive, but looking beyond that, we find a game which lacks deepness. The main character doesn't have enough movements and feels limited, the camera management is poor and the graphical engine suffers and has imperfections that ruin the initial impressions of a game that could be way better.

Exactly like the original, and that's a bad thing. [Dec 2008, p.94]

I don't believe that there's anything inherently wrong with Sega trying to do something different with the series, but by taking away a feature that many fans wanted and offering nothing compelling in exchange, Beast Rider will have a hard time appealing to both series fans and those who are just looking for a decent action game.

It's a hack-and-slash, so there isn't any compelling depth lurking under the surface. The extra modes – Challenge and Trials of Tyris – are just extended hack and slash sessions. Where's the two-player support?

A repetitive and badly made game that makes me wonder if the series has any kind of future. This game feels extremely rushed and just can’t compare to games of a similar ilk.

Beast Rider deserves a place in the gaming hall of shame, easily one of the worst titles on 360 and with an obscene price-point to boot.

Lacking co-op and the rest of the cast, Beast Rider seems more like a market study than the complete Golden Axe experience we could expect.

Another 'classic' Sega franchise turns to bum gravy. Sonic, eat your heart out. [Jan 2009, p.67]

Let's get serious; Beast Rider is a game to be avoided.

Stamps on our fondness for the original until all of the squishy bits ooze out of the sides. [Christmas 2008, p.73]

Fans hoping for a worthwhile update to one of gaming's most revered hack-and-slash franchises will be sorely disappointed by this poorly designed and utterly mediocre title.

We expect a few things from a modern arcade-style brawler: reasonably placed checkpoints, more than one playable character, varied enemies, and multiplayer. Golden Axe: Beast Rider, Sega’s reinvention of the arcade classic, delivers none of them. Perhaps the worst oversight of the bunch is the lack of multiplayer options.

While you may enjoy the combat and beasts, the whole game is just far too tedious and it’s missing everything that made the original great.

While the counter-attacks and the beasts add something to the lacklustre gameplay, everything else from cameras to enemies makes it a chore to slog through one end of a level to another.

The combat can be fun, but ultimately it’s rather boring and uninspired, the beasts are sluggish and unresponsive, and the defence is just plain annoying.

Poorly conceived and quite dull in nearly every way, Golden Axe: Beast Rider is one of those missed opportunities that could have brought the series to a new generation of gamers. Instead it takes a linear route that makes this a game even Golden Axe fans will certainly want to avoid.

Golden Axe is the latest classic franchise to disappoint on new hardware, and we can't help but think it's a huge wasted opportunity. Beast Rider even fails to include multiplayer support, something that was core to the original game, confirming its fate as a sub-par hack 'n' slash.

Beast Rider makes all the right attempts to become relevant again (3-D, bloody combat) but stumbles so badly on the fundamentals that you wished the game was axed from development to begin with.

This is a game worth avoiding like the plague, even if the classic remains deep and warm within your heart.

SEGA might as well have released this as The Adventures of Fiery Boob Lady, and left their mothballed franchise with at least modicum of dignity.

If you ever plan to design a hack & slash-game, you should definitely play Golden Axe: Beast Rider. It's the perfect example of what not to do.

If you need a Golden Axe fix you can get the original game with co-op on XBLA for 400 points, and we guarantee it’ll be a more enjoyable experience than Beast Rider, which has only served to put another nail in the coffin of one of Sega’s biggest hits.

Even writing about Golden Axe: Beast Rider is depressing me, the sooner I get this game out of my head the better, and all I can say to those nostalgic fans out there who want a taste of the new Golden Axe is, keep those good memories of yesteryears game in your head and avoid this game at all costs.