Games of the 8-, 16- & 32-bit era

Golden Axe

Title	Golden Axe
First release	1989
Developer	Sega
Publisher	Virgin Interactive
Platforms	Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Arcade, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, Mega Drive / Genesis, PC (Windows), PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16, ZX Spectrum
Genres	hack and slash, side-scrolling beat 'em up
Also known as	ゴールデンアックス · Gooruden Akkusu
Players	1–2 players
Co-op	Yes
ESRB rating	E10+ Everyone 10+
Releases	Arcade: 1989-05-26 (NTSC-U) Mega Drive / Genesis: 1989-12-22 (NTSC-U), 1989-12-23 (NTSC-J), 1990-11-30 (PAL) Atari ST: 1990-01-01 (PAL) Amiga: 1990-01-01 Amstrad CPC: 1990-01-01 ZX Spectrum: 1990-03-11 Commodore 64: 1990-04-13 (PAL), 1990-05-01 DOS: 1990-11-01 (PAL)
Wikidata ID	Q1046574

Shatter enemies with heavy sword strikes and harness mushroom magic to cast spells. Players can seize control of flame-breathing monsters to ride them into battle or utilize an exclusive Duel mode to fight enemies and a Beginner training mode to practice combat mechanics.

Description: REG-Vault, CC BY-SA 4.0

View on Wikidata Read on Wikipedia

Facts from Wikidata (CC0), gaps filled from REG-Vault and TheGamesDB and Arcade Database (ADB). Only retro platforms tracked by this site are listed; the year is the earliest release date recorded on Wikidata.

Sources

Wikidata (Q1046574) · last updated 2026-09-27 · CC0

REG-Vault (megadrive/golden-axe) · last updated 2026-10-28 · descriptions CC BY-SA 4.0

REG-Vault (c64/golden-axe) · last updated 2026-09-30 · descriptions CC BY-SA 4.0

REG-Vault (amiga/golden-axe) · last updated 2026-09-28 · descriptions CC BY-SA 4.0

REG-Vault (zxspectrum/golden-axe) · last updated 2026-10-05 · descriptions CC BY-SA 4.0

TheGamesDB (5481) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only

TheGamesDB (209,7505,84959) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only

TheGamesDB (88662) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only

TheGamesDB (35889) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only

TheGamesDB (6402,112090) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only

TheGamesDB (50729) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only

TheGamesDB (14156) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only

TheGamesDB (28279) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only

Arcade Database (ADB) (goldnaxe) · last updated 2026-10-03 · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · internal use only

Arcade Database ADB

MAME romset	`goldnaxe`
Title at ADB	Golden Axe (set 6, US) (8751 317-123A)
Manufacturer	Sega
Year	1989
Genre	Fighter / 2.5D
Players	2
MAME driver status	GOOD

Artwork: ADB (Arcade Database); artwork © original manufacturer (Sega); snaps by ProgettoSnaps via ADB. Non-free, internal use only (hotlinked, not downloaded).

Scraping using Arcade Database by motoschifo · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · romset via Wikidata P2451 (wikidata-qid) · fetched 2026-10-03 17:11 UTC · no fields filled (other sources take precedence)

Source: REG-Vault (upstream not stated) · © Virgin Interactive · internal use only

1 / 23 Box art Box art (front) 1

Image credits

Box art, Screenshots, Logos, Artwork (19): Source: REG-Vault (upstream not stated) · © Virgin Interactive · internal use only. REG-Vault page

Box art (1): Source: TheGamesDB (user-uploaded) · © Virgin Interactive · internal use only. TheGamesDB page

Screenshots (3): Source: libretro-thumbnails (upstream libretro-thumbnails (art by developers/publishers; see repo README)) · © Virgin Interactive · internal use only.

Sprites

No sprite sheets yet. Find sprites on The Spriters Resource ↗ /

Videos

Mega Drive Longplay [004] Golden Axe

World-of-Longplays · Mega Drive / Genesis version · longplay · 1:59:53auto-matched
Watch on YouTube ↗ · auto:channel-harvest, checked 2026-10-25 18:41 UTC

Golden Axe (PC Engine CD) Playthrough [English]

NintendoComplete · PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 version · longplay · 1:11:25auto-matched
Watch on YouTube ↗ · auto:channel-harvest, checked 2026-10-25 18:42 UTC

"Auto-matched" videos were found automatically (title + platform match via the YouTube Data API) and may occasionally be wrong. Videos are hosted by YouTube (embedded via youtube-nocookie.com; nothing loads from YouTube until you press play) and belong to their channels.