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Golden Axe was reviewed on the Sega Master System last month and scored a very respectable 89%. Now we've got hold of the Megadrive version and it's even better. In fact there are no noticeable differences between it and the original coin-op!

In case you missed the story, Golden Axe is a one or simultaneous two-player beat-'em-up in which the players guide either a barbarian, Amazon woman or dwarf across eight hazardous levels with the objective of confronting and killing the evil demon Death Adder who lurks at the end of the final level.

It's action all the way as the characters confront a variety of Death Adder's minions, including dinosaur riders (topple them from their mounts and you can leap on the back of the dinosaur and run amok yourself), giant rock trolls, skeletons, orcs and barbarian women. The going is certainly tough!

Reach the end of the last level and you confront Death Adder - who uses all his might and magic as you battle to the end...

Incredible! What we have here is the equivalent of a Golden Axe arcade machine in a cartridge!! The differences between this conversion and the brilliant hack 'n slash coin-op are virtually non-existent.

The sound, graphics and gameplay are all exactly the same - in fact, the only really noticeable difference is that the Megadrive cartridge actually offers more than the coin-op, with two practice options, a music and sound test option and even different difficulty levels!

Golden Axe is a superb game, and is one of the best beat-'em-ups available. It looks good, is incredibly addictive, and should be put right at the top of your shopping list. Now!