Golden Axe was a classic beat em up series from Sega. It had some amazing gameplay and was beloved by fans, but the series fell off after Golden Axe III. Despite hopes that The Revenge of Death Adder would come to the Sega Saturn, the system did not receive a beat em up installment. Rather, the spinoff, Golden Axe: The Duel, saw its way to the system.
Golden Axe The Duel was a 1v1 fighting game rather than a beat em up, and is often considered the black sheep of the series. The thing is though, that the game is actually rather well made even for the time. The fighting mechanics are well done and the visuals are top notch, but the game did not catch on. This is mainly due to the game being so different from the rest of the series and not what fans wanted , with many wanting a port of Revenge of Death Adder.
Their was also the very simple fact that there was an oversaturation of 1v1 arcade fighters at the time and this hurt exposure. With all the other fighting games out there that became legendary, this one was simply overlooked. Playing this again now, I am shocked how good is actually is. While its not the best fighting game on the Saturn, it holds up really well and is fun.
The game made full use of the special abilities of the beat em ups, including magic and incorporated them into the attacks. There were familiar characters and new characters and yet it all felt natural. The game easily stands with some of the best classic fighters, even if there were some issues. With some polish here and there, the game would still be amazing today.
I would love to see Sega try to revive this subseries one day as there is a lot of potential here. Of course though, we would need a proper Golden Axe IV first and that is a possibility if Streets of Rage IV does well. In the meantime, Sega should consider re-releasing this one with online play so more people can get a chance to see why it really was great.