Anyone who grew up haunting their local arcades in the Golden Age of video games will remember two warriors and a dwarf take on an army of angry barbarians as well as monstrous beasts that make up the fantasy hack-and-slash action game. Golden Axe was one of those fun games you can play with two other players. It was good enough that there was even a sequel. Now Sega has resurrected Golden Axe with Golden Axe: Beast Rider for the Xbox 360. This would have been great news, especially to a fan like me, but what we have here is a disappointing hack-and-slash action game with not much to offer.

Instead of bringing back the trio of heroes from the original, Beast Rider focuses its attention on the group’s only female warrior named Tyris Flare. Tyris is not only an Axirian but also a formidable warrior who arrives on time to see her sisters performing an ancient ceremony in honor of the last Titan that just so happens to be a dragon. During the ceremony, however, the barbarian army of the evil Death Adder attacks and slaughters the Axirian sisters but also captures the Titan. It is up to Tyris, the last of the sisterhood, to rescue the Titan and put a stop to the Death Adder that threatens the land.

Armed with a sword and a very limited number of moves, Tyris embarks on a rather lengthy adventure that takes the warrior through dangerous terrain. Like the original you’ll be slicing through enemies, unleashing a special attack and you’ll even get to ride on a beast. This time around, however, Tyris is able to block and parry and perform counter attacks. She even learns magical spells that offer more firepower when she really needs it the most.

The minute you start the game’s opening level, however, you’ll see most of everything you can look forward to in terms of combat. Tyris can parry and evade depending on a color-coded attack on your enemy’s part. Your enemies’ weapons will either flash blue for when you need to deflect a blow or orange when you need to evade a blow all of which is done with the RB and LB buttons. Blocking and evading successfully gives you an advantage by performing counter attacks that dish out more damage. The problem is that these moves are repeated throughout the game offering you very little in terms of variety in the combat department. Even when the enemies change you’ll still dismember the bad guy the same way.

Death Adder’s loyal men and monsters do change along the way and the bigger enemies do provide something of a challenge despite the fact that if you know how to defeat them the first time they’re not so much fun to take down all over again. In fact, there are times when the enemies allow you to kill them. The enemies can be a bit on the dumb side, oftentimes waiting for you to attack first. The various levels don’t even allow you the freedom to move beyond the designated path. Bringing back the beasts you can ride is a nice nod to the arcade original but they move quite sluggishly and its easy to be knocked off your beast … thus leading you to kill your beast when the enemy uses them against you.

Tyris does get some help from magic spells that allows her to shoot dragon fire at her enemy or you can cast a spell that protects her with a ring of fire. The best spell, though, summons the legendary Golden Axe that can be used for a limited time. This weapon can be thrown at enemies as well as trigger door-opening levers. These things, however, just don’t make up for the poor level design and boring combat that make the single-player story mode so dull. It’s also very hard to die seeing as there are health items everywhere and the game even brings back the annoying gnomes you can whack with your sword for health and mana (for your magical attacks) items.

While this is the story of one character, it’s hard not to imagine a Golden Axe game without multiplayer co-op. The characters from the arcade classic do pop up in the story so it would have made sense to include them as sidekicks in a multiplayer co-op mode or maybe even an extra game mode. Speaking of extra game modes, Beast Rider has two of them. Challenge Mode has you going through any of the levels you unlock while playing the game’s main mode. Since you are given a score throughout the story mode, you can beat your previous score in Challenge Mode to earn items you might have missed the first time around. Then there’s Trails of Tyris where you take on an endless stream of enemies in various arena settings.

Visually, Beast Rider doesn’t look like it belongs on the Xbox 360. Sure, the character models aren’t bad to look at despite the fact that Tyris doesn’t show many facial expressions during cut scenes or in the middle of a battle. The surroundings just don’t look as good as they should on a next-generation system and they tend to have a dull, washed out appearance that quite disappointing. Still, the visual effects aren’t too bad and the monsters in the game do look good enough. The sound includes a passable soundtrack that fits the fantasy theme nicely and the sound effects might not be detailed but they’re good enough. While a lot of the lines are on the cheesy side, the voice acting is handled well enough.

In the end, there’s very little to like about Golden Axe: Beast Rider for the Xbox 360. It’s a repetitive hack-and-slash action game that just isn’t diverse or inspiring enough to be a fun romp even for fans of the classic arcade game. There are just a slew of problems that plague this game but there’s no excuse for unexciting battles and a by-the-numbers approach to level design. Sorry, Sega, but this is one Golden Axe game we will be skipping altogether.  

Gameplay: 4.0
Tyris is on a quest to avenge the sisterhood with her blade but, unfortunately, the combat in the game makes this adventure quite boring and really repetitive even with the beasts. The level design is also uninventive and the game lacks the co-op goodness of the arcade original.

Graphics: 5.0
The game’s visuals are a mixed bag with the character models slightly better than the dull backgrounds and flat landscapes. Even the visual effects and cinematic cut scenes lack that next-generation look.

Sound: 4.5
The music isn’t spectacular but it does the fantasy theme justice. There are also decent sound effects and the voice acting isn’t bad despite the weak dialogue.

Difficulty: Medium
You’ll occasionally encounter big brutes that swing powerful weapons or magic users but it’s nothing a little mindless swinging of your blade can’t remedy. There isn’t much here in terms of a real challenge and the only way you’ll die in the game is if you ignore the block and evade buttons.

Concept: 4.0
There’s Challenge Mode and Trails of Tyris to look forward to when you finish the game but these are minor bonuses most gamers will skip altogether. My biggest complaint, however, is the fact that there’s no co-op multiplayer. This just doesn’t feel like a Golden Axe because of it.

Overall: 4.0
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.