Golden Axe smashes its way onto the App Store
But only in the US. May Death Adder smite their carcass!
It's hard to fathom Sega's strategy these days. It leaps all over the iPhone at launch and puts out one the platform's most popular games, then disappears for nigh on a year. Only to reappear, without announcement or fanfare, with a shaky adaptation of Sonic The Hedgehog (may Crom martyr them beneath his mountain!).
It seems as though Sega of the ages is now back again, attempting to sneak another retro classic past us to hide away in the dungeons of the App Store, in the shape of the immortal beat-'em-up, Golden Axe.
Once again this appears to be an emulation of the Mega Drive version (which is cool, since it was a spiffing port with a couple of extra levels that weren't in the arcade. And you still get to kick midgets and nick their stuff) from the same studio that recently put out Sonic (cast their evil hides beneath a mule pack!).
This time, however, it would appear a bit more effort has been put into the emulation, with accelerometer controls added to the mix. You can still play at the native resolution - windowed, and with opaque controls - or stretch out the screen and use semi-transparent buttons.
You can also choose from the barbarian Ax Battler (sheesh), the grumpy dwarf Gilius Thunderhead (tee hee!) or the Amazonian babe Tyris Flare, but no version of Golden Axe is ever going to be complete without a two player mode, and from what we can tell this is single player only (may the dogs gnaw their bones!).
The beseiged fantasy realm of Yuri has yet to make its way to the UK App Store, however, which makes me want to smash things, set things on fire and kill things. But I can't. Not until the game is available, anyway.
Oi Americans! Is it any good (may your privileged innards be fed to the crows!)?
Images from TouchArcade
