Golden Axe is an arcade beat-'em-up game where you play as one of three heroes: Ax Battler, Gilius Thunderhead, or Tyris Flare. These characters all have a reason for trying to overthrow the evil rule of Death-Adder, who kidnapped and imprisoned the King and his daughter and stole the legendary Golden Axe .
You'll take one of these characters and fight your way through hordes of enemies, using their special magical abilities to help you. Each character can be charged up by kicking small blue creatures that drop a potion. There are also green versions of these creatures that give you health-restoring food.
The game is a horizontal fighting game, where you bash everything in your way and even ride dragons to attack enemies from above. Some enemies are mounted on creatures like scorpions, which can be knocked off and ridden yourself. The game allows for two-player co-op in the original arcade version and some conversions, but not all.
Golden Axe was released for the Sega Master System in 1989, and is a beat-'em-up game that's easy to pick up but hard to put down.