I've been hearing about this game a lot and now that I played it myself, I can just say that it either fails to live up to the hype or just horribly outdated.

I played the arcade version and while it's not the worst offender of quarter burning, there is definitely quite a lot at play. While it feels at times that you can actually just beat enemies with pure skill without losing any lives, you'll end up fighting against the clunky controls and stiff characters and are quickly reminded your place by damage sponging enemies. There is some leeway given with the rideable creatures with flame attacks that just annihilate enemies if you manage to get one, but even then it's just a matter of a time before some enemy manages to get a lucky hit in and kick you off your mount.

Some of the enemies are notoriously though mainly because they have a shit ton of health. The big armored enemies and skeletons are already a bit of a pain, but the devs just had to make you ride it all the way through and put couple skeletons into the final boss to make sure you spend the last of your allowance trying to beat the guy. I've never really been a fan of this type of difficulty.

Despite the criticism, the game is quite fun played with a friend. The story is pretty straight to the point and magic is abundant and satisfying to use if things get though. Golden Axe is one of those games that are experiences, but you're not really going to look back at too fondly.