Golden Axe: The Duel

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Golden Axe: The Duel is the third arcade game in the Golden Axe series, released in 1995. With the beat-'em-up genre waning in popularity around this period, Sega opted to make a weapon-based competitive fighting game based on the franchise instead. Set 80 years after the events of Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder, 10 warriors (some of them descended from previous heroes) compete against each other as they seek to claim ownership of the now legendary Golden Axe. The arcade version was developed for the ST-V arcade board, allowing for a pixel-perfect home conversion for the Sega Saturn this time. For many years, this was the final game in the Golden Axe series until the 2008 revival attempt Golden Axe: Beast Rider.

Unused Text#

Arcade#

Although the arcade version was released only in Japan, the game contains an English translation (different from the Saturn version) that replaces the Japanese text if set for North American and European machines. The only exception are the victory quotes, which are replaced by a "Remaining rivals" text.

Sega Saturn#

In the character selection screen, using cheats to change the selected character to 0A will allow the player to use the final boss, G. Axe. The text "Not Available" is present over him, indicating he can't be used. While the player can't select him by pressing a button, he will still be selected if time runs out while he is highlighted.

Of note, he is a bit buggy as he has no victory quotes, win pose, and ending. In fact, ending the game or entering the continue screen with him will crash the game. He is also playable in the arcade version, but the "Not Available" text doesn't appear.

The "Remaining rivals" text from the arcade version is present in the game's data, but is unused as victory quotes were translated.