A Golden Axe remake with Odin Sphere visuals was scrapped by SEGA
When it comes to SEGA classics, Golden Axe is considered to be one of the best games of the Mega Drive/Genesis era. In a recent interview with a former high-level SEGA employee, video game journalist John Szczepaniak found evidence that a remake of the original Golden Axe was in production, but SEGA had scrapped it.
When Szczepaniak asked about the title, the former SEGA employee said its graphics resembled the visuals from Odin Sphere.
No, no, this was different. I mean, I’ve seen the one you mean, but this one I’m talking about had graphics that looked like Odin Sphere. The characters were of that quality, and the animation had that same kind of jaunty fluidity. There’s no videos anywhere……A friend of mine at Sega of America was telling me about it. They were trying to get it green lit and started prototyping the remake. He was really upset all their work was just scrapped. The work didn’t pan out. It was really unfortunate that it wasn’t released. These graphics are going to be thrown away by Sega of America.
Unfortunately, there are no images of the remake available online. Hopefully, SEGA sees the light and resurrects this potentially amazing remake.
Would you like to see a Golden Axe remake? Sound off in the comments below!
Via Nintendo Life
I had to Google Odin Sphere and I am glad it didn’t get made.
The art style is way to much of a departure.
That is something I hated about the 3DS Shinobi game as well.
Stick with the art style of the game.
Actually somehow it got made, at least spiritually.
Many reviews has stated Atlus/Vanillaware’s Dragon’s Crown as Golden Axe’s spiritual sequel.
Riding the dragon, axe wielder, amazon, barbarian, etc.. the games really has Golden Axe vibe all over it.
http://www.mtv.com/news/2467659/dragons-crown-is-the-best-golden-axe-game-ever-advanced-review/
Dragon’s Crown plays nothing like Golden Axe. Sure, Vanillaware unmistakably recycled many of GA’s ideas (e.g. the blue dragons one can ride), but the gameplay is a completely different beast. Combat in DC is much more button-mashy than in GA, and the player is expected to keep grinding for eons in order to level up. There’s very little skill involved. Mind you, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing (I’ve put more hours than I care to admit in DC myself), just a very different thing from GA.
Why does Sega keep wasting the license of Golden Axe and Streets of Rage? Wasted opportunities to make good games. I believe the people that created the originals are still alive. You should take advantage of the fact that you still have the geniuses behind the original and make something great with them. They won’t be alive forever.
After the PS2 remake and Golden Axe Beast Rider, Sega can’t allow another bad Golden Axe game to happen, not even a Golden Axe game which might just be “correct”.
If they really want the IP to recover its lost reputation, they should think big and let Vanillaware work with it. After the failed reboots of Final Fight, Golden Axe or Altered Beast, I have come to the conclusion that 3D gameplay doesn’t really make justice to games which built its fame as classic 2D beat ’em ups.