Golden Axe 2 for Genesis

: Golden Axe II is a side-scrolling arcade hack `n` slash game, very similar to the previous Golden Axe. The player is given a choice of three fighters: a battle axe-wielding dwarf, Gilius Thunderhead; a Barbarian, Ax Battler, wielding a two handed broadsword; and long-sword wielding Tyris Flare, an amazon. Each of the fighters has a unique magic which can be used at any time in the game to inflict damage upon enemies. Each player is given a set of life bars which are lost one by one if the player is hit.Though the characters and gameplay were virtually unchanged from the first game, there were a few improvements. The "back attack" (performed by pressing the Jump and Attack buttons simultaneously) for each character was changed to a more useful attack that hit enemies on all sides. Enemies could now be thrown in either direction by pressing right or left on the D-pad immediately after picking them up, allowing you to hit other enemies with them. Most importantly, the magic system was overhauled. Whereas in the first game, pressing the magic button used all of a player`s magic pots, one could now use part or all of one`s magic by holding the button and releasing it when the meter had reached the desired level. The magic was also changed - Ax Battler`s exploding magic from the first game was replaced with wind magic, and Gillius Thunderhead now used rock magic instead of lightning. Tyris Flare retained her fire magic, but was still given entirely new animations for it. Finally, there were small cosmetic changes in the form of a shoulder guard for Ax Battler and black gauntlets for Gillius Thunderhead.There are two types of game modes, one is "The Duel" where players are pitted against enemies in one arena, battling one after the other and gradually getting more difficult. The other is normal mode, where players must navigate through different areas battling various enemies.