Golden Axe (series)/YMMV


 * Complete Monster: Death Adder doesn't get much characterization, but judging by his role in the game (especially in the visual scenes of the PC Engine version, where he murders Tyris' mother in front of her when Tyris was still a child) he seems to be one damn remorselessly murderous bastard.
 * Demonic Spiders: The skeletons. They inflict twice the damage of normal mooks, tend to come in duos along with other enemies, are common in the last 3 levels, are fast, have to be comboed at least 3 times to kill, and like all enemies have the annoying tendency to flank you whenever possible. They also have a jumping attack that does almost as much damage in one hit than their whole ground combo combined, which by the way is 1.5 bars health.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Chronos Lait is one of the few characters from Golden Axe III who has some cult following or fanarts, mainly due to his Game Breaker skill, his original design (as opposed to being based on a previous character), or the fact that in the cover, he was riding a Bizarrian and about to rip it to two.
 * Even Better Sequel: The third Mega Drive game is a noticeable improvement over the first two, boasting a Fighting Game style special attack system, branching paths and less ambiguous health gauges. Some fans regret it, preferring the simple, frantic action of the first two games. It's also not as pretty as the first two, being a Genesis game instead of an arcade game.
 * First Installment Wins: Most of the fanart in the series usually are about the main trio (Ax, Tyris and Gillius), and mostly in their original design. Good luck finding art of any of the characters from the arcade and Mega Drive sequels.
 * Averted with Death Adder. His cameos in other games tend to use his design from Revenge of Death Adder, rather than his original incarnation.
 * Game Breaker: Chronos' Forward-Back-Forward + Attack + Jump in GA 3. Easy input, huge damage, wide range, makes him invincible while doing the move, unblockable.
 * Nightmare Fuel: The skeleton in the
 * They Changed It Now It Sucks
 * Golden Axe: The Duel, the third arcade game in the series, changed the format from a belt-scrolling action game to a one-on-one fighting game.
 * Golden Axe: Beast Rider, a 3D action game, wasn't much better received. Play, a now defunt gaming magazine, gave a much more favorable review than pretty much any other critics. Interestingly, the reviewer nearly outright accused other critics of being incredibly biased with this trope in mind, reasoning that certain "online reviewers" wouldn't have enough time to thouroughly test the game for a decent review. This is contrasted with many other games that reviewers spend a great deal of time playing before reviewing.