Golden Axe Warrior (Master System) - Sega Master System Game

Golden Axe Warrior (1991) is Sega's answer to The Legend of Zelda — a top-down action RPG on the Master System that borrows Zelda's structure wholesale and executes it well enough that it stands on its own. Despite the name it plays nothing like the Golden Axe arcade brawlers.

It never launched in Japan, and arrived in Europe and the US late in the Master System's life when the console had already been eclipsed by the Mega Drive. The result is a small print run for a genuinely good game, and one of the more valuable PAL Master System cartridges as a consequence.

When buying, note that complete boxed copies with the manual command a large premium over loose cartridges — the map insert and manual were essential to playing it and were discarded accordingly. Check the label for water damage and the cartridge contacts for corrosion. Box-only listings appear regularly and are a different product; so are the Mega Drive Golden Axe brawlers, which share the name and nothing else.