‘Golden Axe’ has a brand new animated collection launched this September.
Sega, Paramount
Again in 2024, I lined {that a} new Golden Axe animated series was on the way, and that it was meant to be “hilarious”. Nicely, the brand new trailer dropped, and it’s not.
In a world the place video games like Castlevania have genuinely amazing animated adaptations, Sega has seemingly opted to fly within the face of one among its most beloved basic gaming mental properties, Golden Axe.
This was a darkish and atmospheric belt-scroll motion recreation from the late 80s, the place you performed with pals to avoid wasting a war-torn realm from the forces of Death Adder.
Sure, there have been moments of humor, comparable to getting magic potions across the campfire on the finish of every stage by whacking helpless little elves, however most of it was performed straight, to nice impact.
This new animated collection has none of that, and I’m genuinely amazed that this feels so tonally off from the unique Golden Axe video games.
The staff behind that is additionally made up of very competent individuals, together with Mike McMahan, from Star Trek: Decrease Decks and Rick and Morty, and Joe Chandler, who labored on American Dad.
I imply, even the wondrous Matthew Rhys performs Gilius, which really made me double-take once I noticed the credit score.
So I don’t perceive how succesful individuals like this managed to get it so badly mistaken. To not point out that Sega’s personal Shuji Utsumi is within the credit as an govt producer. Absolutely he ought to have identified that this method was clearly mistaken?
If the trailer is in any means indicative of the ultimate collection, the humor simply feels off and actually misplaced. I don’t get why they didn’t go down the Castlevania route and deal with it like the unique recreation.
Anyway, this new Golden Axe animated collection will probably be launched on September 16 through Paramount+, however for now I’m anticipating the worst.
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