Ax Battler now has longer reach with his weapon than Tyris (in the first Golden Axe, Ax Battler and Tyris had identical reach), and can throw enemies higher and farther. Tyris Flare retained her fire magic, but was still given entirely new animations for it.

The magic was also changed – Ax Battler's exploding magic from the first game was replaced with wind magic, and Gilius Thunderhead now used rock magic instead of lightning. 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. Most importantly, the magic system was overhauled. Enemies could now be thrown in either direction by pressing right or left on the D-pad immediately after picking them up, making it easier to hit other enemies with them or throw them off cliffs. 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. Though the characters and gameplay were virtually unchanged from the first game, there were a few improvements. Each player is given a set of life bars which are lost one by one if the player is hit. Each of the fighters has a unique magic which can be used at any time in the game to inflict damage upon enemies. The player is given a choice of three fighters: an axe-wielding dwarf, Gilius Thunderhead a barbarian Ax Battler, wielding a two-handed sword and long-sword–wielding amazon Tyris Flare. Golden Axe II is a side-scrolling arcade-style (it was also actually released on arcade machines) hack 'n' slash game, very similar to the first Golden Axe. The game features a total of seven levels: six scrolling levels and a final end of game boss battle against Dark Guld. The three playable characters from the first Golden Axe, Ax Battler, Tyris Flare, and Gilius Thunderhead, return in Golden Axe II to save the people of the land by defeating the new evil clan, led by Dark Guld, and reclaim the Golden Axe, which is in his possession.

Golden axe ii mame rom