Golden axe was one of my favourite games ever. It stayed tight to the Medieval formula with dragons, skeletons, dwarves and the likes. Instead of staying with the formula and perfecting a classic, the devs strayed wildly and included different cultures, weird giant snails and went for a streets of rage type style. Disaster! I was waiting for one of the characters to pull out a bottle of Pepsi and guzzle it back any second, followed by a Pepsi attack. 

I've tried to avoid it all these years but finally played it today with my 4 year old. Just like every game has to include the newest fads nowadays and the sequels are often bloated with nonsense, completely irrelevant to the subject matter because some dude in corporate said so, it seems like the same practices were alive and well back then. Graphics change, but some things just don't. Golden axe, the original, still has a feel that many modern games don't have. I haven't played the witcher yet series, but for me, it looks like the equivalent, except for the witcher seems to have stayed true to its original subject matter. 

P.s the music in golden axe one was perfect. What were they thinking with the same 3rd? Just terribly funky for medieval times? 

Never played 3... 1 was so gloriously good and one of my most played Genesis games along with SOR2, Revenge of Shinobi and Sonic 1. Never got tired of them. Those were the days

Was 3 really that bad? Was it as bad as Beast Rider? Because that game was so frustrating.

I remember playing Golden Axe in the arcades.... good times.

You never really said how Golden Axe 3 sold out, other than giant snails (I don't see how these don't believe in a medieval/fantasy setting) and a style more akin to Streets of Rage, a game in the exact same genre with very similar gameplay. Your topic could stand to use more examples, and better ones too. Where do you go from giant snails to Pepsi? There's a missing link there.

1. Giant snails and gameplay similar to SOR
2. ?????
3. Pepsi!

It plays better than Golden Axe 1 and 2. Characters are very different between them, have more moves, there are multiple paths and saving villagers is actually useful. It's just that the snails are lame and the music is meh.