The original Golden Axe – available now on Nintendo Wii Virtual Console — sums up SEGA’s arcade lineage as much as anything from that era. It’s a classic side-scrolling hack-and-slash brawler with astonishing graphics and sound. It looked absolutely terrific in the arcades — one of those games where, walking by it when I was young, I just had to play — and the dark fantasy theme was unique and well-executed.

Plus the game has great hooks–in addition to typical hack-and-slashery, the game has a unique magic and, of course, beast riding system. Punting gnomes and stealing their potions is a time-honored Golden Axe tradition, and the game saved its flashiest graphics for casting the magic spells that were powered by the gnome potions: massive dragons appearing onscreen to breathe fire on enemies and twisting columns of earth and lightning were the kind of eye-catcher in the arcades that demanded your quarters.

Of course, dragon riding was the most widely-toted aspect of the game. I always thought that the most interesting part of this was that enemy AI was programmed to prioritize the dragons, as well — that is, they weren’t just player “vehicles”, but rather, enemies would always try to knock you off a dragon you were riding, steal it, and use it against you. Dragons run away after taking too much damage, meaning you had to strategize how to use (or not use) them. This spiced up battles considerably.

The game looked awesome, with vivid, fantasy-inspired backgrounds and parallax scrolling. Even the character selection is a fine touch: There’s Ax Battler, a Conan-inspired sword wielding barbarian; Tyris Flare, a bikini-clad Red Sonja-esque fighter (who would return for Golden Axe: Beast Rider); and the lovable axe-wielding dwarf Gilius (who returned for Golden Axe sequels).

When I was young I was thrilled to have a port of the game for the SEGA Master System. It was actually pretty surprising how well the graphics were translated — squeezed into those 8 Bits not unlike the Amazonian Tyris Flare was squeezed into her battle-bikini. What the game lacked, however — aside from the smoothness of this arcade version — was the ending of the arcade version. I’m not going to spoil it here, but it is easily one of the coolest endings to an old school game, ever. It was a fine reward for having hacked and slashed your way through a pile of quarters at the arcade — although of course, if you have it on virtual console, you can play through to this classic ending any time you wish.

This is as classic an arcade game as you’ll find — check it out if you get the chance, available now for Wii Virtual Console!