From Sonic to Tekken, plenty of video games have inspired animated TV adaptations, but a retro cartoon based on Sega's high-fantasy side-scrolling beat-’em-up Golden Axe was not on my bingo card for 2026. Even less expected was that the animated revival of the best sword and sorcery game of 1989 would be... a comedy?
The 2D animation, I can get behind. It's giving nostalgic Saturday morning vibes. But the self-aware gags? Golden Axe's 16-bit graphics might look rudimentary today, but this was a gritty game with gravitas, atmosphere, and blood-curdling movie-sampled screams when you killed someone.
