10 franchises Sega should resurrect

#8. Golden Axe

Golden Axe is remembered pretty fondly, and for good reason. The first game still holds up incredibly well as a fun side-scrolling arcade brawler. But it can easily be established that Sega had trouble to figuring out what to do with the series afterward. The second entry felt rushed, and the third was so badly received it didn’t get an American release because it was thought it might damage the system’s reputation (it did get a release on the Wii virtual console years later, and yes, it was pretty bad). Sega did try to bring back the franchise with Golden Axe: Beast Rider in 2008, but that flopped spectacularly as well.

I think the big mistake Sega might make with bringing back a franchise like this is to basically make it some God of War knockoff, and the best games in the series have never been close to that. Keep the arcade roots. Make it a highly polished 2D medieval fantasy multiplayer brawler with online play, and I think you’ve got a winner. Hell, release an HD version of The Revenge Of Death Adder, which despite being hugely popular, has never gotten a home console release. Just give me some more Golden Axe, please.