Variations of the original game have also been released. The Master System version of the game retells the original story from the perspective of Tarik, a barbarian with resemblances to Ax Battler (much like all the other barbarian in the entire series: Kain Grinder, Stern Blade and Kain Blade). While the game is only one-player, it features all of the levels and magic powers of the arcade version. In Japan, "Golden Axe" was released by Telenet for the PC Engine CD-ROM in 1990 with high-quality resampled music and cut scenes.