Golden Axe III: Ultimate

What's new

• Up and down on the character screen cycles through 11 enemy and boss forms, each with its own attacks and specials plus magic taken from the heroes. Two players can pick them in co-op, even the same one twice; Versus is left as it was.
• Six-button support: X blocks, Y does the round attack and Z triggers each hero's own move, and both button sets can be remapped per player in Options.
• Hitting an enemy shows its portrait, name and remaining health.
• Magic can be charged: hold and release to spend 1, 3 or 6 bottles, or face your partner for a joint 10-bottle spell. An optional new damage table makes the bigger casts worth it.
• Co-op friendly fire can be switched off, enemy forms come in Normal or Strong strength, and there are extra costumes and palettes.

Version 1.4 (October 2026) brought the enemy forms to two-player mode, independent colors, smoother busy fights and the new title screen. The author has finished the game with a boss, but warns that not every form is guaranteed to behave perfectly to the end.

Playing it

The patch goes on your own copy of the Japanese release of Golden Axe III, following the instructions in Linn1024's repository. Set the emulator's pad to six buttons to use X, Y, Z and Mode.