Golden Axe

Excellent game. You can play as 1 of 3 characters. The Amazon, dwarf and Barbarian. The best character to take is the Amazon Woman because she has up to level 6 Magic. Which is really important in this game because it kills the enemies a lot quicker. There's a beginner mode that only lets you play the first 3 levels and a normal mode that you can complete the whole game. Also a Duel mode in which you fight 12 rounds of enemies.

/completed

Hard to rate old beat 'em ups from 30 years ago because I was a kid, but I remember really liking this, but the sequel was the one that sticks with me.

Offers some really meaty combat animations and boasts a cool Conan-esque vibe to it, but the game has some really detrimental flaws. For one the enemy ai is pretty stupid and can be cheesed in really dumb ways. There's little enemy variety which is made worse by the fact you can employ very simple strategies for each encounter and come out on top.

low pixels, high fantasy

This was honestly quite beautiful at the time when it came out. It was hard, as arcade-style fighting games were in those days, but could be cheesed by constantly jump-striking.