Unfortunately, it looks like it's going to be a look into the world minus the trio of characters that made the game so great. Instead, gamers will be forced to play as amazon warrior Tyris Flare. Neither the barbarian nor the dwarf will be playable in the single-player only game, though both will appear as non-playable characters as the story unfolds.

It looks like the development team went to great pains to try and turn the once side-scrolling, button-masher into a 3D action title without losing the feel of the original title. A lot of the same creatures, bad guys and feel of the game seems to be present. The art style is a bit generic, but no more so than the original Golden Axe was.

The game's combat system is, like the original, all about magic and melee, with the ability to ride creatures to deliver attacks. This time around, though, the beasts are much more plentiful in the game and of course, it's much more satisfying to use them in a non-side-scrolling environment.

What we were shown of the game, included quite a bit of cinematic kills triggered by attacks. Almost every time Flare attacked someone she removed a body part. In one case, a flourish of sword-play left the enemy missing both arms and his head, while his body stumbled about the screen for a few seconds, spouting blood.

When Flare mounted her first creature in the demo, a large, fleshy-looking gorilla, the ground-pounding smacks it delivered also tended to tear people into bits. The creatures in the game are also used to solve some simple puzzles and get past certain bottlenecks of combat.

The game also uses a parry system and an evade system, allowing you to dodge or block attacks based on timed button pushes and enemies, we were told, will feature full armor sets that have to be broken off before they start to take damage.

The team declined to say how much of the game was going to be about riding these beasts, but did say they can be advantageous.

Beast Rider will have a half-dozen or so mini-bosses and will even include those gnomes from the original title, though in 3D they look disturbingly creepy.

After showing off some of the mountable creatures, the developers showed us a second level set in the snow, pointing out that Flare's skimpy costume changes automatically to match the environment she is in.

The game will have unlockable costumes, including Flare's original swimsuit-like costume, which you can earn by gaining tribute through high kill counts and speedy level completion.

A few other little tidbits of game play were shown off in the short demo including a beast spawner which you can use to grab mounts in the game, and gates that need to be opened by impaling bad guys on them.

While this game doesn't feature co-op, the team said that the next one in the franchise will be all co-op.

Blogger SegaDawg didn't get any looks at the gameplay, but does write:

I did see a demo of Tyris riding one particular beast that will deal some severe swipe damage with its claws. There are several types of beast mounts in the game, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, and my bet is that there will be points in the game where you have to ride a specific beast in order to accomplish certain goals — but that's just a hunch.

Because of the latest issue of PSM3, now we know. And correct me if I'm wrong, but it's sounding a lot like Lair:

1. You can now only play the female character, Tyris Flar, a single protagonist as opposed to choosing the dwarf etc.
2. Free-roaming environments promote flying around on various beasts.
3. You can go on land to do some standard hack 'n slashing.

Honestly, the pitch lost me at "you can only be one character." Hopefully I'm being prematurely negative for unfounded reasons. We'll see.

Golden Axe PS3: First details [cvg]

Sega confirms Golden Axe is still on track for PS3 [PSU]

We've contacted Secret Level to learn more about the game's PS3 status, but for those without access to a copy of Play, a single photographed screen shot is available at the link below.

Golden Axe : Beast Rider dévoilé [Xboxygen]

On the other hand, it's Sega. They could've have decided to divert resources to what would essentially be Golden Axe: The Ride at one of its SegaWorks arcade locations. We'll bug them and try to find out more.