Sorry to bump this old thread. Characters wielding swords and riding on animals = Golden Axe ripoff? In Golden Axe the characters use magic potions, in this game the characters use the traditional Fight-Fight-style special system. I agree with the repetitiveness, though. It's annoying that the enemies take like 1/3 of your health. But I like both Golden Axe and this game, even though I've played Golden Axe many years before.
And yeah, 2 Players does add more enemies (such as two more Tall Men during the 2nd section of Stage 7) and there was some slow down that I noticed during a 2 Player session. Would it be possible to manipulate random food drops from some enemies, so you'd have more health for more special moves?
For those who want to try the Arcade version, there's
this page which documents the RNG. RNG abuse in the Arcade version might be interesting.