The player must navigate through six platforming levels, armed with a legendary axe named "Sting" to defeat Jagu and his minions and rescue Flare.

It was highly praised for its detailed graphics and animation, diverse music and gameplay, difficulty level, and execution.

The game's protagonist, Gogan, lives in the village of Minofu, who must hand over one person as a human sacrifice to the Jagu every year.

Gogan was away in a remote village studying warfare when he finds out that his childhood friend, Flare, has been selected by the Jagu as their annual sacrifice.

The village elders hand Gogan the Legendary Axe named "Sting" which gives him great strength to fight the evil cult.

[1] The Legendary Axe is a side-scrolling action/platform video game in which the player assumes the role of Gogan,[2] who sets out through six differently-themed levels (called "zones") including jungles, caves, and mountains; the object is to defeat creatures such as "frog men", bears, and giant spiders with his Legendary Axe "Sting"; eliminate Jagu and his cult; and rescue Flare.

[2][3] Gogan has a flashing "strength meter" on the top of the screen that determines how much damage he can inflict on enemies when he swings his axe.

[7] The zones in The Legendary Axe consist of different environments; they range from dark forests to caverns to mountain plateaus to fortresses.

[3][9] The Legendary Axe was developed by Victor Musical Industries, and it was released under the title Makyō Densetsu in Japan for the PC Engine by the same company on September 23, 1988 (1988-09-23).

[14][15] In 1990, Victor published The Legendary Axe II (Ankoku Densetsu, roughly translated as "Dark Legend").

[23] In his overview of the TurboGrafx-16's history, IGN's Levi Buchanan pointed out that the game made the console "an easy sell" for buyers and showed the superior performance of the TurboGrafx-16 over the Nintendo Entertainment System.

[5] Allgame noted a change in the gameplay near the end of the game; after the fifth level, players must navigate a maze called the "Pits of Madness" which if they take the wrong path, they get sent back to its beginning.

[9] The Legendary Axe was not released for the Wii's Virtual Console service, and IGN's Lucas Thomas rated the game as the 3rd best in a list of "Top 10 unreleased TurboGrafx Titles" for the system.

The reviewer said that the popularity of The Legendary Axe in Japan was what caused it to be released as a TurboGrafx-16 launch title in North America.