Retro Review - Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder

The beat'em up video games in one of my favorite genres, many of them are very entertaining because our main goal is to defeat any enemy that has the courage to challenge us across a large number of scenarios. The Golden Axe saga, considered one of the best sagas of the beat'em up genre, is a franchise with a large number of titles and always highlights its first game, being in turn, the most remembered by people around the world, however, There is a game of this great saga that has always been overshadowed and that is something really strange, since I consider this Golden Axe of which I will speak to you next is the best of the whole saga or at least one of the best, since it knew how to improve not only its graphic quality, but also its gameplay with respect to the first game.

And without further ado, today's Retro Review is about: Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder.

Death Adder, the villain of the first game of this saga, was the first one that obtained the power of the desired and very powerful "Golden Axe", under his control was the cause of the chaos and destruction in the territory, however, the noble and powerful warriors of the time, faced him and defeated him, for many years Death Adder remained dead and peace reigned in the world. However, after many years, former vassals of this villain manage to bring him back to life and as expected the only feeling that Death Adder has is revenge on those who defeated him in the past. But many years have passed and the old warriors who once defeated him are now dead, only one is left alive, but he is too old to fight this villain, however, our old hero is in charge of choosing the new noble warriors who are in charge of defeating Death Adder once and for all.

Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder has exceptional graphic quality, even for a game from the 1990s, and is far superior in this respect to its predecessor. The sprites used in this game enjoy a lot of details that make them visually great, each playable character presents a different design, with unique characteristics and appropriate color palette, giving each of them a unique style, personality and charisma, even if we compare them with the previous title, they stand out by far. The enemies of this title despite not having very original designs compared to the main characters, even so, their designs are good enough that together with the great graphic quality that this game has makes them look really good, and like the main characters, the enemies have a lot of details.

In the same way, the scenarios are very well designed and varied, they also stand out for having a great amount of details and that, just like in the characters, in these scenarios a good amount of bright colors were used, which really fit very well with the aesthetics of this game. ith regard to the animations are well above (Again) that of the previous Golden Axe, and is that without any doubt Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder far exceeds the first Golden Axe and I do not exaggerate, just have to play to see the comparison, but for reasons that still do not understand, this second game is always overshadowed, although I think that here affects much of the factor of nostalgia in people, leaving this title a little sadly in oblivion.

The soundtrack of Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder is very good, with melodies that just by listening to them gives us the feeling that we are in a world of fantasy and full of magic, something that in this Golden Axe overflows in each of the scenarios where we go with our warriors. But although the number of tunes is not much, having a quite moderate song list, you can notice the great improvement in this Golden Axe, since the tunes are of a much higher quality. Also the sound effects are very good, I think that in terms of the sound aspect, it's the best, they sound credible and fit very well with every action that you do. A 10 in this section.

Video Author Monsieur X (MisterXSEGA)

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Without any doubt this is the best Golden Axe as far as gameplay is concerned and with a lot of confidence I say that, among all the games in this saga, this one with great ease is the best of all and at the same time, it is one of the best beat'em up. Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder knew how to take all the aspects that made its first title good and turn them into something totally superior. In terms of graphics, sound quality and playability, you can see all these improvements quite easily.

Unlike the previous game, in Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder we can choose from 4 powerful warriors, having in previous only 3 to choose from. As usual in the games of the beat'em up genre, each character has different characteristics, so that gives us the ability to choose which of these 4 noble warriors is better suited to our demands or simply which one is better suited to our ability when fighting the enemies.

As I said before, the 4 heroes we can choose from have unique skills and they are:

Stern Blade: He is a barbarian of great strength, he is equipped with a great sword that he used with two hands and his special skill is the use of fire.

Dora: She is a centaur, but having this form does not limit her, since besides being very strong in this form, she is capable of transforming herself into a human, as long as we need it in some particular situation. But she also has the ability to attack with lightning (she's one of my favorite characters), but mostly because of her design.

Goah: He is a giant and as expected, as far as physical strength is concerned he is the strongest of all, however also as usual, his speed is not as high as that of his companions, but you could also say that as far as magic power is concerned, Goah has one of the strongest skills, as he is able to create a type of magic that is capable of disintegrating any enemy that is on stage. And as a curious fact, on his back is Gilius, the ancient dwarf warrior who in the past along with his companions defeated Death Adder.

Little Trix: Last but not least we have an elf, who also, as expected due to the race of this character, he has a great physical capacity, being the most agile and fast of all, however unlike his other companions, his magical power is not of attack, since he invokes trees from which sprout fruits that will recover our lives. And if we play with other friends, they too can recover their lives with this ability.

Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder is a very good game, one of the best of its kind and the best in the entire Golden Axe saga, it knew how to improve all aspects of its predecessor, thus being a sequel that exceeded my expectations and I'm sure many who have played it, although it is certainly a game forgotten over the years, but still highly recommended.