Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder (Arcade) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
467A playthough of Sega's 1992 arcade beat 'em up, Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder.
Played through on the machine's default difficulty setting.
The original Golden Axe is generally regarded as a classic and is quite widely known thanks to the slew of home ports it received, though I doubt any version of it is as well-recognized as the excellent port that Sega themselves produced for the Genesis.
The same, unfortunately, cannot be said about Golden Axe's arcade-only sequel. Those that know the game love it - the gameplay was tightened up considerably from the original's, it supported four players, and it looked so much better than any of its competitors. Built for Sega's System 32 hardware, the AM1 team really made sure to pull out all the stops in showing the power of their their custom hardware.
And that is probably exactly the reason why we never saw a release on a home console. The Genesis, like any other console on the market in the early 90s, never would've ever been able to pull an acceptable adaptation of The Revenge of Death Adder. I mean, remember how Outrunners turned out? The Saturn would've been a much better fit, but by the time Sega's 32-bit machine entered the mainstream, the game would've never been "cutting edge" enough to show off the system the way that Sega wanted. (I guess hindsight is 20/20, huh? Probably would've been a good move, after all!) If you look at that last screen before the ending score tally, though, you can certainly see that they were proud of what they'd made by how they show off like that.
The Revenge of Death Adder is a fantastic game worthy of the Golden Axe name. The graphics are absolutely beautiful, mixing some of Sega's best ever pixel-art with a lot of techno-wizardry for a product that looks part video game, part hand-painted fairy tale. The uber-dramatic orchestral score is perfect for the setting, too, and man, those voice effects are something to be behold.
How can you not instantly love any game that has people screaming, "Oh gaaaaaawd!" as they're being burnt to death in a super-graphic cutscene? Genius.
The gameplay is similar to the original Golden Axe's, but like the game's presentation, the mechanics too have been suitably leveled-up. You get your choice of one of four heroes to go after Death Adder as, and they're a diverse group. Not only do they look entirely different from one another, but they're also very distinct in how they play. In addition to their different balances of strength and speed, they all get a different special attack - Dora and Stern get the typical screen-bomb (with some awesomely violent special effects to go with), while Goah can turn standard enemies into stone, and Trix can summon a tree that drops apples for extra health. The combination of different abilities makes this one a blast to play with a group of friends.
I would be remiss to not mention the difficulty level, though. Sega's arcade games have always been hard, but this one really pushes its luck toward the end. Especially when playing a single-player game, the game gets very hungry for quarters during the stage five boss rush. It feels a bit cheap in its difficulty at times, but it is very satisfying to beat, regardless of how many credits it takes to do it.
Finally, I am very excited that The Revenge of Death Adder is finally getting some sort of commercial re-release in the form of a consumer-level arcade cabinet later this year. If any game deserves to be pulled back into the spotlight after laying dormant for nearly thirty years, it's Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder.
If you'd like to see some related games, here are a few links to other playthroughs I've done:
Golden Axe (Arcade):
https://youtu.be/uqzuHeCq2i8
Golden Axe (Genesis):
https://youtu.be/URQ6lGKQNi0
Golden Axe II (Genesis):
https://youtu.be/XTIYZqe5oFk
Golden Axe (PC Engine CD w/translated cutscenes):
https://youtu.be/Z89ZJ7QfbfU
Golden Axe: The Duel (Saturn):
https://youtu.be/t613IIun3LU
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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