Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder (Arcade) Review
Now this is Golden Axe at its best!
~by tankMage (September 2025)
Score: 94/100 (Excellent)
When reviewing the first Golden Axe, I was disappointed by wishy-washy feel of its combat. The 1991 sequel that came out in the PAL region and on the Sega Genesis made no effort to fix the problem, so I went into Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder somewhat skeptically. To my surprise, Revenge of Death Adder addressed just about every issue I had with the original Golden Axe. Bone crunching action, new enemies, new mounts, alternative routes, and a new cast of heroes build on the foundation that made the original so endearing. To put it shortly, Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder is bigger and better than the original in just about every way. At the same time, it retains the first game’s personality. Needless to say, it blows the other Golden Axe sequels out of the water.
Graphics
Revenge of Death Adder was released roughly three years after the first game. Back in the 1990s, three years was a long time in terms of technological progress, so Golden Axe II looks way better than its predecessors. The magic graphics are cool (admittedly there are fewer magic animations than before) there are nice details in the backgrounds, and the animation is excellent. I also loved the character designs for playable characters as well as enemies.
Most importantly, the devs added little damage sprites to melee combat. This alone was a huge improvement, because it gave fighting some much needed punch.
Not everything is perfect. The baddies are still a little bit repetitive, but there’s a lot more variety, so the problem is far less evident. Trix’s magic spell was lazily done as well, but Trix sucks in general, so it’s no surprise.
Story
Yeah, uh Death Adder is back for revenge and that’s about it. It’s not a complex plot, but it works. There’s a new cast, though Gilius returns as an old dwarf who rides on the back of a hulking brute named Goah. As with the original game, there’s little journal blurbs between stages. The charm that made Golden Axe so special has returned to the journal entries, likely because the director also came back. Overall, it’s an improvement over Golden Axe II for Mega Play.
Gameplay
This is where Revenge of Death Adder takes off. Everything good about the first game was built upon. There are four heroes instead of three. Rideable mounts have returned with a vengeance and I mean that in a good way. The magic system was also touched up, but it lacks multiple power levels that were a stable of the older games, though I think the system they use in this game is better despite being dumbed down. They also included miniature catapults and balistea the heroes can use. Even better, you can attach these artillery weapons to your mount to become a walking tank.
I can’t complain about the gameplay, it’s classic arcade action at its finest and likely the apex of the series, though I have to admit I haven’t played every game yet.
Music and Sound
Once again, Revenge of Death Adder stands out from the rest of the series with a top notch sound track. The music composition is on par with that of the original, plus it’s on better hardware. The sound effects, which were the series’ Achilles heel, are a huge improvement over the rest of the games. Smacking bad guys with a sword finally has that visceral, gut splitting feeling that was lacking in the past.
User Interface
I hate to say it, but the controls are what kept this game from being perfect. Normal combat, movement, and jumping all worked fine, but it was really hard pulling off special moves. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn’t. This may have been a result of me playing on an emulator, so I could be competely wrong.
Final Thoughts
Revenge of Death Adder is the perfect capstone to the Golden Axe series. Sure, there are more games in the franchise and I haven’t played them all, but as far as the first few go, Revenge of Death Adder is near perfect. It’s certainly among the best arcade games, so give it a try.
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