Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder differs greatly from Golden Axe II, it's very much a case of hardware power in action. Where the consoles were limited, the arcade had no such problems. It's a beautiful looking game well above it's console counterparts, with a longer playtime and far more enemies on screen.
The downside, is that the game is specifically designed to chew up coins, and the means of doing this (as always) is to ensure the player loses on a regular basis. Taken for what it is now, it's easy to bypass. At the time, very few of the population would ever reach the end of the game. It ultimately has a detrimental effect on gameplay, with areas clearly attempting to spam as many enemies as possible to ensure a player death. In some cases, the game resorts to reusing multiple past bosses at the same time. Cheap, is an understatement.
On the other hand, the mechanics themselves are improved over the console versions. While before enemies were easy to exploit, here they are far more responsive, able to counter the simple jump+kick exploitation.
Character moves are simple yet with enough variation to add just the right amount of depth. You can ram enemies, use an ultimate but slower setup attack, jump punch, jump kick and opt to get rapid damage when dazed and a special "power" button to lay waste to multiple enemies. It's satisfying, suitably punchy and makes the player feel empowered, never feeling convoluted or difficult to execute.
Multiple characters are choosable ranging from the typical barbarian, dwarf, elf like figure and probably most visually striking, female centaur. They essenailly play the same with differences are largely aesthetic.
What's very unique in this version is multiple branching paths, it's simplstic, but something (as far as I'm aware) the genre had never seen before. This did not exist in the console versions.
Environments to put it bluntly - are stunning. This may now be a relic, but the details in the environments are incredible. Every inch is laced with detail be it background or foreground, from open dessert plains, cities, dungeons, castles, woods, to dark dank caves, little details like civilians to freed, townsfolk selling items, or enemies have a party make the game world pop with life beyond simply destroying enemies in an arena, like a much later game "Halflife 2" it gives the perfect illusion of bite sized piece of a larger universe.
The story, which amounts to "get bad man", attempts to string together a narrative, bare bones as it is. A memorable stand out moment for me waste games ending in which, in true villain fashion - Death Adder appears when it seems all is well...
In general the game has a vitality to it sorely lacking in the other titles.
Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder gave an indication of the peak the series could achieve when directed properly. Instead, Sega refused to innovate in any beneficial fashion. It, like many other titles, faded into obscurity. This though, was a high point.
