Now I know what you are thinking, didn't I review this already? yes I did BUT that was for the Coin-op version that won't load on RetroArch here. I wish the sequel for coin-op would work here too. I had to rely on a different site to play that one.

Gameplay and Story: Death Adder has taken over the palace and has taken the King and the Princess prisoner, and no matter who you choose to play as you will get the same story about "My good friend Alex was killed in Battle" and for a very long time I thought it was a subtle nudge about how Sonic killed off Alex Kidd, but it wasn't until last year that it was the case because in the arcade game we see Alex die, and it's not our favourite hero from the planet Aries. As if our heroes didn't already have a reason to rid the kingdom of this loser the Barbarian lost his mother, the Amazon lost her parents, and the Dwarf lost his brother.....by the same guy. You have to dodge so many people here, and chop at thieves that have magic vases (and oh btw some thing to note here is if you're magic is full when you get to the vase collection bonus level, the thieves will take the vases from you) and there are also food carrying thieves that will be useful shame they only show up on the bonus rounds.

Graphics: Well the graphics are what they are considering that it's from the Genesis console but it's a little bit smoother than the Coin-op version, clearer than the Master System version.

Soundtrack: The bonus rounds have the same soundtrack every time you get to it however every round has a different one but they are the same in stages six and seven. Also in each stage the music changes once you've reached the boss of each region.

Addictive: Well I would say it is, if it wasn't I never would have finished the game.

Depth: So there is an added ending in the console version, even after you defeat Death Adder and rescue the royals they tell you he's been following orders from an even more powerful dude and he uses magic too, like the same floor fire power that death adder uses and the same maximum magical abilities that the heroes would use (boulders, thunder and fire) how does the coin-op version have 9 stages but not the additional boss level, and yet this has 8 stages with the additional boss level....this is really confusing. Anyway the real big bad is called Death Bringer (as we find out in the end credits...yeah this game has an end credits for some reason we don't have that weird ending from the coin-op version where everyone breaks out of the machine).

Difficulty: I've finished the game as all three heroes so it's not that difficult but I didn't finish the game in one try either it took me weeks, maybe even a year (hey I did say it took me two years to finish Sonic 3). I wish I could say I'm having better luck with the console sequel.

Post review Follow-up: I've owned this game as part of the 6- pak cartridge I owned way back when and this game is currently on the Genesis Mini. Also after I just sampled the Master System version of the game you only play as the barbarian but you get to choose the magic. I think maybe this summer to increase my posting abilities, along with the daily reviews, I might just to an SMS/Gen comparison series with the games that got a Genesis and SMS release, which means I have to make a valiant attempt at the games whether I'm good at them or not. I may release a list.

Well this concludes my review, but sadly I have to go back to work tomorrow so I can't write any more reviews until sometime on Thursday and it Will be where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego....Deluxe (I have several tasks to do, a commercial render here, a shopping trip there, a Jack check then, and yeah that's kind of it).