RetroRealms: Ash vs Evil Dead Review

“Naturum De Montum, roughly translated: Book of the Dead,” is a quote that activates the sleeper agent in many of us, or in this case, the Deadite. Evil Dead Burn, set to be released on July 10th and marking the sixth installment in the franchise, has persuaded me to play RetroRealms: Ash vs Evil Dead.

WayForward and Boss Team Games used the Necronomicon to unleash hell on October 18th, 2024. This platformer captures nostalgia with pixel-art-styled 16-bit graphics and delivers a catchy soundtrack. You play as Ash Williams (duh), who must face off against Deadites, jump to the Nightmare Realm, and retrieve the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis from the demon known as The Overlord. 

Let’s talk about mechanics. They’re pretty standard, as one expects for a platform game. As Ash, you can jump, roll into tight spaces, climb walls (within reason), slash away with the iconic chainsaw hand, and shoot away with the equally iconic Boomstick. Of course, there is the option of using a combination of buttons for aerial and ground attacks. Overall, no complaints about the button functions, as players are familiar with how other game controls are set up.

The variety of weapon options is fun. Besides the already mentioned hand saw and shotgun, there’s a long-range nail gun that stuns opponents temporarily, so it's easier to send them back to hell. The Kandarian Dagger is a must in the arsenal, which is also a long-range weapon. It’s powerful enough to end enemies with a single strike. Lastly, one of my favorite weapons is the ice bombs. They are very useful when clearing paths infested with Deadtie or demon creatures, as the bombs kill multiple enemies at once.

A nifty tool is The Overlord’s Eye, which serves as a portal to jump from the regular world to the Nightmare Realm for a limited time. It comes in real handy when collecting rare artifacts like loose pages of the Necronomicon. If an item is unreachable due to a wall or an area too high to reach, then the eye unlocks either a platform or removes the obstacle while in the Nightmare Realm. However, this comes at a price. More powerful Deadites and demonic creatures appear and attack at every angle. The trick is to be quick, retrieve what’s needed, and go back to the normal realm. 

The character designs are campy. For example, we have flying giant bloodshot eyeballs, gym bro/meat head Deadites with yellow glowing eyes and crooked jagged teeth only a dentist could fix, weird grey tentacle creatures that rise from the ground, and other demon mutations that look like the love children of a Deadite and William Birkin from Resident Evil 2. 

Some of the levels take place in Mossy Haven Trailer Park, A Cabin In The Woods, Elk Grove, and Kenward County Asylum, to name a few. I found the wonky jumping-and-climbing-walls action quite annoying.  Maybe it’s my butter fingers, but after the tenth time of trying to jump multiple walls to reach an above-ground level, it's frustrating AF. Ash jumps but suddenly slips and falls. This is especially annoying when demonic creatures attack from both the ground and the sky, leaving you vulnerable to their assaults. Shocker: I died a lot.

As dumb as it sounds, I was surprised that the more levels I beat, the more challenging the game became. I think the game could better balance its difficulty. The game is unforgiving when it comes to making mistakes. You accidentally leap into the target area of a Deadite’s projectile vomit, and a flying eyeball strikes you, sending you tumbling into a small fire pit – a domino effect. I am not kidding; it happened to me multiple times. This also led to, you guessed it, me dying a lot. 

There is replay value, as each level presents three loose pages of the Necronomicon to retrieve. So if you don’t collect all three per level, you can always go back. There are also unlockable areas with relics to collect. Revisiting levels comes with a price, as you will face the frustration of retrieving these relics while battling enemies further empowered by the flames of hell.

Final Results

I give the game nostalgia points. The game’s story is lore-accurate, and it reflects the franchise's overall narrative: battling demonic forces and blaming the Book of the Dead. Although the franchise has many different protagonists, it’s a no-brainer why Ash takes center stage in RetroRealms: Ash vs Evil Dead. From one gamer to another, a friendly reminder: the difficulty balance is, well, not so well-balanced. You’ll face a tough choice: either try the same level 100 times, rage quit while cursing the Deadites, or try another day. One thing I forgot to mention is that the game is short. So keep that in mind if you decide to purchase the game. For a groovy time, snag a copy of the game on Steam and other gaming platforms. 

Learn more about RetroRealms: Ash Vs The Evil Dead by visiting the official website. Screenshots were captured using Steam.

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DEVELOPED BY: WayForward

PUBLISHED BY: Boss Team Games

AVAILABLE ON: PC, PS4/5, XBOX One/ Series S|X, Switch

DEMO: No

RELEASE DATE: October 18th, 2024

Are you a Deadite for Evil Dead? Share with us in the comments.

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