Hey! I just wanna say a few words about my experience with this retro awesomeness.
First things first, AxeRage is a 2d platformer with 16-bit pixelated graphics. Its plot goes with its old predecessor's plot. There're lots of aliens and you're the one to deal with them and save all the humanity. I personally love that the devs follow this exact old-school trope. You finish your cigar, grab your trusty axe and drive off to smash invaders!
From the graphical standpoint, the game's gorgeous. Not only it replicate that retro feeling it also improves all the animations by adding more frames so it feels much nicer.
LVL99 also has these awesome old-school music bits to chop all enemies heads to.
AxeRage was obviously meant to be played with a gamepad but I used a keyboard instead since I've had troubles with a joystick and the game also supports a keyboard. It was a bit challenging since you can't really use all the attacks properly so it adds to a desire of button mash. So, a controller is hugely recommended.
All n' all, the game can't throw you into the rage mode as expected because contains pretty hard and divers enemies (They all also have awesome names :D)
Me personally I'm up to this challenge. I did a video playing if you want to see a real life reaction to the game: