It copies a lot from the iconic series, but the coolest addition is being able to strike opponents while they are on the ground and that super moves don’t end until the round is over. This title may actually be what Double Dragon V was trying to accomplish in making something akin to Street Fighter, but it worked better because Technos had a hand in the development. This entry is a Neo Geo fighting game that was ported to the PlayStation. Weirdly, some have still defended this one as their favorite. There are some neat segments, but it’s mediocre overall. The game was critically well-received when it first came out but it doesn’t hold up. This becomes a pain due to stages being quite lengthy.
The game is difficult, where you can get stuck in enemy attack combos and when one player dies, both must continue back at the start of the level. It released on the NES, pushing that system to its limits, and then came to the 16-bit consoles, where those two versions were not that different. Gameplay feels like a Battletoads game and many of the Double Dragon enemies were misnamed. Technos had almost no involvement in this and it shows. The plot is even centered on events involving their villain, The Black Queen. As their placement in the title might imply, this is much more of a Battletoads game than it is a starring role for the Lee brothers. Battletoads and Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team (1993) Honestly, it shouldn’t have even made the list.Ĩ. This mistake of a game is brief, beatable in just over an hour with no additional modes or benefits for playing it again. But the worst part is that the sound effects do not fit a beat ‘em up in the slightest and takes me out of the action.
Here, the music also fails to achieve anything significant, a major faux pas in a series that has a lot of good tunes. The sprites and backgrounds look good, but any type of motion is choppy and irritating to the eyes. Not only is the combat floaty, making it difficult to land certain moves, for some reason characters can pick up and use guns, which just feels odd and out of place in this series. It doesn’t play at all like the originals. Developed by Virgin Games, this handheld edition for the Sega Game Gear has a much different story that sees Billy Lee avenging the murder of his brother, Jimmy. This one shouldn’t be played, or exist, as it shares almost nothing with the rest of the titles in the series, other than a name. This one shouldn’t even be considered part of the series, so just skip it. The motions aren’t smooth and fights have such a rough flow that the game loses any appeal it might have quickly. If they wanted to copy Street Fighter, they should have gone all out with that on the mechanics, as the word clunky doesn’t even begin to describe trying to execute special moves. The graphics and stages are mostly forgettable and combat is extremely lackluster. There are twelve playable characters, all taken from the mostly enjoyable Double Dragon cartoon, an awkward mechanic for altering stats, and somewhat serviceable music. It is a one-on-one fighting game that stole all of its inspiration from Street Fighter II, attempting to capitalize on the success of the budding genre that games like it and Mortal Kombat that had inspired massive consumer demand. This game was not made by Technos and doesn’t play like the popular entries in the franchise, or even play ‘well’ for that matter. Most of these are ports from the original arcade games, which can be found on Steam as a collection.ġ0. So here is a fun list of most of the console and handheld system games and where I think they rank for the player who wants to experience the series before a new installment arrives. Now, since the new release has a few people talking, I want to see if I can encourage some new players to try their hand at being the heroes. Certain installments can be a bit frustrating, but I always find myself coming back and trying again, pushing forward to save Marian and bring some justice where I can. In this post-apocalyptic world Billy and Jimmy Lee battle against the Black Warrior gang in a series inspired by Mad Max and martial arts films.
I’ve also been re-watching some of the cartoon, one of my favorites when I was a kid, and while I could go read the comics that Marvel produced for the franchise again, or (if I really get desperate for more Double Dragon) there is that movie we don’t speak of, but those are all just icing on the cake to the games. Not just because I would get a new beat ‘em up to fight through, but because the news offered me the perfect opportunity to replay all of the games. I know I can’t have been the only one excited recently to see a new retro-styled Double Dragon game coming out, and so soon after its reveal.