A remake of Double Dragon
Double Dragon: The Revenge of Billy Lee is a beat 'em up game developed and published by Virgin Interactive in 1993 for Sega's Game Gear handheld console. It is a unique entry in the series, exclusive to the console, and implements many elements not seen in most other installments of the franchise. The game was entirely developed by Virgin Interactive, with no involvement from Technōs other than its licensing; as such, it implements many aspects not seen in most other installments of the Double Dragon franchise, such as the ability to use firearms. Furthermore, in contrast to the gameplay style and aesthetics already established by previous games, the Game Gear version takes a unique approach that is more similar to other beat 'em ups, such as the Streets of Rage series.
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One day, at the headquarters of Virgin Games, some random game developers managed to get the license of the Double Dragon series to develop a brand new game in the franchise. When deciding what to do with it, one of them thought to themselves “Hm, you know what, I’m feeling quite Gradius today”, and after some time spent developing the game, they then released it exclusively for the Game Gear, and just simply called it Double Dragon, because that wasn’t going to be confusing at all. If you didn’t know about this particular entry in the series, and you just assumed that it was just a port of the original game, I wouldn’t blame you, since it uses the exact same cover art as the original. But, just like with the Game Boy Battletoads game, this is a completely separate entry in the series, one that I didn’t really want to play, but I figured I may as well give it a shot, just to say that I played it so I could move on with my life.
After playing it for about 20 minutes while getting a Game Over, I decided that I had pretty much seen everything that the game would offer, and I can confirm that it certainly is a Game Gear Double Dragon game. It is fine for what it is, and it isn’t really aiming to reinvent the wheel at all, which isn’t a bad thing, but there are plenty other titles in the series, let alone other beat-‘em-ups, that I would much rather play instead of this, but it certainly isn’t the worst in the genre that I have seen.
The story is extremely basic, seeing Billy Lee fighting yet another evil gang known as the Dragon Clan in order to save his brother Jimmy from being taken over by an evil entity, which is about as simple as you would expect for a Double Dragon game, but nothing that really makes me care anymore about what is going on in the game, the graphics are, admittedly, pretty good for a Game Gear game, having plenty of decent looking levels and backgrounds, along with the sprites for the characters looking good as well, but then it falls apart when the characters move around at a staggering pace, the music is definitely Game Gear music, with plenty of tracks that do fit what is going on, and they can be enjoyable to listen to, but nothing I am gonna remember after playing it, the control is somewhat passable, with moving around feeling good enough, but actually connecting hits with the enemies feeling like a gamble, unsure of whether or not you are actually going to hit them due to how the game works, and the gameplay is exactly what you would expect from a Double Dragon game, but with one or two changes here or there that don’t really amount to anything.
The game is your typical beat-’em-up, where you take control of only Billy Lee, go through a set of six big levels each containing several sub-sections, beat up anyone that you come across because that is just naturally how one goes about their lives, gather plenty of different items and weapons to help you out in combat or even increase your health at points in the game, and take on a good amount of bosses that either range from typical, easy brutes, to easily exploitable alien entities… or at least, it looks that way from what I saw of it on YouTube. It is all your typical Double Dragon affair, so you are looking for that same beat-’em-up action, except on a handheld and worse then what you got before, this is the game for you. But again, to its credit, it does do something different from other entries in the series, even if it is very little.
Based on what I have researched, rather than being developed in a similar manner to other Double Dragon games, this game was developed to more closely resemble that of Streets of Rage, and when you play it, you can see why. It does feel a lot like a Streets of Rage game, with very similar types of sprites, character portraits throughout, and even some of the items you find are directly lifted from that series, such as the stars. I would say this is a good way for fans of that series to experience Streets of Rage on a handheld, but at the same time, there were already ports of Streets of Rage 1 and 2 for the system at that point, calling more into question why anyone would wanna play this. To that, I have to answer… not much, except for the inclusion of GUNS. Yes, this is the first game in the series that allows you to wield firearms, and while they work exactly as you would expect, it is somewhat funny and cathartic to see Billy pick up a gun and shoot these fuckers, like he has had enough of dealing with all of these rival gangs for over half a decade.
But of course, a new type of weapon can’t really be classified as a huge new feature, and as such, Double Dragon for the Game Gear is yet another generic beat-’em-up in a city dump full of them. It most likely would’ve satisfied those long car trips you would take while being on vacation, but other than that, there is no real reason to go ahead and give it a shot when there are plenty of better alternatives that were released before and since. That being said though, I don’t wanna say the game itself was completely terrible, as it was fine enough. It doesn’t compare to other titles quality-wise, but it can still be a decent amount of fun when trying it out, and for being the only Double Dragon game made on the Game Gear, it did a pretty good job of bringing the series to that handheld. Doesn’t mean I am gonna keep playing it though.
Overall, despite the good presentation (for the most part) and keeping the gameplay familiar while not botching things up, Double Dragon for the Game Gear is pretty much exactly what you would expect, nothing too noteworthy and it definitely doesn’t come close to the quality of other titles in the series. I guess I could recommend it to those who are huge fans of the series, as well as those who love beat-’em-ups in general, but for everyone else, there are many, MANY better options out there over this. Now, if you excuse me, I am going to go play some Streets of Rage, which is a series that has had a much better track record then this one has, and that is just sad to think about.
Game #437
After playing it for about 20 minutes while getting a Game Over, I decided that I had pretty much seen everything that the game would offer, and I can confirm that it certainly is a Game Gear Double Dragon game. It is fine for what it is, and it isn’t really aiming to reinvent the wheel at all, which isn’t a bad thing, but there are plenty other titles in the series, let alone other beat-‘em-ups, that I would much rather play instead of this, but it certainly isn’t the worst in the genre that I have seen.
The story is extremely basic, seeing Billy Lee fighting yet another evil gang known as the Dragon Clan in order to save his brother Jimmy from being taken over by an evil entity, which is about as simple as you would expect for a Double Dragon game, but nothing that really makes me care anymore about what is going on in the game, the graphics are, admittedly, pretty good for a Game Gear game, having plenty of decent looking levels and backgrounds, along with the sprites for the characters looking good as well, but then it falls apart when the characters move around at a staggering pace, the music is definitely Game Gear music, with plenty of tracks that do fit what is going on, and they can be enjoyable to listen to, but nothing I am gonna remember after playing it, the control is somewhat passable, with moving around feeling good enough, but actually connecting hits with the enemies feeling like a gamble, unsure of whether or not you are actually going to hit them due to how the game works, and the gameplay is exactly what you would expect from a Double Dragon game, but with one or two changes here or there that don’t really amount to anything.
The game is your typical beat-’em-up, where you take control of only Billy Lee, go through a set of six big levels each containing several sub-sections, beat up anyone that you come across because that is just naturally how one goes about their lives, gather plenty of different items and weapons to help you out in combat or even increase your health at points in the game, and take on a good amount of bosses that either range from typical, easy brutes, to easily exploitable alien entities… or at least, it looks that way from what I saw of it on YouTube. It is all your typical Double Dragon affair, so you are looking for that same beat-’em-up action, except on a handheld and worse then what you got before, this is the game for you. But again, to its credit, it does do something different from other entries in the series, even if it is very little.
Based on what I have researched, rather than being developed in a similar manner to other Double Dragon games, this game was developed to more closely resemble that of Streets of Rage, and when you play it, you can see why. It does feel a lot like a Streets of Rage game, with very similar types of sprites, character portraits throughout, and even some of the items you find are directly lifted from that series, such as the stars. I would say this is a good way for fans of that series to experience Streets of Rage on a handheld, but at the same time, there were already ports of Streets of Rage 1 and 2 for the system at that point, calling more into question why anyone would wanna play this. To that, I have to answer… not much, except for the inclusion of GUNS. Yes, this is the first game in the series that allows you to wield firearms, and while they work exactly as you would expect, it is somewhat funny and cathartic to see Billy pick up a gun and shoot these fuckers, like he has had enough of dealing with all of these rival gangs for over half a decade.
But of course, a new type of weapon can’t really be classified as a huge new feature, and as such, Double Dragon for the Game Gear is yet another generic beat-’em-up in a city dump full of them. It most likely would’ve satisfied those long car trips you would take while being on vacation, but other than that, there is no real reason to go ahead and give it a shot when there are plenty of better alternatives that were released before and since. That being said though, I don’t wanna say the game itself was completely terrible, as it was fine enough. It doesn’t compare to other titles quality-wise, but it can still be a decent amount of fun when trying it out, and for being the only Double Dragon game made on the Game Gear, it did a pretty good job of bringing the series to that handheld. Doesn’t mean I am gonna keep playing it though.
Overall, despite the good presentation (for the most part) and keeping the gameplay familiar while not botching things up, Double Dragon for the Game Gear is pretty much exactly what you would expect, nothing too noteworthy and it definitely doesn’t come close to the quality of other titles in the series. I guess I could recommend it to those who are huge fans of the series, as well as those who love beat-’em-ups in general, but for everyone else, there are many, MANY better options out there over this. Now, if you excuse me, I am going to go play some Streets of Rage, which is a series that has had a much better track record then this one has, and that is just sad to think about.
Game #437