Double Dragon
O jogo não lá dos mais bonitos, nem tem lá uma gameplay muito original ou intuitiva, porém, o jogo tem seu charme. O design dos personagens até que são bacanas, e os stages são bonitos, é melhor que muita bosta que saiu na época, mas continua meio sem graça.
O jogo não lá dos mais bonitos, nem tem lá uma gameplay muito original ou intuitiva, porém, o jogo tem seu charme. O design dos personagens até que são bacanas, e os stages são bonitos, é melhor que muita bosta que saiu na época, mas continua meio sem graça.
As a lonely fighter, seeing Technos Japan in a Neo Geo fighting game triggers war flashbacks for brutal difficulty and unfair AI. Luckily, Double Dragon doesn't hurt as badly as something like Gowcaizer. The game feels like it would have some fun jank to mess around with in multiplayer, but alas...
This might be the earliest instance I've seen of an install super in a fighting game
In an attempt to try to stay relevant and hip with all the cool video game series out on the market, the previous Double Dragon game, Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls, switched things up by turning the series into a fighting game, and it worked just as well as you would expect it to. It made a valiant effort, having a lot to do for a standard fighting game for the time, and it also tied itself into the Double Dragon cartoon show, which is just hilarious, but it offered nothing new for the genre as a whole, it had all of the typical problems you could expect from a 90s fighter, and it felt pretty rough and rigid, certainly not being as smooth or fluid as other games like Street Fighter II or even Mortal Kombat II. However, if Technos was anything back in the day, they certainly were stubborn, too much for their own good, so they would go ahead and try this again with yet another fighting game released just one year later, known simply as Double Dragon.
This one was actually properly made and released for arcades rather then for the SNES and Genesis, and rather than being based on the Double Dragon cartoon show, this one was actually based on the Double Dragon movie that was made just one year earlier. Unlike the cartoon, I have actually seen that movie before (cough, review, cough), and it was complete and utter garbage, so needless to say, I was really excited to get into this. Not to mention, given the fact that this was a Neo Geo fighting game, I imagine it was gonna have SOME level of quality to it, seeing as most of those games generally do, so I imagined it was gonna be at least somewhat competent in comparison to what came before it. Thankfully, I was right with my assumptions, as it actually turned out to be a pretty good game, not one that I would go out and play over any other fighter released at the time, but it was definitely an improvement over what came before it, and it proved to be a pretty fun time, certainly a lot more than the movie it is based on.
The story is pretty much exactly the same as that of the movie, which can just be boiled down to “bad people are doing bad things, so Billy and Jimmy gotta go beat em up”, but really, you aren’t playing any Double Dragon game for the sake of the story, so who really cares, the graphics are pretty great, having plenty of colorful stages and designs for characters, plenty of great animations, and effects in general, but it doesn’t look too much more impressive than any other fighting game for the Neo Geo, the music is pretty good, having plenty of tracks that fit pretty well with the overall tone of the game and for what is currently going on on screen, but none of the tracks stuck out to me all too much, and the gameplay/control is what you would expect, except this time, it is made much more tolerable and actually fun to play, showing that Technos actually had some kind of character development for once.
The game is a typical one-on-one fighter, where you take control of one of ten different characters, each of them hailing from either the Double Dragon games or the movie in one way or another, take on plenty of opponents in a vast amount of locations that you have probably seen in plenty of other fighting games before, deliver many different punches, kicks, and special moves against your opponents to dwindle their health down to nothing, make sure to dodge, block, and counter whatever moves may come your way to ensure you take as little damage as possible, and reign supreme over your opponents to prove that you really are the true Double Dragon……… or some cliche shit like that, I dunno. Most of it is what you would expect from your typical fighting game, with the game not enhancing the genre or putting a spin on it in any way whatsoever, but I will give it credit for, again, taking what it had before with Double Dragon V and improving on it exponentially.
Just in general, the game feels a lot better to play than Double Dragon V, feeling pretty fluid and smooth when it comes to how you go about executing your moves. It doesn’t feel quite as games like SSFIIT or Mortal Kombat 3, but the movement is consistent and fast enough, while the combat has a proper feel to it that makes the impact of your hits and combos feel like they amount to something. Not to mention, the game also takes hints from plenty of other fighting games that were made at the time by adding in a charge meter to fights. Once this thing is charged up, you can unleash several different kinds of super moves on your opponent to take out a large chunk of their health, such as with a more powered up version of your regular special moves, or even ones that can power you up for the remainder of the fight, allowing you to be faster and deal way more damage then before. I wouldn’t say these are the end-all solutions to winning every single battle, but pulling off these moves can quickly change the tides of battle, and they feel damn good to pull off successfully, especially the ones that power you up physically. Also, this doesn't change the quality of the game at all, but the PS1 version of this game (the version I played) also has various clips and screenshots from the movie, and my god…….. I haven't laughed quite as hard as I did looking at those in a long time. Thanks, Double Dragon Neo Geo, cause I really needed that.
However, if none of that sounds all too original or exciting to you, then you would be right on the money, as the game, as a whole, isn’t all too original or exciting. Sure, it is competently made, and you can have a pretty decent time playing it, but it doesn’t have much going for it when compared to the MANY different other fighters that were out at this point like, again, Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, or any of the million fighting games made by SNK. Also, the character roster is pretty lacking, only having 10 different fighters for you to choose from, which is quite a bit, but considering the amount of fighters that some of these games had at this point, it is quite a downgrade. Not to mention, aside from the main duo, as well as two other recognizable DD characters, there aren’t many others here that you would wanna play as. Seriously, are you really that eager to play as the widely beloved character Eddie?.............. yeah, didn’t think so.
Overall, despite its lack of innovation on the genre and disappointing character roster, Double Dragon for the Neo Geo manages to take everything that Double Dragon V did wrong and properly corrected it, while also adding in several different features and fixes that do make the game much more fun to play as a result. I would recommend it for those who are big Double Dragon fans, as well as those who weren’t too keen on what Double Dragon V managed to give them, because while this won’t give you anything you weren’t expecting, it will still manage to satisfy those who wanna beat up their friends and fighting game fanatics alike. Unfortunately though, this would be the last Double Dragon game that Technos would ever make, as the company would go bankrupt just one year later, leading to the series getting left in the dust, only to then get thrown around and abused by devs soon enough……….. but then again, Technos didn’t really handle it that much better when they were making the games, so this is really nothing new for the series at that point.
Game #599
This one was actually properly made and released for arcades rather then for the SNES and Genesis, and rather than being based on the Double Dragon cartoon show, this one was actually based on the Double Dragon movie that was made just one year earlier. Unlike the cartoon, I have actually seen that movie before (cough, review, cough), and it was complete and utter garbage, so needless to say, I was really excited to get into this. Not to mention, given the fact that this was a Neo Geo fighting game, I imagine it was gonna have SOME level of quality to it, seeing as most of those games generally do, so I imagined it was gonna be at least somewhat competent in comparison to what came before it. Thankfully, I was right with my assumptions, as it actually turned out to be a pretty good game, not one that I would go out and play over any other fighter released at the time, but it was definitely an improvement over what came before it, and it proved to be a pretty fun time, certainly a lot more than the movie it is based on.
The story is pretty much exactly the same as that of the movie, which can just be boiled down to “bad people are doing bad things, so Billy and Jimmy gotta go beat em up”, but really, you aren’t playing any Double Dragon game for the sake of the story, so who really cares, the graphics are pretty great, having plenty of colorful stages and designs for characters, plenty of great animations, and effects in general, but it doesn’t look too much more impressive than any other fighting game for the Neo Geo, the music is pretty good, having plenty of tracks that fit pretty well with the overall tone of the game and for what is currently going on on screen, but none of the tracks stuck out to me all too much, and the gameplay/control is what you would expect, except this time, it is made much more tolerable and actually fun to play, showing that Technos actually had some kind of character development for once.
The game is a typical one-on-one fighter, where you take control of one of ten different characters, each of them hailing from either the Double Dragon games or the movie in one way or another, take on plenty of opponents in a vast amount of locations that you have probably seen in plenty of other fighting games before, deliver many different punches, kicks, and special moves against your opponents to dwindle their health down to nothing, make sure to dodge, block, and counter whatever moves may come your way to ensure you take as little damage as possible, and reign supreme over your opponents to prove that you really are the true Double Dragon……… or some cliche shit like that, I dunno. Most of it is what you would expect from your typical fighting game, with the game not enhancing the genre or putting a spin on it in any way whatsoever, but I will give it credit for, again, taking what it had before with Double Dragon V and improving on it exponentially.
Just in general, the game feels a lot better to play than Double Dragon V, feeling pretty fluid and smooth when it comes to how you go about executing your moves. It doesn’t feel quite as games like SSFIIT or Mortal Kombat 3, but the movement is consistent and fast enough, while the combat has a proper feel to it that makes the impact of your hits and combos feel like they amount to something. Not to mention, the game also takes hints from plenty of other fighting games that were made at the time by adding in a charge meter to fights. Once this thing is charged up, you can unleash several different kinds of super moves on your opponent to take out a large chunk of their health, such as with a more powered up version of your regular special moves, or even ones that can power you up for the remainder of the fight, allowing you to be faster and deal way more damage then before. I wouldn’t say these are the end-all solutions to winning every single battle, but pulling off these moves can quickly change the tides of battle, and they feel damn good to pull off successfully, especially the ones that power you up physically. Also, this doesn't change the quality of the game at all, but the PS1 version of this game (the version I played) also has various clips and screenshots from the movie, and my god…….. I haven't laughed quite as hard as I did looking at those in a long time. Thanks, Double Dragon Neo Geo, cause I really needed that.
However, if none of that sounds all too original or exciting to you, then you would be right on the money, as the game, as a whole, isn’t all too original or exciting. Sure, it is competently made, and you can have a pretty decent time playing it, but it doesn’t have much going for it when compared to the MANY different other fighters that were out at this point like, again, Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, or any of the million fighting games made by SNK. Also, the character roster is pretty lacking, only having 10 different fighters for you to choose from, which is quite a bit, but considering the amount of fighters that some of these games had at this point, it is quite a downgrade. Not to mention, aside from the main duo, as well as two other recognizable DD characters, there aren’t many others here that you would wanna play as. Seriously, are you really that eager to play as the widely beloved character Eddie?.............. yeah, didn’t think so.
Overall, despite its lack of innovation on the genre and disappointing character roster, Double Dragon for the Neo Geo manages to take everything that Double Dragon V did wrong and properly corrected it, while also adding in several different features and fixes that do make the game much more fun to play as a result. I would recommend it for those who are big Double Dragon fans, as well as those who weren’t too keen on what Double Dragon V managed to give them, because while this won’t give you anything you weren’t expecting, it will still manage to satisfy those who wanna beat up their friends and fighting game fanatics alike. Unfortunately though, this would be the last Double Dragon game that Technos would ever make, as the company would go bankrupt just one year later, leading to the series getting left in the dust, only to then get thrown around and abused by devs soon enough……….. but then again, Technos didn’t really handle it that much better when they were making the games, so this is really nothing new for the series at that point.
Game #599