And finally, after all of this time of waiting and putting it off to play other games I wanted to play, I am finally covering the third and final game in the Double Dragon series that was named Double Dragon II (not counting remakes and other junk later). Yeah, I bet you all were EAGERLY waiting for this one, about as much as one would eagerly await having to pay their bills while looking at all the money they don’t have. But anyways, yeah, there is a third Double Dragon II, which of course is a completely separate game from the arcade Double Dragon II and the NES Double Dragon II. In fact, it’s not even a Double Dragon game at all. The game is the American version of the game “Nekkutsu Koha Kunio-kun: Bangai Ranto Hen”, which was part of the Kunio-kun franchise, but whenever it was brought over to America, it was turned into a Double Dragon game. I would understand this change, given how Double Dragon was more prominent at the time, but then again, the game was also originally gonna be localized as a sequel to Renegade, so the entire localization thing just confuses me completely, and I am just gonna stop questioning it.
But anyways, the game did release, and after playing it, I would say that it is pretty good at what it tries to do, being an alright handheld beat-’em-up, while also providing an enjoyable enough time. Would I consider it as good as the other two Double Dragon IIs? Not even close, with the NES Double Dragon II easily being the best with enough variety in gameplay and content, but for what it is worth, this game still provides enough fun for at least enough time that your morbid curiosity could allow you to have with the game.
The story is actually more complex than just “save girl” this time around, but that could just be because it is a Kunio-kun game in disguise, the graphics are Game Boy graphics, but the sprites are pretty faithful to the other Double Dragon games, so at least I can recognize it as Double Dragon, the music is pretty solid overall, with plenty of tracks throughout, the control is what you would expect from a game like this, and they are pretty easy to pick up and get a feel for, and the gameplay is about what you would expect, while also being simple and fun enough to be a good way to kill some time.
The game works exactly how you would expect a handheld Double Dragon to work, where you move throughout several stages featuring different locations, defeating a great handful of goons and bosses, and… that is literally about it. Yeah, it is extremely bare bones, even compared to previous games, where features such as weapons are completely removed, which really sucks, and it makes the game feel soulless when compared to past titles. Then again, it is a Kunio-kun game at its core, and at this point, I have only played one other game in that series, that being Renegade, and in terms of similarities, this game feels much more true to that game, so I guess I can give it credit for accomplishing that.
Not to mention, just like with Renegade, you are given quite a number of moves to pull off in order to take out enemies, such as a punch, a kick, an uppercut, and even a takedown move when an enemy is lying on the floor. This does provide some variety to the combat, even if this variety wears out pretty quickly, and in terms of enemies, there is also some variety here, where you get your standard thugs, whip wielders and knife handlers, and then you get shit like in the last stage where you have Jason fucking Voorhees trying to take you down. Yeah, that kinda threw me off guard first time seeing it, and it was a little funny to see.
However, the game does have problems of its own, aside from the lack of interesting gameplay features. For one thing, you execute moves reeeeeeeeeeally slowly. It isn’t too slow, but compared to the speed at which you could beat up an enemy in the NES Double Dragon, it is quite the downgrade. I guess this was like this due to the Game Boy’s limitations, but even still, it is a letdown. And secondly, the final stage can be a pain in the ass. Yeah, it is appropriate for the final stage, but it starts out fine enough, with you taking on regular enemies, but as you move up through the building, you have to refight multiple bosses at once, and trust me, it can be pretty annoying, especially when some of these bosses have guns.
I will give credit where credit is due though. Like I mentioned earlier, the story is better than anything we have seen in the Double Dragon/Kunio-kun series at this point, with multiple cutscenes and dialogue boxes detailing things that are happening. Sure, this isn’t on the same level that Ninja Gaiden is on, but the effort is appreciated. Having said that, it can be a little confusing, given how there are plot elements that aren’t explained all too well, and the dialogue reads like it was written by an 8-year old, which can be pretty distracting at the couple points it is featured.
Overall, while it is somewhat of a step up in terms of what was present in previous Double Dragon and Kunio-kun games, it is also more of a step down in terms of gameplay, length, and its purpose of even existing at all. If I were to rank it among the other Double Dragon IIs (which I don’t want to, but blame the devs for making too many of them), I would say it is middle of the road, with the NES game being the best and the arcade game being the worst. But either way, now that we have gotten all that out of the way, we can now FINALLY move on to the third game!.......... when I feel like it.
Game #217
But anyways, the game did release, and after playing it, I would say that it is pretty good at what it tries to do, being an alright handheld beat-’em-up, while also providing an enjoyable enough time. Would I consider it as good as the other two Double Dragon IIs? Not even close, with the NES Double Dragon II easily being the best with enough variety in gameplay and content, but for what it is worth, this game still provides enough fun for at least enough time that your morbid curiosity could allow you to have with the game.
The story is actually more complex than just “save girl” this time around, but that could just be because it is a Kunio-kun game in disguise, the graphics are Game Boy graphics, but the sprites are pretty faithful to the other Double Dragon games, so at least I can recognize it as Double Dragon, the music is pretty solid overall, with plenty of tracks throughout, the control is what you would expect from a game like this, and they are pretty easy to pick up and get a feel for, and the gameplay is about what you would expect, while also being simple and fun enough to be a good way to kill some time.
The game works exactly how you would expect a handheld Double Dragon to work, where you move throughout several stages featuring different locations, defeating a great handful of goons and bosses, and… that is literally about it. Yeah, it is extremely bare bones, even compared to previous games, where features such as weapons are completely removed, which really sucks, and it makes the game feel soulless when compared to past titles. Then again, it is a Kunio-kun game at its core, and at this point, I have only played one other game in that series, that being Renegade, and in terms of similarities, this game feels much more true to that game, so I guess I can give it credit for accomplishing that.
Not to mention, just like with Renegade, you are given quite a number of moves to pull off in order to take out enemies, such as a punch, a kick, an uppercut, and even a takedown move when an enemy is lying on the floor. This does provide some variety to the combat, even if this variety wears out pretty quickly, and in terms of enemies, there is also some variety here, where you get your standard thugs, whip wielders and knife handlers, and then you get shit like in the last stage where you have Jason fucking Voorhees trying to take you down. Yeah, that kinda threw me off guard first time seeing it, and it was a little funny to see.
However, the game does have problems of its own, aside from the lack of interesting gameplay features. For one thing, you execute moves reeeeeeeeeeally slowly. It isn’t too slow, but compared to the speed at which you could beat up an enemy in the NES Double Dragon, it is quite the downgrade. I guess this was like this due to the Game Boy’s limitations, but even still, it is a letdown. And secondly, the final stage can be a pain in the ass. Yeah, it is appropriate for the final stage, but it starts out fine enough, with you taking on regular enemies, but as you move up through the building, you have to refight multiple bosses at once, and trust me, it can be pretty annoying, especially when some of these bosses have guns.
I will give credit where credit is due though. Like I mentioned earlier, the story is better than anything we have seen in the Double Dragon/Kunio-kun series at this point, with multiple cutscenes and dialogue boxes detailing things that are happening. Sure, this isn’t on the same level that Ninja Gaiden is on, but the effort is appreciated. Having said that, it can be a little confusing, given how there are plot elements that aren’t explained all too well, and the dialogue reads like it was written by an 8-year old, which can be pretty distracting at the couple points it is featured.
Overall, while it is somewhat of a step up in terms of what was present in previous Double Dragon and Kunio-kun games, it is also more of a step down in terms of gameplay, length, and its purpose of even existing at all. If I were to rank it among the other Double Dragon IIs (which I don’t want to, but blame the devs for making too many of them), I would say it is middle of the road, with the NES game being the best and the arcade game being the worst. But either way, now that we have gotten all that out of the way, we can now FINALLY move on to the third game!.......... when I feel like it.
Game #217