Saturday, December 31, 2016

Video Game Review: Double Dragon

Double Dragon
Nintendo Entertainment System



Double Dragon was one of the very first games I ever owned for the Nintendo Entertainment System. I can trace some of my earliest memories back to playing this game. I was not only a master of the single player mode (I could almost beat this game in my sleep), but I was pretty good playing with a friend as well. I was unbeatable in the head to head game modes.

I played this game with my friends, my brother, my uncles, everyone. Heck I even remember playing the arcade version of this game a few times as well. Unfortunately I traded this game in when I got a Sega Genesis and haven't played it since.




Let's see, so I got my Sega Genesis the same year that Sonic 2 came out. That was 1992. I was 10 years old. Assuming I even played this game in 1992 (and it wasn't festering in a pile of games I didn't play anymore) that means it has been at least 24 years since I have played the game.

I actually found this copy of Double Dragon in 2015 at a used game store, but didn't play it until 2016. I don't know what took me so long to finally fire this game up, but when I did I was very happy to be playing.

I used to know this game inside and out, and it was funny being reintroduced to things 24 years later. So many memories came crashing back almost immediately. Every enemy I encountered, every environment I came across was instantly familiar to me. This game is filled with so many moments I had completely forgotten about until now. The nostalgia factor alone was enough to make the purchase and play through worth it for me.




Nostalgia aside though, the game is still a lot of fun. There isn't much of a story line to speak of. The bad guys have kidnapped your girlfriend, and you embark on a quest to save her. Super uncomplicated, right?

Gameplay consists of simple beat em up tactics. You start on the left side of the screen and move to the right, taking out any enemies you come across. Mainly I found myself kicking and jump kicking, as the punch move is pretty limited in its range. You can move up and down, you can pick up weapons to fight your enemies. Each stage usually ends in a boss battle. The more experience you earn while fighting the more moves you learn, which definitely comes in handy as the game progresses.




If you've played other titles of the genre like Final Fight, TMNT, or Streets of Rage, you should know what to expect here. But Double Dragon isn't just a mindless clone of those games. I am pretty sure it was the first, or one of the first of its kind. Just like games such as Wolfenstein and Doom were pioneers of the first person shooter genre, Double Dragon was a pioneer of the arcade style beat em up.

The graphics aren't much to look at by today's standards, but by no means are they ugly. In fact, I find them to be quite charming. What really stands out to me in this game is the level design. Considering this game's age and the fact that it is one of the first titles of its kind, you might expect things to look repetitive or dull. But no. This game's stages are all super colorful and vastly different looking in both appearance and theme.

The first stage is a simple street level. The second level is an abandoned construction site. The third level takes you through an ancient forest into a complex cave system (the caves are probably my favorite part of the game, by the way). And the fourth and final stage takes you to the enemy's lair. The design of these stages are brilliant. Nothing ever feels or looks the same.




While beat em up games like this are often repetitive button mashers, each stage has its own variations that add an extra lair of strategy to them. For example, in the caves there is a certain way you must go or you end up looping back to the beginning of the stage and having to start over again. There are platforming elements in some of the levels as well. Certain traps you have to avoid. Each stage has its own level-specific enemies. Like I said, nothing ever feels the same here.

The game is just a blast to play. I did encounter some frustration at the end of the game, when I kept repeatedly dying while fighting against that boss character with the machine gun. When you run out of lives, you have to start the game over again from the beginning. That was a little irritating. I don't ever remember struggling as much to beat the game when I was a kid. But at least the game is fun to replay. If it wasn't, I would have been really pissed. And the game is short too. Each play through took me about 20 minutes to complete.




Whenever I review a classic title from an old console, I always wonder if the nostalgia factor influences my final score. Like, would I have enjoyed this game as much if I didn't grow up playing it as a kid? Maybe. Probably not. But at least I own up to the fact that my nostalgic feelings play a major role here.

I consider Double Dragon to be the definitive beat em up side scroller for me. Several games have come close to matching this game's brilliance, but nothing has surpassed it. Could be I am allowing my sentimental feelings to cloud my judgment. Could be that this is just an amazing game. I like to think it is a combination of the two.



Overall:
A


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