Double Dragon

"What's the point of a beat-em-up game without proper controls?"

Pros:
Excellent graphics and sounds; good premise

Cons:
terrible controls that require so much finesse they make the game almost unplayable

The Bottom Line:
This could have and should have been one of the greatest Atari 2600 games ever, instead it's almost a joke.

The beat-em-up genre has always been one of my favorites in all of video games. However, releasing such games on a limited platform as the Atari 2600 is not a wise idea due to the limitations of the technology. Why Activision decided to port Double Dragon to the VCS as late as 1989 when a vastly superior version had already been ported to the Nintendo NES a year earlier is beyond me. And it would have been a landmark in the VCS library if it was any fun to play.

PRESS FIRE TO START

The story behind Double Dragon is one of the most contrived plots ever, but it works here. A gang of criminal thugs have overrun a city and kidnapped the hero's girlfriend. It's up to the player (and possibly a second player) to give the thugs a beatdown and rescue the girl.

The cart encompasses four “missions,” each made up of about four or five screens which feature a variety of enemies. Although each screen contains multiple enemies, they will only attack you one at a time. You start out with three lives, each of which utilizes the feature of a life bar, which was quite novel for an Atari 2600 game. And although you're awarded a variety of points depending on how you attack the enemy, there is no way to earn a 1-up here, which makes playing through the entire game on three lives extremely challenging (read: borderline impossible).

PLAYER 1 – READY!

The object of the game is to beat up the enemies before they beat you up, but the whole concept of “fighting” here is a bit of a stretch. The beat-em-up genre involves constant motion so the enemy cannot trap you and so that you cannot leave yourself open to an easy attack. And although this is technically true of this version of Double Dragon, there's very little reason to move once engaging an enemy because of the way the controls are designed.

To engage an enemy here and win, all you do is walk up to them and keep punching or kicking before they can hit you. You could simply mash the button and crane the joystick, but enemies can figure out patterns and will attack in that short moment when your defenses are down. So “fighting” here is really nothing more than having a good sense of timing. But what's the point of a fighting game if the combat relies on split-second precision?

JOYSTICKING

Play control is the most underrated and unappreciated facet of video games and Double Dragon is a perfect example of its importance. The arcade version involved the use of a wide variety of fighting moves and quick maneuvering, but the Atari's processor is microscopic in size compared to the original. yet the game designers were able to provide the player with five different attacks: punch; kick; elbow; jump kick and the use of weapons.

The problem is trying to use the attack you want WHEN you want involves the most delicate, intricate, sensitive finessing of controls I've ever encountered. Since the joystick has only one button - executing an attack requires pushing the button and moving the joystick in a certain direction at the exact same moment. In a slower-paced game this might not have been a problem, but this is simply illogical for a fast-paced beat-em-up.

When I first played this game I could not get past the first enemy because I could not grasp the controls at all. I had considering abandoning the game altogether, but thought I should at least make it past the first screen. As I started to get the hang of it I realized this was a game of precision and finesse, not raw action. But what's the point of a beat-em-up if every move has to be perfect and exact? This drains all the fun out of what should be a game of delightful mayhem.

SPRITES & PIXELS

I know it's difficult to appreciate quality visuals in a game for the VCS, but they do exist and Double Dragon is one of them. Although the characters are fairly small, blocky and nondescript, the background imagery and the overall color scheme make this a very aesthetically-pleasing game. Double Dragon is one of the few carts for the VCS to incorporate every color in the rainbow as well as many hues on screen at the same time. This is a cart that shows the capabilities of the Atari 2600 and it's a shame it was released as late into the console's life as it was.

CHIPPED TUNES

Much like the visuals, the sounds and music in this game are very impressive. The game opens with a 4-bit rendition of the famous Double Dragon theme that is surprisingly close to the original. It also uses another quality adaptation of one of the background scores which loops throughout gameplay (although this can become annoying).

The actual sound effects themselves are typical for a game in the VCS library, but at least they don't have the metallic or robotronic grating tone most games do.

INSERT COIN TO CONTINUE

Double Dragon is a game which requires a lot of dedication in order to learn how to finesse the controls as well as develop any kind of attack strategy. But because it's so difficult to learn how to play, let alone the actual challenge of the game itself, it's a game which quickly becomes frustrating and offers very little replay value.

GAME OVER

Except for the controls, everything about this cart is superb considering the limitations of the technology. I think Double Dragon could have been one of the best, if not the single greatest game in the Atari 2600 library if it just had a real sense of play control. So when you really think about it, this is a puzzle game in an action game's packaging.

Recommended:
No

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/09

Game Release: Double Dragon (US, 07/23/89)