Double Dragon

"A dismal port of the classic fighter"

Introduction- By 1989, the sequel to the original Double Dragon had already been released. This sequel appeared on the NES as well various other platforms. At this time, Activision decided it was time to give the Atari 7800 a port of the first game. This was the exact thing the system needed, as it was getting slaughtered in sales by the NES, and was grappling with the SMS for whatever market was left. While the attempt was noble, I don't think the results helped sales of the 7800 very much (especially considering that this game is rare).

Gameplay (5/10)- The 7800 has bad controllers, period. They were stiff and uncomfortable (if the 5200 controllers didn't break so easily and centered, I'd prefer them over the 7800's). That said, control is not easy in the 7800's Double Dragon. I'm sure it's greatly simplified with the European 7800 game pads, but you have to special order those online nowadays. Even with those, it won't lessen the difficulty any. The enemies are needlessly hard, even more so than the SMS version (which was superior in almost every aspect over this port). Once you learn how to do the special moves, things become easier, but few people have the patience to put up with the process of getting them down. I will give points to this port for being faithful to the arcade (more so than the NES or SMS ports), but that's about it, although 2-players at the same time also helps (something the NES lacked).

Story (8/10)- Everyone knows the story, your girlfriend Marian has been kidnapped by the Black Warriors, and only Billy and Jimmy Lee can get her back. They travel throughout New York taking down every bad guy that comes at them. Overall, the story is cool, and gets you in the mood to kick butt. But not in this version.

Graphics (1/10)- Even worse than the difficulty and controls is the graphics, which are horribly blocky. They pale in comparison to both the NES and SMS ports, and look bland. For a system that was supposedly more powerful than the NES, it sure wasn't used to it's advantage (to be honest, it only really was during the end of it's life. Just look at Midnight Mutants). These graphics may look good on the 5200 (which I'd bet could do a port of this, but then, I don't know the technical specs), but there's no way I'll accept these from a late-80's system.

Sound (1/10)- Where's the pokey chip when you need it?!?! The 7800 plain and simple has bad sound. This sound is actually identical to the 2600 release of Double Dragon (which was good for the system it was on, but I digress). It's not even right, Mission 3's music plays during Mission 2. For a game that I expect would be high priority for Activision, you'd think they would've utilized the pokey sound chip.

Replayability (2/10)- I'll give it a 2, if by chance you overcome the difficulty and controls, you just may be compelled to beat this, but I don't know if you'll want to play it 2nd or 3rd times.

Final Recommendation- Do not buy unless you're a collector, or you swear by the 7800 and must have a beat-'em-up for the system. It's sad, because this was the exact type of game the 7800 needed, and it was botched in almost every way. At one point I really liked this, maybe because of the rarity and uniqueness of it (the 7800 didn't have a lot of games like this), but after beating both versions on the rival 8-bit systems, this game's flaws are more apparent than ever. The 7800 was an overlooked but good system, and was capable of putting out an exceptional (for the time port), but unfortunately, this was not that game.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 08/09/03