Rage of the Dragons

"A generic 2D fighter disguised as a Double Dragon game"

- Introduction -
Do you remember Double Dragon? The brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee were popular characters a few years ago (there was even a laughably bad Double Dragon movie) but hadn't had a new game for a long time. Only recently, thanks to Evoga, Double Dragon was once again resurrected as a 2D fighter title: Rage of the Dragons.

Actually, due to licensing issues, Rage of the Dragons is not an official DD game. Instead of featuring Billy and Jimmy Lee, the stars here are Billy and Jimmy Lewis. Abobo became Abubo and Marion became Mariah. This way, the game works more like an alternate version rather than a proper sequel. It may not be an official DD game, but, regardless of this, Rage of the Dragons is a decent title and has some good points going for it.

- Story -
Sunshine City is ruined. Decadent and corrupted, the city is a no man's land ruled by the law of the strongest. In this chaotic situation, a group that practices the religious worship to the Black Dragon has become the real government of the city. Its leader, Johann, possessed by the spirit of the Black Dragon, wishes to expand the power of the cult upon the country. His malignant power, however, will not go unrivaled. The siblings Billy and Jimmy, respectively wielding the power of the ancient Blue and Red dragons, seek the defeat of the Black Dragon, not only to bring peace to the city, but also to revenge their martial arts master, killed by Johann several years prior.

Joining Billy and Jimmy, there is Lynn, a Chinese girl aided by the power of the White Dragon and Pepe, a Mexican lad whose skill comes from the spirit of the Green Dragon, Quetzalcoatl. Other fighters join this motley crew as well, bringing the total of selectable characters to fourteen. Not every one of them has the power of a dragon spirit as a support, but every single warrior is deadly on its own way, as well as having a specific reason to seek the death of Johann. The story, albeit not incredibly original, is pretty interesting and all characters have a well designed plot.

- Gameplay -
Rage of the Dragons (RotD) is a 2D fighting game in a very old school fashion. It plays much like other great Neo Geo titles, like King of Fighters and Garou: Mark of the Wolves. However, there is a bonus. Rage of the Dragons features tag team gameplay (like Marvel vs Capcom), which means you will play with two characters, instead of only one. As I stated earlier, RotD has fourteen playable characters: the aforementioned Billy, Jimmy, Lynn and Pepe as well as Oni, Pupa, Sonia, Radel, Alice, Mr. Jones, Annie, Elias, Kang and Cassandra. Plus, you will face two bosses during the game: Abubo and, obviously, Johann.

Each fighter is assigned an official partner. You can, however, pick any combination of two characters that you wish, you are not forced to take the combination the game suggests, which greatly improves the replay value. Right after you select your warriors, a brief tutorial appears, explaining you the basic gameplay premises of the game. Concerning this aspect, however, there is nothing really brand new or revolutionary.

During the fights, there is an auxiliary meter located at the bottom of the screen that slowly fills whenever you hit your opponent. When it is full, as you might guess, you can perform special moves, like counter attacks and super moves. These attacks, however, have complicated commands and are difficult to be done.

An interesting point is that you have the ability to switch characters in the middle of the fight. The one you are not currently using has his energy slowly regenerated. Also, there are special combos that make both of your characters to hit the enemy at the same time, causing massive damage.

Overall, the gameplay aspects of RotD are ok, although not very polished. The only flaws here are the lack of the originality and, unfortunately, the last battle of the game. While the whole game has a very balanced difficulty, the last boss is way too hard. It is frustrating to go through the game nearly unscathed just to get yourself killed by the last boss within fractions of seconds. This is not unusual in fighting games (especially SNK games), but it is an important negative point nonetheless.

- Audio & Video -
The Neo Neo Geo is old, so do not expect anything too fancy here. The graphics may not be outstanding, but they are crisp and detailed. In general, the visual of RotD resembles a lot Garou: Mark of the Wolves, only slightly simplified. The design of the characters is good, especially Jimmy, Billy and Cassandra (her outfit is just incredible). The other heroes are not very inspired, though. The backgrounds may not be masterfully designed either, but they have nice details, like the people back there supporting the local team.

For the audio, well, it is not on par with the graphics. The music is not exciting in any moment, on the contrary, it is repetitive and annoying. The rest of the sound is not good either. The voice acting is terrible. I never played as Alice, for instance, because I cannot bear her lousy voice.

- Conclusion -
Rage of the Dragons is neither a revolutionary nor an exciting game. It does have some interesting features, like the Double Dragon theme (even if it is fake), but is basically an average title. If you keep that in mind and if you don't put your expectations too high, you may enjoy it for a while.

Gameplay - 6/10
Controls - 6/10
Replay - 7.5/10
Story - 8/10
Graphics - 7/10
Sound - 3/10
Overall – 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/26/03, Updated 06/07/04