Double Dragon

"It's not exactly Arcade Perfect, but still good."

Double Dragon for the NES is one of the most infamous version of the original game. Produced by Technos Japan, the same people that developed the original Arcade version (anyone who says Taito should get hit by the head for being so ignorant). Despite being developed by Technos, this version of Double Dragon vaguely resemblence the Arcade version at all.

In the Arcade version of Double Dragon, Billy & Jimmy Lee went after some Machinegun-toting guy named Willy to save their girlfriend, Marian. At the end, if two players survived throught the end of the game, a duel is set to see who wins the girl. Since the NES version is a solo-effort, Billy must not only fight Willy at the end, but his own twin brother as well, who was apparently the mastermind behind Marian's kidnapping. Technos never explains why the sudden change of storyline or why Jimmy becomes a good guy in part II. The only explanation is the lack of a 2-Players cooperative feature in this version.

As mentioned above, the first flaw people will notice in this version is the lack of a Co-Op gameplay. You can alternate gameplay with a other player, but it's rather pointless. I don't know why the lack of a co-operative feature, since games like Contra were released at the same year and have co-op features. Why not Double Dragon? To make up for the lack of a Co-Operative feature, Technos added a Vs. Mode to the game, but I'll get into that later.

The second feature that is different from the Arcade version is the RPG-style Heart Points System. At first, the only moves you can do is Punching , Kicking , Jumping (A+B) and Headbutting. But every time you strike an enemy, you'll get a specific amount of Heart Points. For every 1,000 Heart Points you'll get, Billy will learn a new move. From Uppercuts and Jump Kicks to Grabs and Throws, there is even a Kunio-Kun-Style Pin Attack not featured in the Arcade version. What's wrong with this feature is that since most enemies aren't dead until they hit the ground. Meaning that you can get a 1000s and 1000s of Heart Points from at least one enemy until you're low on energy and or time, just as long as you keep a Hit N' Run pattern with them. If you're lucky, you can get all Seven Hearts before the end of Mission 2 or earlier, making the Heart Point System meaningless.

Most of the enemies in this game are the same as their Arcade Counterparts. The only difference is that Jeff, the 2nd boss from the Arcade version is replaced by Karate Master Chin Taimei, who is actually much tougher than Jeff. All other enemies (Williams, Roper, Linda, Abobo and Willy) look and behave like their Arcade counterparts. One difference from the Arcade version is that you can only fight one enemy and it's clone at a time. This is probably due to the NES' limited graphics capabilities. Ironically, this isn't fixed until Double Dragon III (Ironic because the Arcade version of DD3 has armies of pallete swapped enemies for each Mission). Another flaw with this version is that you can't carry a weapon from one fight to another (unless you count the glitch at the end of the game).

The Four Missions in this version are all based loosely on their Arcade counterparts. Mission 1 & 2 are all straight walks to the street with little obstacles to overcome. The only exception are the Converyor Belt in the end of Mission 1 (which was originally in Mission 2 at the Arcade version) and the huge hole and fence climbing in Mission 2. Mission 3 and 4 are mostly about jumping over platforms and dodging obstacles like Stalagtices than anything else. In fact, Mission 3 & 4 feels more like a Super Mario level than one from a Double Dragon game. This is probably one of the reasons why there isn't a co-operative feature. At the end of Mission 4, you'll must fight agaisnt every enemy from the game before facing agaisnt Willy and Jimmy.

As an added little bonus. There is an extra mode in the game where you and your opponent (CPU or 2P) can play as the Lee twins or one of the game's five enemies. The characters in this mode are five times bigger and more detailed than their regular counterparts (with the exeption of Abobo, who is about the same size). In a Vs. Mode agaisnt the CPU, the CPU is given a handicap (more energy), while agaisnt 2P, weapons are given in some battles. In the end is a rather fun, but the flaw with the Vs. Mode is that both players must use the same character, limiting the possibilities of actually exciting battles like Will vs. Chin or Linda vs. Roper. At the end, it's a rather pointless extra and Technos should had use the empty space they filled with it with a Co-Operative feature instead.

The Graphics are huge improvement over Kunio-Kun (Technos' first Famicom game) and are very detailed. Most of the music are straight from the Arcade version, along with a few new tunes. And the Sound FX, while cheap, they're an improvement over Kunio-Kun as well.

As for the play mechanics, it's not bad. The Control is very responsive. And the difficulty is well-balanced, which is unlike the Master System version, where the difficulty is Easy until Mission 4, which becomes near-impossible. The Collision Detection is also better too.

At the end, the original Double Dragon for the NES is not as bad as they say it is and believe or not, it's actually one of the better attempts at reproducing the Arcade version at home. I like this game better than the SMS version for reasons mentioned above. Just because it's not Arcade-Perfect, doesn't mean it's not good. Still, the Arcade version is still the best, but this and the GB version are close second.

This game is followed by two more sequels for the NES and Arcade (with the NES versions actually being better than their Arcade counterparts), a Game Boy port, an SNES sequel and a Neo-Geo fighting game based on the movie.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/03/00, Updated 09/03/00