Double Dragon

"Oh, what might have been...."

Double Dragon was produced by Technos (Yeah, the River City Ransom guys) and released by Tradewest (Best known for releasing Battletoads, the game that really put Rare on the map) in 1988. Like most games of the day, Double Dragon was a port of an arcade game. The game was particularly noteworthy because it was the first of its kind--a side-scrolling brawler--and would shape games from Streets of Rage to Final Fight. But is being the first in a genre enough to give the game classic status? Hmmm....

Most brawlers have rather cursory plots--either ''Save Girl'' or ''Save City from Evil Gang''--but Double Dragon takes them all, in this department, simply in how the game is set up. The lovely Marian is standing around in one of the rather seedy sections of town, when a bunch of thugs come up to her. Menacingly, one of the thugs walks toward her. Marian, however, is apparently lacking the fight-or-flight reflex, as she just stands there and lets Mr. Thug punch her in the stomach, hoist her up onto his shoulder, and carry her off. Therefore, it's up to Billy Lee to save his street-smarts-challenged girlfriend from the clutches of the Shadow Boss. Ooh, creepy!

Billy goes about this task by walking through four levels--called ''Missions''--beating up various punks. While pickings are rather slim for enemies--there are only about 6 different types altogether--these are varied enough from one another that the sin can partially be forgiven. Also, palette swapping is rather rare, and the point of it isn't just to create more foes (Good afternoon Final Fight!), as the enemies aren't actually named in the game anyway (Only in the instruction manual).

Double Dragon is unique, even after all these years, in several ways. The first is the dual score system. The one on the right of your screen is your basic scoring. The one on the left, however, works almost like a Role-Playing Game. You start at level 1, with 0 points and the ability to punch and kick. Each move gives you a set amount of points, and for every 1000 points you score, you gain a level (denoted by a heart) and earn a new move or two. It's really quite a unique concept, and it's a shame that it hasn't been carried over into more games of its type.

Double Dragon is also unusual in that you do more than just beating up enemies. Sometimes you'll have to climb ladders, jump gaps, or even hop onto moving platforms. Menial tasks, to be sure, but they break up the gameplay a lot better than one would think.

The downside to the play is that only two enemies can attack you at a time, and as a result, the game is really rather slow-paced. but then, Billy Lee walks slowly, as do the enemies, so it all evens out. The game manages to remain fun despite its leisurely pace, which has since been overtaken by Final Fight and (especially) the Streets of Rage series.

Unfortunately, the controls for Double Dragon just don't do the job. A punches and B kicks; pressing both buttons at the same time allows you to jump (Jump kick after reaching Level 3 in experience). But you see, the controls are horridly inconsistent later on. You might execute a powerful Spin Kick....or you might grab the enemy by the hair and knee them to death! And usually you execute the wrong move based on your situation. This is, simply, not a good thing at all.

The sloppy controls only serve to add to the frustration factor of what is already quite a challenging game. Double Dragon gives you only three lives to go through its four missions. Also, unlike in other brawlers, just because you get in the first hit doesn't mean the enemy will sit there and let you pound them until you knock them down. In fact, it's common for you to come out of a scuffle with just as much damage as the enemy unless you utilize the Elbow Punch, gained at experience level 6. This nigh invincible move will allow you to blaze through most enemies like a hot knife through butter. Besides that, enemies don't actually die until you knock them down (Though you can still be hit while executing it). This can work in your favor, however, as it means you can hit a foe a few times, walk away, hit them a few more times, walk away...to quickly build your experience. This can also work against you, however, and it usually will.

The most aggravating part of Double Dragon, however, is the brief times when you have to dodge stalactites or bricks popping out of the wall. These can kill you in four hits, meaning you can be hit, at most, 12 times by these things before being greeted with Game Over. While it's a nice attempt to keep things fresh, this is pretty much the final nail in the coffin of this game--it ultimately keeps the game from attaining classic status.

It's really a shame too, because superficially, Double Dragon is impressive. The backgrounds have a good amount of detail, and there are a wide variety of them too, from buildings to caves (Though I wonder where they got florescent light for one of the caves). The characters, however, are small, and it can be difficult to tell that one of the types of foes you fight is supposed to be female. The backgrounds, however, make up for this.

The soundtrack is simply classic. In my opinion it's one of the most underrated soundtracks out there. The title screen theme, in fact, was sufficiently good enough to be reused in River City Ransom as the Dragon Twins theme (Cheesy, yes, but what the hey). The rest of the soundtrack is great too--mostly catchy, upbeat tunes that drill themselves into your head and merrily take up permanent residence there. Despite an overuse of the NES's rather crappy MIDI cymbal, the soundtrack will call to mind games ranging from Mega Man to Ninja Gaiden--very good stuff.

The exceptions to the upbeat rule are level 3's first and second themes which are creepy, moody pieces that serve to heighten the tension as you fight through a forest and a cave, respectively.

The one fault, and it's minor, is that some themes are overused (Level 1's theme, in particular, appears twice more throughout the game).

As far as the sound effects go, these too are impressive--a punch sounds different from a kick, which in turn sounds different from a throw. Technos did a nice job here; it's too bad they messed the control and challenge up as badly as they did.

Realizing that the main game was short, Technos opted to add in a B game, where you take control of one of the characters in the game and try to beat up your clone in a Street Fighter-type scenario. But this mode is simply not fun, particularly in 1-player mode. Your opponent starts with a good deal more energy than you do, and his moves seem to take ''precedence'' over yours if you both execute the same move. If you want to add replay value to your game, this is not the way to do it. The main game can also be played with 2 players, but it's alternating, thus losing much of the fun factor it may have had.

Double Dragon was a pioneer, there's no doubt about that. however, just being a pioneer is not enough to make you an all-time great, despite what many may think. And in spite of some impressive eye candy, a great soundtrack, and some concepts that remain unique in the beat-em-up genre, the game's clunky control and unfair difficulty level serve to drag Double Dragon into the depths of brawler mediocrity.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/11/01, Updated 11/11/01