Super Double Dragon

"Updated Review"

Return of Double Dragon: Sleeping Dragon has Awoken (AKA Super Double Dragon) is the fourth and last true installment of the series. Unlike it's NES/Famicom predecessors, which were loose adaptions of their Arcade counterparts, this one was an original product for the 16-bit Super Famicom/NES and due to Tradewest's lame advertising, it was only marginally successful in America. According to the instruction manual, the storyline is a remake of the original Double Dragon. A policewomen and named Marian, who is also part-time instructor in Billy and Jimmy's Sousetsuken dojo, has dissappeared while tracking down a gang called the Shadow Warriors. It's up to Billy and Jimmy to find Marian and defeat the Shadow Warriors. This storyline is completety ignored by the game itself.


RODD is more down-to-earth than the other Double Dragon games, including the original. Not just storywise, but gameplay-wise too. The other Double Dragon games had architechcally impossible structures, supernatural enemies (Burnov, the Shadow Master, Cleopatra, Hiruko) and weird storylines. There is none of that in RODD. The stages are straight and simple (which is a good and bad thing), the enemies are down to earth and your moves are very realistic.


The main fire buttons consist of Punch, Kick, Defense and Jump. Holding L & R will fill the Anger Meter, which I should get into later. You can do simple Punch or/ Kick combos by simply using the fire buttons alone or do a jump kick, but by combining certain buttons, you can do a lot more. Pressing Down+A, you can do a double kick. While the enemy is squatting, you can do an uppercut by getting close to them. Blocking an enemy's attack will allow you to grab his fist and you can do one of the following: Kick him repeatedly, punch him furiosly or just throw him with the X button. You can also grab enemy the old fashio way (approcing them while they're stunned) and do elbow or knee bashs. You can do a back kick while holding your enemy. Holding down in midair and pressing A will make your character do a diving kick. There is an off-the-wall jump kick too. The Spin Fist and Jumping Sidekick can be done by holding L or R and pressing Y and A respectively. When your Anger Meter is half full, press Y or A to do the Lee brothers' Cyclone Kick. When the Anger Meter is full, you'll enter Anger Mode for a limited time, which allows you to knock enemies to the ground with your regular attacks and do more damage. Phew, that's all. The only thing I could ask for is a set of 2-player moves like in DD3 (like the Double Cyclone Kick), but I guess you can't have everything.

In the enemy category, while old-school Double Dragon players will recognize the two generic villains: Williams and Roper, only fans of the Arcade version will recognize Jeff (he was an evil head-swapped version of Billy/Jimmy, who was the 2nd boss in DD1 for the Arcade). The other enemies are new. Baker is the guy with two swords. Steve is the tall guy with a suit in the end of Mission 1. Jackson is a heavyweight kickboxer from Mission 2. Mission 3 has Chin Long Fu and Chin Long Pyo, twin kenpo masters and the latest additions to the Chin family in the Double Dragon series. McGuire is a fat clown who has a rolling attack, Carlem is a tall guy with sunglasses (similar to Abore from DD2) and Duke is the last boss, who has a variety of attacks. He reminds alot of the last boss from DD2, but without that supernatural stuff. An average lineup at best. But I would had liked to see Linda and Abobo instead of Jeff. Jeff is just a green-clad version of Billy, they should had at least gave him his own head.

Old weapons from the older Double Dragon games returns in this installment. You can use weapons like knives, nunchakus (which are more damaging than those in Double Dragon 3), dynamites, oil drums and rocks. Two new weapons are added, which are a stick and a boomerang. In some stages, you can use background objects like punching bags as weapon.

The graphics, while it doesn't utilize anything fancy like Mode 7 graphics, they are really well colored. Everything is bright and filled with detail. The stages takes place in the following order: A casino in Las Vegas, an airport, a chinatown, over a moving truck in San Francisco, the city slums, the Grand Canyon and the hideout of the Shadow Warriors. The stages are pretty long, but they get boring due to the lack of obstacles. The only real obstacle is jumping over the bridge in Mission 6 and the wind in Mission 4.


The music is spectacular and sound fx is more realistic than the previous Double Dragon games. Punches sounds like real punches and explosions make real sounds. The music done by Kazunaka Yamane (from DD1&2 and Combatribes) is awesome. Most of the music is original, but there is a remixed version of the Double Dragon theme and another of mission 1 of DD1.

The play controls are responsive, but the game is not as fast-paced as the previous Double Dragon games or Final Fight. Another fact that made people turned away from this game.

The game is also kinda easy. You only have to 3 lives per credit, but each credit allows you to continue right at the same exact spot where you live and you have up to 9 credits in the overall game. What is the point of having continues if they take you to the same exact spot where you died? The game would had been a little bit more challengin if it weren't for this.

My only real gripe however is the lack of an in-game storyline. While the manual gives a detailed storyline, it is completety ignored by the game itself as previously stated. There are no cinemas like in DD2 or in-game dialogue like in DD3. Billy and Jimmy are just kicking butts, nothing more. The ending given in the American version is just a bunch of text and the game's credits. A picture would had been nice. This is the only flaw that prevents it from getting a perfect score.

RODD is a fine game, but with some extra work it could had been the best game in the series. Instead the lack of obstacles, slow paced gameplay and long stages prevents it from getting a perfect 10. But it's still good enough to get a 9. If you're a fan of Double Dragon or beat-em-ups in general, this is a must-have.

It's a shame that Tradewest took over the franchise after this game and totally destroyed it. Battletoads and Double Dragon is basically Battletoads 2 with Billy and Jimmy. Double Dragon V was a god-awful Street Fighter-clone based on the awful cartoon. Technos made another Double Dragon game for the Neo-Geo after the mess called DD5, but it was an average Street Fighter-clone loosely based on the Double Dragon movie. It's a shame that we won't see a true sequel to Double Dragon anytime soon. The series had more potential than people think.


Bonus (Japanese/American version differences).
There is some differences between the Japanese and American version of this game. The Japanese version is called Return of Double Dragon, while the American version is given the unimaginite title of Super Double Dragon. The Japanese version allows you to set the number of continues, difficulty level and listen to music from the game. All which had been removed in SDD. SDD's difficulty level is harder than the Hard level in RODD. In RODD, you can caught the boomerang after being throw, a feature removed in SDD for no apparent reason. Weapons in general do more damage in SDD than in RODD, especially the dynamite. The final stage is longer in RODD, there is an extra stage after clearing the double door where you fight Duke in the American version. In consist of weirdly constructed area with stairs in them. The last room in RODD is a large room with spiked walls. In this room, you have to fight every boss before fighting Duke. SDD on the other hand has something resembling an ending, but it's just a bunch of text stating the obvious. Finally, the music in each level of SDD is different from their Japanese counterparts: Mission 1 plays the music of Mission 4 of RODD, Mission 3 plays the music of 5, 4 plays the music of 7, 5 plays the main theme and 7 plays the title music of SDD, which is different from RODD.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/06/00, Updated 11/06/00