Double Dragon

Written by Tom Clare in MegaDrive Game Reviews, Friday 5 October, 2007

Twin Turkey

Double Dragon is testament to how far gaming has come in such a short period of time. And I'm not talking about the advent of polygons, 3D or 'emotion engines' either - in the five years between its original arcade release in 1987 and its eventual Mega-Drive bow in 1992, DD had gone from being something of scrolling beat 'em up kingpin to looking positively ancient next to the likes of Streets Of Rage and Final Fight.

Developed by Accolade, Double Dragon is apparently set in a post-apocalyptic New York style environment, which is at the mercy of organised crime. The player controls Billy Lee (as well as his brother Jimmy in the two-player mode), taking to the streets in order to tackle a band of thugs and their gun-totting leader Willy Mackey, with the ultimate goal being to rescue damsel-in-distress Marian. Regardless of how popular the eighties coin-op proved, Double Dragon makes for a truly underwhelming experience as a Mega-Drive game.

So a brief review of what is a very brief game. It will take you no more than twenty minutes to reach the end of the four short levels Double Dragon has to offer, and despite this remarkable lack of length, there is still an alarming amount that goes wrong between beginning and end.

The one-player mode isn't great to begin with; although punch, kick and jump buttons are all present and correct, the fighting is made a hassle because the controls are clumsy and the responsiveness is frankly awful. Enemy attack patterns are very limited over the course of the game - the only difference between the first stage and the last is that there is a greater likelihood of an enemy's attack registering instead of yours. So what starts off as being just about bearable with a small number of simple enemies, descends into a fruitless button-bashing farce by the end. It's really easy to reach the end of the game on your first go, only to find the last boss and his henchmen take tonnes of lives off you by doing little more than exploit the slowness of your character; employing a pincer attack and basically pummelling you from both sides.

Combat is very unconvincing as the character sprite has a ridiculously short reach - there are a number of occasions where both player and enemy will be in close proximity but end up battering thin air. Flying kicks aside, you never get the impression your blows are ever really connecting with any force and as the controls are so dodgy and the enemies so speedy, you're in real danger of losing lives whenever there's more than a couple of enemies on screen as they routinely try to surround you.

The two-player mode is at least slightly better than playing on your own, as the cooperative nature allows you to mostly prevent the enemies 'gang up' mentality. Plus in a nice twist (though used to markedly better effect in Streets Of Rage) is the ability to battle each other one-on-one over Marian after defeating the last boss. However, having a mate to fight alongside does make the game a piece of cake to finish.

In too many areas, the game feels cheaply produced. The character selection option proves conspicuous by its absence given that it was a standard feature in scrolling beat 'em up games of the time, and the two 'different' brothers in the two-player mode are exactly the same only sporting different colour schemes - there are several other instances of this sprite being recycled; masquerading as henchmen on the final level and even as a boss, which is just plain lazy. This trend follows over to the enemy thugs, where if you discount the occasional boss character, there are only three (four if I'm being generous) different goons in the entire game. On the plus side, there are various weapons scattered about the levels such as rocks and bats, providing much-needed respite from the incessant button-pummelling as they at least allow you to attack from range and require some semblance of timing.

From a technical standpoint, Double Dragon's simplicity of design, music and visuals makes it seem more of a Master-System game than Mega-Drive. Despite apparently delivering the closest graphics to the arcade original, DD still looks really poor next to the competition of its time. The sprites are tiny and badly coloured, and the animation is really poor as well. To be fair, there is a bit of variety to the levels - including streets, woodlands and a factory complete with climbable ladders - plus there's the occasional nice backdrop here and there (the opening scene and a giant car-hoarding spring to mind) but for the most part it's very basic.

Sound-wise it's a source of major earache as well. The effects do little to recreate the feeling of a true battle with lame clunking noises being offered up whenever a figure hits the deck and odd warping noises signifying the loss of a life. It's also a shame that there's no speech whatsoever; not even a good-intentioned 'hi-yah' can be found within. The tunes are lively enough and suit the action quite nicely, but just as with the effects, their delivery is tinny, weedy and very 8-bitsville - and next to Streets Of Rage's much-celebrated funky techno efforts, they are just plain naff.

Thus when you reach the end, it is with a certain degree of relief. The lack of difficulty settings or any meaningful options means there is little incentive to return beyond the first couple of goes, and high-scores are not worth bothering with as there are no point-bonuses or pick-ups to be found. So you'll do well to glean more than an hours worth of play from it.

Double Dragon is, even in the context of its 1992 release, a really poor game. It may have been an arcade-ace in the eighties, but that doesn't excuse such an all-round lacklustre conversion from Accolade. Sluggish controls, dated visuals and a complete lack of longevity means that, for all but the very most misty-eyed of fans, the Mega-Drive version should be given a wide birth.

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