as a Double Dragon “head,” i have been at least morbidly curious about this newest game that came out. from the start, i was turned off by the game in multiple ways, the in-game character designs (tiny, inarticulate, big-headed sprites) turned me off the most. the gameplay also struck me as fairly “not Double Dragon”. this really pained me, because i love this series, and i always want to support it, but if we’re being honest, there are maybe 3 to 4 “actually good” Double Dragon games in its entire history, and more-modern takes have ranged from improvements on an established idea, to totally-off-base (imo) fan fiction pet projects. i just couldn’t justify buying this game, but seeing a Replay Burners video of the game pop up, i decided to give it a look, finally, and see if maybe there’s something worthwhile in there.
well, i remain unconvinced.
what i didn’t like:
the graphics - i just hate them. i hate the way everyone looks, although in the profile pics, i think the characters look pretty good. too bad you spend 95% of the time staring at ugly bite-sized goblins instead.
the gameplay - maybe the combat in this looks ok - it has a lot of juggling and grouping enemies together to eliminate a bunch at once, but it doesn’t really seem like " a Double Dragon game" to me, in terms of its gameplay. the enemies all have life bars, too! how dare they!
i think there is a line of thought that goes “Double Dragon was the best belt scroller until Final Fight arrived and improved on all its formulas.” while i think there’s something to that, i also think that DD has a specific type of game feel that is specifically meant to be a totally different experience. moves often feel slow and deliberate - often, you need to specifically memorize how many hits, or what combo of hits, will knock an enemy down or kill them. now, if you play any beat’em up long enough, you will begin to memorize those things regardless, but lifebars change the focus and the feel of how you are interacting with the enemies around you.
the aesthetics/feel - the game stops the player wayyyy too often. knock out more than two enemies at once? the game will literally pause to tell you how cool you are and show you a picture of a hot dog or hamburger or something. if you’re playing well, this means the game is pausing every 10-30 seconds or so. oh, dialogue? yeah, the game is going to stop you on the playfield so you can read some dialogue in the middle of a stage.
again, i feel like beat’em ups have built in breaks that create a specific flow. the breaks happen when 1. you knock all the enemies on screen down for a moment and can reflect on your next move 2. you defeat all enemies on screen and walk over to the next encounter 3. you complete the stage. pausing the game every half a minute or so just takes me out of what is happening.
the music - for lack of a better description, the music has that maximalist kind-of-chiptune-kind-of-Virt style to it where it is playing all the notes and yet none at all. the first stage’s BGM has nods to both Stage 3 and Stage 1 (from DD1) in it, but messes up the best parts and then fills in the gaps with a bunch of noodling. to its credit, they composers do seem to understand which DD tracks are cool and iconic, but they just don’t know what to do with them. maybe some folks will like it, but it’s not for me.
anyway, there is a chance that if this game ever goes on sale for $5 i will buy it, because Double Dragon, but i’m left feeling a little bewildered by the game after watching this
what i kind of liked: the idea of multiple gangs occupying different parts of NYC does feel like it’s getting back (a little bit) to the original Fist of the North Star origins, which i respect. it’s always kind of funny to see how much “the apocalypse” does or does not play a role in these games. it often feels kind of arbitrarily used or ignored, as a backdrop.
i also kind of like that all the enemy bodies remain on screen when you defeat them.
