What I thought back during release….

Kick ass game! One of the best 8 bit soundtracks I have ever heard, mixes perfectly with the action going on. On the subject of action, there’s rarely a slow moment, and nearly every second you’re in the middle of a fight. Not the longest game in the world, but it was tough enough where you’d rarely see the end on a consistent level. I just wish there was two players simultaneous action, and maybe a little more length to the game. Also, the number of glitches in this game, one being a potential  “game breaker” are baffling, although more or less every glitch is intentionally brought on. Otherwise, Double Dragon on the NES is a ton of fun and one of the premiere titles on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Rating Then: 8.3

Double Dragon was quite a glitchy game. So glitchy, that if I go any higher up, I can walk above and out of the screen and make these chicks glitch around!

What I think year later….

When I got my NES as a Christmas present several hundred years ago, I  had five games to go along with it – Super Mario Bros. 2, Zelda 2: The Adventures of Link, Metal Gear, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and finally Double Dragon. I remember spending quite a bit of time with the latter title, and how much fun I had. Not knowing what I learned many years later, Double Dragon was far from arcade perfect. However, it was extremely fun, and has become an almost timeless classic. But after all these years, does this timeless classic still clock in a good time? With the expansive NES library, how does it hold up to so many other classics on the system?

So many questions are raised by this picture - Why is there color variations of enemies here that never appear in game? Who is the blue haired Lee brother? Is she bothered by a stomach ache?

Right off the bat, I get that reminder about how awesome this game was — the theme music. It feels so fitting to this game, like how the Rocky theme is so fitting to the Rocky movie. You get that adrenaline rush, and just want to beat down baddies right away! Starting the game, the opening scene made me think back to where I once thought violence towards women started, when Billy’s squeeze gets gut punched and carried away by no named thugs. I was 10 or 11 back then, so I forgive my stupidity some.

Double Dragon is one game that you can jump back into, and feel like you haven’t lost a beat. It’s not just summed up by the fact that it’s on a 25 year old system — this game was still a bit complex for its time. With a punch and kick button, which can both be pressed to jump and when you have the skill, jump kick, easy character movement and enough simplicity in where you go, it’s easy enough to get into. However, the attacks you unlock make you think what is the best attack for who. Early on, you won’t have to deal with what attack is best for who, as you only have punch combos and kick combos, with a kickless jump.

Level 2 Gitch! Step 1: With a bat in hand, approach the side of the screen enough to lure the enemies out, with the top guy positioned like the shot above, then climb up the fence and move left.

Step 2: Walk all the way to the left and climb down the fence halfway, climb back up and walk back over to where you lured the henchman.

Double Dragon looks very good, and even with such a vast library of titles, its still one of the better looking titles. There’s a lot of different animations you come across, and it gives a very distinct feeling of diversity. You can throw two kicks, grab the enemy by the hair and give three knees, toss them over your shoulder, walk over to them and mount them for a few punches, all with a very clean and distinct look. Backgrounds are not plain, generic and overly simplistic. There’s enough variation from scene to scene (minus the cave areas) for you to take notice. I never noticed little wall deformities like in the screen shot above, until I played it again years later. There’s a lot of attention to detail here, even for an 8 bit title.

I dunno if this is even possible, but Double Dragon’s soundtrack seems like its even better than I ever remembered. Each stage has such a fitting and foot tapping sound. Not one stage has a disappointing musical piece. One of the all time greatest gaming soundtracks ever, even to this day. Other sounds throughout the game do their job, although it’s nothing spectacular, like that damn good music.

The difficulty ramps up quite a bit after you enter the first cave section in the third stage. I remember how pissed I would get on the total randomness of the spikes falling, and how big of a pain it was to navigate through without dying. That is still a problem for me, and still as frustrating. It’s about the only time you’ll ever wish for a dash of some sort. There’s some iffy timing platform jumping in the caves, as well as annoying drops down. Then there’s that bit with the walls shooting out at you and knocking you down. Definitely a hair puller. Not to mention that there are no continues in Double Dragon, so that adds to some frustration.

Step 3: Use said bat to rapidly whack away where the henchman used to be for the next 2 minutes.

Step 4: ??? Step 5: Profit, in the form of elbow strikes while not even halfway through the game!

Double Dragon had a couple of memorable glitches, as outlined by several of my screen caps. The stage 1 glitch shown in the first screen cap is pretty much useless, whereas the level 2 skill max out could almost be a “game breaker” as it gives you the powerful attacks that you don’t fully unlock until the last couple of stages (step by step shown through a series of four caps above). Also, some extremely hard to pull of glitches help make the next couple of fights a but easier. It involves swinging or picking up a weapon at a split second timing with the thumbs up that pops up to signify that you can advance forward. Finally, one of the more well known glitches involves skipping the stage 2 “boss” completely, by luring him out of the doorway, and proceeding to climb down two ladders, tricking the game into thinking he fell of a cliff or something, and ending the stage.

Nearly 20 years after its release, Double Dragon is still one of the great classic games on any system. Even with some sketchy jumps, ramped difficulty and some aggravating environmental attacks, its still an extremely fun play through, and is definitely among the elite list of 8 bit titles. After all this time, you’ll still want to crank your volume up and fight it out through one of gamings all time greatest soundtracks. In some ways, I feel like Double Dragon aged better than many games that have come along the way in the last 25+ years.

Oh, by the way Fred Savage, it wasn’t that hard to do back when I was 10, and it still isn’t hard to do today….

"Fifty thousand? ....you got fifty thousand on Double Dragon?!"

Rating Now: 9.2