![]() ![]() Not only can you defend yourself from incoming attacks to reduce damage taken, but properly timing a block allows you to actually grab an enemy by the arm and deliver additional attacks to them. You’re able to punch, kick, jump and even block the latter option is something of a rarity in beat ’em ups, and provides some interesting tactical options. While the lack of plot in the final version is a shame, what’s left behind is a solid example of a 16-bit brawler. Billy’s girlfriend Marian was also supposed to appear in the game as a policewoman - mirroring her appearance in the Double Dragon comics and animated TV show at the time - but this never happened, either. (The original Super NES version allows a second player to join in as Jimmy Lee, but at the time of writing this isn’t possible on the Evercade version.) The villains are apparently a different group of Shadow Warriors to those found in the previous games, and the original intention of the game’s plot was for the group’s leader to be revealed as a childhood friend of Billy and Jimmy, leading to an interesting supernatural-fuelled moral dilemma during the final confrontation. In Super Double Dragon, you take on the role of Billy Lee as he takes on a criminal organisation known as the Shadow Warriors. ![]() One might argue that the Double Dragon series didn’t quite manage to keep up with the innovations in the genre that Sega and Capcom brought to the table with titles such as Final Fight, Golden Axe and Streets of Rage - and one would be right - but if nothing else, as the last Double Dragon game developed by the original team at Technos Japan, it remains a title of historical note. Thankfully, the one benefit of even Return of Double Dragon completely lacking any dialogue is the fact that means there’s no language barrier for English-speakers to be able to enjoy it - hence why this is the version we find ourselves with on the Evercade.Īnd despite its developmental woes, Super Double Dragon (as we shall refer to it hereafter for simplicity’s sake) is a solid 16-bit beat ’em up that is worth playing. This problem was further compounded in the Western Super Double Dragon release, which was missing several stages towards the end of the game and even lacked an options menu. The screen would just fade out, and then you’d be somewhere else. This led to the final retail game having a complete lack of narrative identity there’s no intro sequence, no context for why recurring series heroes Billy and Jimmy are fighting their way through hordes of bad guys, no explanation as to why one level ends with a bunch of characters just wandering off-screen, seemingly oblivious to the presence of the Lee brothers - and no real feeling of transitioning between areas. Speaking with Japanese gaming publication Game Kommander in 2004 (translated by Double Dragon Dojo), the game’s planner Muneki Ebinuma explained that Return of Double Dragon was originally intended to feature narrative cutscenes and additional stage gimmicks, but the time pressure on the team meant that they were unable to implement any of them. Lucky that we now have easy access to this version thanks to the Technos Collection 1cartridge for the Evercade retro gaming system, then, isn’t it? This Super NES-exclusive title suffered from an all-too-common problem in the games industry that we still see to this day: the developers being forced to rush the game out before it was completely finished.Įven the enhanced Japanese release was missing some of the material that was originally supposed to be in the game, but for now it remains the definitive version of the game. One particularly troubled installment was 1992’s fourth game in the series, known as Super Double Dragon in the West, and Return of Double Dragon in its slightly enhanced Japanese release. Despite being the franchise that pretty much defined a whole genre, the Double Dragon series has had its share of troubles over the years.
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