Double Dragon Neon

Game Info

Nostalgia can be a cruel mistress.  Sometimes classic games of yore are best meant to be left in your memories.  Has anyone ever tried to play Goldeneye on a modern HDTV?  Don’t.  Just don’t.  You will regret it if you do.  But sometimes there can be a developer who can tap into the essence of what made those games so special.  And for Double Dragon, that developer is Wayforward.  Wayforward has a proven track record when it comes to making good modern 2D games with their other PSN/XBLA release BloodRayne: Betrayal as well as with the DS release of Contra 4- among others.  Double Dragon Neon continues this trend with its super-stylized graphics, retro 80’s style, and solid fisticuffs- all while maintaining that special, to me anyway, Double Dragon vibe.

I’m sure every gamer that was born around the 80’s has played at least one version of Double Dragon at some point.  Personally, I played through all 3 NES ones and enjoyed them immensely. So when Neon was announced I couldn’t wait to jump into the shoes of ½ of the dragon master team.  And while I was a bit bummed about the lack of online co-op (which is supposed to be patched in at a later date) couch co-op is fully intact, and it’s definitely the way to experience Neon.  The game begins much like the original: three goons walk up to and straight up punch your (or is it your brother’s?) girlfriend.  And it’s up to you to save her. Hey, it’s always worked for Mario, right?  It must also be mentioned that there’s not a single serious moment in this game.  For example, instead of screaming, “Nooooo! They took Marian!!”, the young Lee brother says, “Oh no, not this again.”  The silliness culminates during the end credits when the main antagonist, Skullmageddon (yes, Skullmageddon) sings a story summary karaoke while plummeting to his death- which is easily the funniest end credits I’ve ever witnessed.  And I’ve finished Portal, so that’s saying something.

Graphically, Double Dragon Neon uses cell-shaded polygonal characters set against ultra high resolution 2D backdrops and the overall result is solid.  There are, however, many enemies that are simply palette swaps, but I guess I’ll take that over carbon copies like in the olden days.  Other new additions to the classic gameplay include damage counters so you can see how much damage you’re doing with your powered up tornado spin kicks, as well as different “stances” in the game, which are just basically character loadouts.  For those favoring defense can choose the Training Wheels stance.  I stuck with the Balanced stance throughout and didn’t have too much trouble completing my initial playthrough.  Although switching stances and special attacks is as simple as opening up the pause menu and clicking on the one you want.  And did I mention that each stance and special attack has its own theme song in the pause menu for some weird reason, with each song being a subtle spoof on classic 80’s pop songs.  I found the music to be as enjoyable as the graphics.  A solid audio-visual presentation throughout.

Personally, it’s the gameplay that would have made it or broke it for me, and I wasn’t let down.  There’s just something inherently satisfying about pummeling street punks, thugs, and dominatrixes…(dominatrices?) while refilling your health with bottles of soda and picking up various limited use weapons such as whips, baseball bats, cattle-prods, and handguns.  For those of you thinking that the guns turn Double Dragon into Contra, think again.  Neither Lee brother knows how to shoot and instead just whacks enemies with the grip.  I actually laughed out loud the first time I saw it.  There are several platforming segments that are just as bad as they were in the previous Dragons, but thankfully they tend to be on the short side, with the main focus being on dealing close range bodily harm.

While most people can play through the entire game on normal in under two hours, there are two harder difficulties to tackle and numerous cassette tapes that randomly drop from enemies that are used power up stances and special attacks.  For me, it wasn’t enough to keep me playing, but it might be for some.  For $9.99 I still didn’t feel like I was ripped off, and I laughed more during the course of this game than I ever did watching The Hangover, so there’s always that to consider.  So, if you want to have a quite a few hearty laughs while beating goons to a pulp and save the girl at the end of the day, then I definitely would recommend this game to anyone.