Game Review: Double Dragon

Review: Double Dragon (Amiga)

One of my earliest gaming memories is beat ‘em up Double Dragon. I used to play this at my father’s house on the Atari ST and am proud to say in two player mode I completed it at a very young age. Looking back the game is a lot more straightforward than I remember but what memories this evokes.

The premise to the story is twins Billy Lee (dressed in blue) and Jimmy (dressed in red) who set out to rescue Marian. I think she might be Billy’s girlfriend but it’s unclear to be honest especially at the end. Marian has been kidnapped by the Black Warriors and our two heroes must fight their way through four levels in order to rescue her.

Unsurprisingly showing its age a bit now, Double Dragon still manages to be quite fun. As you face enemies you have access to a series of martial arts moves you can call upon to defeat them. You can even acquire baseball bats and nunchucks to take our your foes from a relatively safe distance. Your journey begins in a city, moving onto a factory, then traversing woodland before reaching the hideout of the Black Warriors and their gun toting boss who has a large reward on his head.

Most of your enemies are the same height as you but there are one or two giants thrown in there to keep you on your toes. That said, they are not that much more difficult to defeat than their fellow gang members. The final boss, with his lack of fair play, will probably pose your biggest challenge but if you’re in two player mode this won’t be the case. If you complete the game in two player mode you are forced to fight each other to the death. This decides which of you Marian will choose to be with! As if the poor girl hasn’t been through enough already! I hated this element of the game and remember getting very upset with my brother for defeating me after we’d worked so hard to get through the game.

Double Dragon was undeniably at its best in the arcades. It’s still fun but visually suffered when ported to the likes of the Amiga. It’s a very short experience as well which is a real shame but it represents the early days of gaming and given that it’s 25 years since it was first released on Arcade I don’t think it’s turned out too badly.

Verdict: 3/5

About the Author:

I was born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England and have always been a bookworm and enjoyed creative writing at school. In 1999 I created the Elencheran Chronicles and have been writing ever since. My first novel, Fezariu's Epiphany, was published in May 2011. When not writing I'm a lover of films, games, books and blogging. I now live in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, with my wife, Donna, and our six cats - Kain, Razz, Buggles, Charlie, Bilbo and Frodo.

David M. Brown – who has written 791 posts on Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave.

---