Double Dragon (Game Gear) review "Gat Dragon"

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Double Dragon's presence was inescapable. You would spot it at a friend's house, being sold at an electronics store, advertised in comic books, and immortalized in a 1989 film about a kid constantly screaming "California!" The 1987 arcade beat'em up had such an impact on gaming, that every console and computer wanted their own version, from the Game Boy and the MSX, to, of all things, the Atari Lynx. Sega consoles had their share with Master System and Genesis ports, so it came as no surprise that the company's portable received its own iteration. Each version would at least make an attempt at replicating the look and feel of the arcade original, but surprisingly, the development team for the handheld release had their own "interpretation."

Virgin Games reduced the street pummeling to a single player experience, as martial artist Billy Lee must rescue Marian from the Black Warriors... maybe. It says that in the manual, but the back of the box states it's to avenge the death of brother Jimmy Lee by the hands of the Dragon Lords, and the in-game ending offers another story deviation; it's like the company told three people to write different plot lines and hoped for the best. Whatever the reason, Billy begins the first stage stepping into the streets, but these streets look very unlike the other versions. Taking place at night, the surrounding buildings have boarded up windows, giving a bleak presentation to what you're used to. You then move Billy to the right, eager to throw fists and kicks.

But before an enemy materializes, the game wants you to pick up a nearby item: a gun. Virgin Games looked at Double Dragon, a well-known, beloved beat'em up about brothers using martial arts as their main form of attack, and went, "Start blasting when the game begins."

So after Billy fills several random people with bullet holes and throws away the evidence, you finally get an actual feel for melee combat. First impressions are rough. You have familiar-sounding attacks, like the fist-flurry combo when you mash the button, but the execution for some of these moves are contrary to the original's. The forward jump kick, for instance, is an awkward, nearly screen-long jump, meaning you and a thug have to be on opposite corners for it to connect. There are two other moves, but they're more likely to get you injured when performed. And before the first section of the first stage concludes, you will confront loose hit detection, slow movement animations from Billy, and a fast wily rogues gallery. What a wonderful combination to grapple with.

What's interesting is that, despite some of these "unique" changes and oddities that might polarize fans of the series, the Game Gear release does a better job handling a very specific element. While enemies in the original arcade version have slightly differing attack patterns, these can usually be cancelled out by abusing one move over and over for every encounter. Virgin Games' depiction actually forces you to use different attacks and maneuvers in order to survive; simply walking up to most opponents from an angle and delivering a flurry combo will be met with a swift counter. Solutions involve defeating fast-moving roller skaters with jump kicks, stopping mid-combo to move away before a counter injures you, or dodging bullets from a machine-gunner that constantly runs away. And you have to do this while juggling other enemies on screen.

Another reason for actually trying is because you're given limited continues. What makes this damning is how enemy counters can cause major damage depending on the enemy type, and it doesn't help that health refills are few and far between. If you're not careful, you can actually lose an entire health bar in seconds. But there's another motivator for trying the best tactics: you can gain more continues when you earn enough points. Though, if you lose all lives per continue, your score reverts to zero. It's the mix of enemies that pose a threat, limitations on surviving, and the prospect of earning more continues under these restrictions that invite stakes to this version of the game. If it wasn't for all the other issues to contend with, this improvement to combat could have made gameplay enjoyable.



While you're tackling awkward fights, you see that the overall atmosphere is... "off." That's not to say Double Dragon isn't allowed to stray from its original style, but when you've played your share in the series, you can tell when something seems like it was created by space aliens. Every character looks like the devs never played a DD game: Billy Lee is now Patrick Swayze, there's a legally-distinct Chun-Li opponent, a Leatherface copycat appears with a chainsaw, and Abobo... is just a normal-sized guy in a yellow shirt. There's even a gun-wielding boss soldier who looks like he came straight from Contra! Seriously, if Virgin Games somehow lost the IP rights mid-development, they could have gotten away with releasing this under a different name.

GG Double Dragon is just a very weird product; it's not good, but the quality never slips into terrible territory, though it's not quite hitting the so-bad-that-it's-good spectrum either. Is it fun? No. Is it entertaining? In a twisted way, yes, because it unintentionally plays out like a parody. Like, giving players a gun at the start of a Double Dragon game is crazy in itself, but the developers doubled down later on. In one particular segment, Virgin Games makes Billy Lee wander into a Virgin Megastore, has him pick up a shotgun, and starts blasting at everyone on sight. That has to be a deliberate joke, right?

... right?

Community review by dementedhut (July 13, 2024) Now if only I had the foresight to submit this OutRun review a day earlier...