pickhut's Double Dragon II: Wander of the Dragons review

Wayforward is one of those development houses lousy with talent: We're talking Jake Kaufmann at the audio helm, and then the super cute artist ic stylings that put Shantae on the map... their inventory of published titles is remarkable. Disney entrusted them with Duck Tales Remastered, and it is a worthy, if imperfect, remake of a classic.

Capcom's treatment of their legacy IPs is totally mystifying. I remember seeing some YouTube footage of this game, and I was disgusted. How does a house brand property get such poor treatment? From what I gathered in Jason's review of Double Dragon 4, this game would get laughed out of the boxing ring with its overbearing, amateur performance.

Good review, pickhut. :)

Personally, WayForward has been kinda hit and miss with me from the titles I've tried. Alien Infestation felt disappointing, Contra 4 was very awkward to play, but Neon was definitely unique. Been meaning to review their Shantae titles, but I haven't gotten around to them yet; I own all the games, ready to be played.

Also, Double Dragon isn't owned by Capcom, if that's what you meant. If not, I'm confused.

Regardless, thanks for reading and liking the review!

Oh crap, you're right - it's Konami. My statement still stands... and I've played a fair share of the Shantae games... they're er, cute, even if their target demographic seems ... confused.

Double Dragon games have come from all sorts of publishers over the years, but I'm unaware of any ever coming from Capcom. Or from Konami. Neither of those companies ever has owned the IP. Technos Japan developed the original titles (with a very small crew) and generally partnered with companies like Tradewest and Acclaim to publish them in the US, but ownership of the IP was taken over by Million when Technos finally went bankrupt. Ownership of all Technos Japan properties seems to have passed from Million to Arc System Works around 4 years ago, where it resides today. Hamster works with a lot of Japanese publishers to bring their legacy arcade content to home consoles, so sometimes it can be difficult to keep track of who owns what unless you're really into such things...

I've heard bad things about this game and after seeing footage on the likes of youtube I simply facepalmed at how they got everything wrong about being a Double Dragon game, much less one that was supposed to be an "update" to the greatest beat'em up sequel of all. The footage alone is enough to make me Hulk out and go on a rampage truly.