thatdemoguy

As always let's start off with me being 100% transparent....Double Dragon is quite possibly my favorite retro game series from my childhood. I have many fond memories of playing this in the arcade and at home. I remember renting the first game nearly every weekend from the mom & pop video store for months up until the owner of that store actually gave the game to my dad for me to have for Christmas. I remember being amazed at the commercial for part 2 that would air every single time there was a commercial during WWF SuperStars on Saturday morning. I remember begging for part 3 and making a deal with my parents to do well in school to get it.

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So let's not mince words....I LOVE THE DOUBLE DRAGON SERIES!!!!

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Ive played and own virtually every game from the Atari 2600 right on up to this current Playstation 4 iteration. I have been there for the good times and the bad times. I was there for the absolutely amazing Double Dragon Advance and the oft overlooked iOS/Android version by G Gee (check it out if you haven't) and I was also there for the downright atrocious Wander of the Dragons. So it goes without saying that I have a lot of love for this franchise. 
 
With that said though let’s give a brief history of the series and explain how exactly THIS particular title is Double Dragon IV and not Double Dragon VI. Technos, the original developer, made the first 3 games on the NES and also made Super Double Dragon or Return of Double Dragon on the SNES. That particular game, Super Double Dragon, was never meant to be the fourth numbered title in the series, it was actually a soft reboot meant to be a new adventure in the Double Dragon lore. But as was the popular convention at the time, many series that had trilogies on the NES saw a numbered fourth version when the jump to 16-bit took place. These include Castlevania and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games which saw Super Castlevania IV and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in time respectively. At this time though, the Double Dragon license was in a state of flux, being passed from developer to developer, with characters popping up in all manner of games, including the crossover Battletoads and Double Dragon. Well the "pimping" of the license continued with the comic books, toys, THAT movie, and even a cartoon. With social awareness of the license at a high, it felt like a game was needed, so in swooped LeLand Interactive and Williams Entertainment, who made a game based off of the aforementioned cartoon. But when deciding on a title, it was ASSUMED that Super Double Dragon was Double Dragon IV, which is how we ended up with Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls, a shoddy Street Fighter rip off which honestly was the fall of the series.
 
In the years that followed the license found itself in the hands of many different developers who made games of varying quality. Some shameless rereleases on every imaginable platform, and even some unlicensed gems like Rage of the Dragons on the Neo-Geo, which wasn't able to secure the full license in time for its release, but Billy, Jimmy and even Abobo were there, though the Lee brothers were now the Lewis brothers. In 2012 the license found its way into the hands of WayForward, a company that has a pedigree for taking licenses and reinventing them in spectacular ways. Check out BloodRayne Betrayal if you have the chance. Wayforward then made the campy but wonderful Double Dragon Neon, which was a spoof of the series. It took its distinctly 80s vibe to the max and included schlocky 70s kung-fu references and 90s pop culture nods. This game was the shot in the arm that in my opinion revived interest in the dying franchise.
 
In 2015, the license found its way into the hands of another very capable developer, Arc System Works, who also does good things with licenses that have seen better days, they made Hard Corps: Uprising and have River City Ransom Underground upcoming. Now as it were, some KEY members of the original Technos that made the original Double Dragon are employed by Arc System Works. These include the original director, producer, character designer, programmer, and composer. So as a passion project, while busy working on other things, they worked on what we now have in Double Dragon IV, a "new" old game that takes place after the events of Double Dragon II but before those of Double Dragon III. This game also commemorates the 30th anniversary of the release of the first game.
 
Its place in the timeline is why we have the very retro aesthetic, with sprites and music taken directly from previous games. Though as an aside one small nitpick I have is that the sound effect of the finger pointing your way isn't here. It’s not a big deal, but its absence is noticeable. Those old sprites have been given new animations that flesh out the move set in nice ways. There's a new juggling mechanic to take advantage of, and that really opens up when played with a partner. But those new animations and juggles can also be used by the enemies, which is where part of the problem with this game comes into play.
 
No longer tied to the limitations of old hardware, there can be more than 2 enemies on screen at a time, and they can be any of the various enemy types in the game. The problem in this comes in that many enemies have movement speeds faster than yours, so you can easily be surrounded and get stuck in a loop of knockdown attacks. This doesn't seem too bad, because there is a move that instantly gets you free on your wakeup (HINT: if you don't know....its the hyper knee) but when you get later in the game and have to attempt to prioritize which enemy to try and attack because some of them have knockdown attacks that literally take half a life bar, it becomes a mild annoyance eating what can be seen as cheap deaths. But even then you're given a generous amount of lives at 3 per and continues at 5 for 1P and a shared 7 for 2P games. With these in tow, making it through the game's 12 missions should be no problem. Speaking of the 12 missions, I feel that some missions are far too short, only consisting of two or three screens and a handful of enemies. A couple of missions could have been combined into one longer stage with an end stage boss, making things feel much more natural. Even then, it is totally possible to run through all 12 missions in a little over an hour. And should you have any issues finishing the game, you can choose a mission select by using the start button instead of the X button on the main menu when choosing story mode. You can instantly go to the last stage you completed with a full set of lives and all continues available.
 
As you beat each stage, you unlock characters to be used in the bonus VS mode, which is a throwback to the mode that was available in the first game on the NES. But the REAL longevity of this game comes in the Tower mode that is unlocked after completing story mode for the first time. In this mode you get ONE life to try and make it up 100 floors.  If you die, it's GAME OVER MAN. But the neat caveat of this is that whenever you defeat an enemy type in this mode you unlock them for use in ALL modes, meaning you can use them in tower, vs and even now in story mode!! What this means is that you can play through the entire game as any of the enemies in the game. So if you want to play as Williams, Rowper, Linda, or everyone's favorite bruiser Abobo, you can do that. This adds another layer of replay value to the game because each enemy also has their own updated move set. Meaning you could find a character that fits your playstyle much better than Billy or Jimmy and could possibly help you advance further in the tower, which has it's own secret unlocks. I won’t spoil who they are, but there are a few legacy characters from the series that once defeated, you get to play as.
 
Now there are a couple of glaring issues that need to be addressed. First off is that this game has local co-op only, meaning there is no online at all. This one does kind of hurt, seeing as how most of the people I would want to play this game with are older (like myself) and have busy lives of their own, with jobs and kids and responsibilities. It would have been awesome to have been able to sit down with one of my friends and get a quick one to two hour play session in online. But that's not a possibility. The last issue is that there is significant screen tearing that occurs as you play. I don't know if this was an oversight or an intentional retro design choice, but it's definitely there and I don't feel it really belongs. This is not game breaking in the least, but it is something that can be seen instantly and it never lets up no matter what mode you play in. This is more of a nitpick than a real issue.
 
Even with that said, I have to say that this game is very much worth the asking price of $7.99. That's less than the cost of a meal at a restaurant, and you get a full retro game that is also a new entry in a very revered series. Now I do feel that if this wasn't Double Dragon, that it would likely be met with more vitriol than it already is, but as is this is a great purchase that may not be for everybody but anybody who loves the old games owes it to themselves to play.
 
And that's how I feel about Double Dragon IV, its not going to change the world, it’s not going to be the next big thing, but it’s a perfectly serviceable game that's nowhere near as terrible as the bad rep it’s been getting.
 

So how do YOU feel about Double Dragon IV? Have you played it? Do you feel that it's a little too retro, maybe even to it's own detriment? Do you think another game in the series should follow? Feel free to sound off in the comments and find me on ALL social media at thatdemoguy

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