Double Dragon Trilogy (PC/IOS)

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velcrozombie1
Posts: 400
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Double Dragon Trilogy (PC/IOS)

Postby velcrozombie1 » January 18th, 2015, 12:26 pm

This is a compilation of the three Double Dragon arcade games at a bargain price (currently on sale on both Steam and GOG for $4.79). The presentation isn't great. The menus look pretty cheap and generic, as do the UI elements (lives, power bar, score, etc). Also, the music doesn't loop continuously, instead fading out and then starting again after a few loops. Having said that, the games look just like the originals and play smoothly, with none of the slowdown that I've seen on both MAME and the arcade machines. There is both local and online coop, controller support (using a 360 pad now, but I'm also going to try out my arcade stick), customizable difficulty and the ability to swap the original music out for remixes. The game doesn't record your scores, though; not something I personally care about, but I realize that it does matter for some people.

How do the games play? As someone who mostly grew up on the NES versions and only played the arcade equivalent a few times, it's hard for me not to find them clunky and primitive. I'm glad I bought them, and it's cool to finally spend a significant amount of time with a historically-important series of games, but they don't hold up that well in comparison to the 16-bit games that came after. Even Double Dragon 2 (which plays the best of the three, even though it's basically a slightly more polished palette swap of the first game) is way better on the NES, awkward platforming and all. I probably liked the 3rd game the best (if only because of how genuinely WEIRD it is), but the jerkiness of the sprites is incredibly distracting.

In all, I'd only recommend these games to someone who either grew up with them, or someone who was a die-hard beat-em-up fan who wanted to see the roots of the genre. The package is definitely worth the price, though, and I could see myself coming back to these games from time to time. I certainly don't regret my purchase.

Pimphand_Gamester1
Posts: 18
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Double Dragon Trilogy (PC/IOS)

Postby Pimphand_Gamester1 » January 19th, 2015, 7:14 pm

I noticed it on Steam too but have the roms for MAME on my cab and never liked DD3. Not sure what it is but I think it's the worst in the series...well no DD: Neon is. I thought DD2 was ok but never liked the Renegade style of controls. BattleToads/DD was fun but In all honesty when it comes to Technos beat em up's, the best goes to River City Ransom. Shame they never did a remake. The worst? Target Renegade for sure.

DD was a great arcade game in it's day but Capcom pretty much made most of the best beat em up's ever.


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