One Of The First Beat-Em Ups (Double Dragon)

Name: wampyrii

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Product:	Double Dragon
Date:	07/12/00 (62 review reads)
Rating:

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When I was a kid I used to have to get a bus home from school. Quite often this would involve a wait of around an hour for the next one to arrive as I lived a bit out of the way, but this was never a problem as the bus station used to have its very own little amusement arcade...sadly now gone. Double Dragon was one of the machines which they had in there and swallowed a fair amount of my money at the time because you could always get quite along game out of your 20p. I received the game for Christmas as well as part of a compilation pack and the conversion to the Amiga was actually surpirsingly good...especially when you consider how many are not - if somewhat slow and jerky as the programmers struggled to get coin-op quality from what is now little more than a doorstop.

Double Dragon allowed you and a friend to walk through the mean gangland streets beating the hell out of(and then back into) numerous thugs and bad guys with feet, fists and various weapons of general thuggery such as baseball bats and knives. You could punch, elbow, kick high, do a flying kick and ummm...throw things, all of which sound a little lame when compared to today's beat-em up offerings but were still impressive at the time. All this was in the attempt to rescue your girlfriend from the clutches of an evil thug boss who kidnaps her at the beginning of the game.

The graphics are pretty good and true to the original coin-op as is the sound, it is only the very jerky animation which lets this game down. It is strangely addictive, but ultimately as with so many other coin-op conversions, you get far too many credits and the game is easily completed.

Overall, then not a classic by any stretch, but also not a turkey either - fun for a while but simply no longevity there.

I recently had the dubious pleasure of coming across this game again whilst on a holiday in Cyprus and couldn't resist playing. If you are looking for a nostalgic trip down memory lan
e then you really can't beat Cyprus for games such as BuggyBoy, WonderBoy, Double Dragon, Dragon Ninja, Puzzle Bobble, Invaders, Galaxion...and anything else really from over 10 years ago in their arcades and bars. It felt like I'd stepped back into the 1980s. I am also glad to report that all these games are still as much fun as they were then although obviously I didn't stick around long enoughto try them all...not with all that sun around outside.

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