One of my favourite arcade games growing up was definitely a very cool beat them up called Double Dragon. In it you or a friend use a wide range of special moves and weapons to smack around a bunch of deadly crooks in several dangerous interactive environments. Imagine my excitement when the game was ported home to my Nintendo Entertainment System here, eh? The problem is they took out the fun two player co-op game, the new whole stages just sucked, and they added this stupid feature where you have to unlock moves before you can use them. See why NES Double Dragon is a letdown.

In the game you play as martial arts expert Jimmy Lee and he is on a mission to clean up his crime invested streets. The whole situation just became a lot more personal when they just kidnap his very hot friend Maria. You actually see one of the gang members punch poor Maria in the stomach here and just walk off with her while the others watch. This special scene here really got a lot of attention and controversy because it not only showed violence against women in a video game but Maria was also wearing a super short mini skirt at the time and you can actually see her sexy white panties in the original arcade game. Sadly you don't see her cute panties in this version but you still get see Maria get knocked out. It just goes to show you that violence against women is OK but just don't have sexy thoughts of them. I don't get it either. Anyway though, if someone hits my cute girlfriend and take her away; it is so on! It won't be easy (or fun) to save her because you have to go through four different stages before you can find the evil mastermind if you want to get your girl back you got to do it.

The story is mostly the same here on the NES, however this game tries some new experience building options so the more thugs you beat up on the more new moves you can get like ground punches which sounds cool at first. The problem is you have to unlock some moves before you can use them so normally that cool elbow strike you could do in the arcade isn't available right at the beginning. That isn't even the worst part here. The action is for 1 player only in the main game and I just could not get pass that over site there especially since this is no easy adventure here.

There is a brand new one on one versus mode here at least now if you have a friend over. It's cool how you can select from 6 different characters here but it's just not the same as the exciting co-op game found in the arcades.

Sure you can do all the game's famous special techniques like jump kicks, head butts and throws. The thing is Tradewest reedited them all so they are much harder to do on these small two button NES controllers here. Just try doing a elbow strike on the fly in this mess now for example?

The game actually fools you into thinking it's good with some detailed and colourful background art in the case screen shots but just wait till you play it. The many different characters here now appear to be a lot shorter so all these tough street wise killers look like they can make cameos in a Hello Kitty Saturday morning cartoon. If you are a fan of the arcade game like me you'll notice there is a bunch of material taken out so don't expect this to be perfect.

Look, nothing kills the mood of a brutal life or death fighting game like having a bunch of silly background tracks. Try listening to some Kenny G while watching an UFC or Pride fight and you'll know what I mean. The music sounded good in the arcade game but the translation to the NES just didn't go over too well and the goofy sound effects are just as bad.

If you want to play a good two player fighting game on the NES then try Double Dragon II: The Revenge instead (not part 3 though). Double Dragon was such a gritty and revolutionary fighting game in the arcades but what the heck happened here? OK, the game is still fun to play and the new levels do add something different to the overall package but the many problems are still here. For example; the characters look like goofy morons, the wimpy sounds feel out of place, and the game play is now way too frustrating thanks to the lame new levels that just drag the game on and on. You could do worse (Target Renegade) but the arcade title was way better than this weird and cartoon RPG-like fighter anyway so you're much better off with the 50 different Double Dragon's out there.

DOUBLE DRAGON overall rating: 52/100
Original release: May 1988
Publishers: Tradewest
Creators: Technos

For 1 or 2 players
graphics: 5/10
sound: 5/10
gameplay: 5/10
replay: 6/10

www.videogames101.com

-StarSoldier
(Ryan Genno) 2006

Recommended: Yes