#188 - Double Dragon

                          This cover looks a lot sillier than I remember as a kid.

Abobo is one of my favorite NES bosses of all time because he looks like a peanut with a mustache on steroids. Also, his name is ABOBO.

Double Dragon for the Arcade revolutionized beat-em-ups: it introduced two-player co-op and the ability to pick up an enemy's weapon after they dropped it. It gave you a wide variety of kicks and punches that you had to gain through the experience of beating your enemies. It was a truly influential game and the arcade version is still ridiculously fun to boot. As expected, Double Dragon was massively popular, which resulted in a port to every system on earth (yes, even the Atari 2600). Despite the fact that many still hold the original NES Double Dragon in high esteem – undoubtedly due to it being one of the first of its kind – it is the epitome of an average port.

While the basic gameplay – punch, kick, level up, progress – was left intact, Technos must not have been able to work around the NES' limitations for some key features, namely co-op. That's right, there is no co-op for the original Double Dragon. I find this interesting because I always forget Double Dragondoesn't have co-op until I play it. This is because I generally associate the Double Dragon series with Double Dragon II, which contains one of the best co-op experiences on the NES. There is a two-player alternating mode, but it is a poor substitute, to be sure. Not only was co-op eliminated, but the developers could only put two enemies on the screen at a time. Since you couldn't have a partner with you, this was probably for the best, but the screen always seems so empty. Couldn't Technos have put in some background animation to give the appearance of movement?

At least the NES version keeps the brutal story intact. In the first scene, you see some greasy thugs walk up to your girlfriend, punch her, and take her away. Honestly, that's all I would need to go all renegade on some fools. It's one of the best openings to any NES game ever, and I'm honestly surprised that Nintendo didn't make Technos take out the scene. Nintendo wouldn't allow crosses on a tombstone in Ducktales, but apparently punching a woman is a-ok.

I can't really fault Double Dragon as a whole. It's not a bad game if you can look around the omissions. Co-op is truly the heart of the Double Dragon experience, though, and for Technos to not include it feels like a punch or possibly a kick to the face. Perhaps my strict code of NES-only ethics should prohibit me from saying this, but if you want a better version of the game that includes co-op, I recommend either the Master System version. It's 8-bit, it includes co-op, and while it may not be arcade perfect, you can play with two people. Oh yes, there's co-op.

C+