Subject: REVIEW: Double Dragon
From: [email-masked] (Sherman Chan)
Date: 8 Apr 1993 13:21:59 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

PRODUCT NAME

	Double Dragon

DESCRIPTION

	An arcade beat 'em up.  Adapted from the 1985 Taito arcade game of
the same name.

PUBLISHER

	Name:		Arcadia (Virgin Mastertronic)
	Address:	711 West 17 Street, Unit G9
			Costa Mesa, CA 92627
			USA

	Telephone:	(714) 631-1001

LIST PRICE

	Unknown.  I bought it used from a netter for $6 (US).

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

	512K Amiga, one disk drive, one or more joysticks.  No mention
is made of compatibility with any specific model of Amiga, processor,
or Kickstart version.

TEST HARDWARE

	Amiga 500 w/68000 7Mhz CPU
	512K Chip - NTSC only
	512K Slow RAM
	2 Megs of Fast RAM
	Kickstart 1.2
	A1010 External floppy drive
	Kraft one-button joystick

COPY PROTECTION

	Disk based.  The game does not appear to be hard disk installable,
and it requires a reboot to start and exit.  The ASDG recoverable RAM disk
VD0: does survive the reboot to exit.  The game attempts to save high scores
to the disk.

REVIEW

	I was somewhat excited when the package containing Double Dragon
(and a few other pieces of software I bought from a fellow netter) arrived.
Double Dragon was a milestone in the development of the martial arts
fighting game as important as Karate Champ and Streetfighter II.  It was
also the last arcade game I spent a significant amount of money on.

	The arcade Double Dragon had a simple premise.  The player had to
battle through five levels of enemies to meet the boss, defeat him, and
rescue his girlfriend.  If a second player were involved, the game would be
cooperative, and the players fought the gang members together.  However, the
players could injure each other, and a careless move often knocked down a
partner, rather than an enemy.

	I remembered the horrible C-64 conversion, and the somewhat
disappointing Nintendo (8-bit) cartridge, and hoped the Amiga version
wouldn't also disappoint.  To my dismay, I found that it too fails to
capture the feel of the arcade version.  The graphics, while somewhat
grainy, are generally acceptable facsimiles of the originals.  But the
design team's greatest sin is not including any of the soundtrack.  Any
former player of the arcade game would've told you the music was an integral
part of a game.  It broke the monotony of the thuds of connecting punches,
the groans of defeated opponents (these effects are present in the Amiga
game), and helped edge the player along.

	If the music were present, I'd forgive some of the other gaffes; but
since it isn't, I won't.  First, why doesn't this game use a hi-res screen?
The arcade graphics weren't particularly colorful, and 16 colors would've
been sufficient, as the IBM PC version proved.  The additional resolution
would've allowed for more detail in the characters and smoother animation.
They designers compounded this arguably minor omission by dropping animation
frames present in the arcade version.  This makes punches and kicks jerky
and ruins one of my favorite animations in the original:  when a player
managed to grab one of his opponents by the hair and unleashed a barrage of
knee-butts to his head, the speakers would emit a furious series of thuds,
while the opponent's body convulsed with each hit.  I performed the same
manuever on the Amiga game, and found the game makes absolutely NO SOUND, and
the animation is jerky and slow.

	The arcade game used a two button/joystick combination for the
controls; and as Double Dragon was programmed in 1988, no provision was made
for a two-button controller.  The controls are adapted fairly well for a
one-button joystick, with one glaring exception.  The backwards elbow, the
most important move in the player's arsenal, for some reason is programmed
to require joystick movement PRIOR to the button press, rather than
simultaneously like all the others.  I often find myself performing an
about-face followed by a punch when I try to elbow an opponent.

	The various enemies in the arcade game had "personalities" and
fighting styles unique to them.  They were nowhere as pronounced as the
nuances in Streetfighter II (or even Streetfighter I), but they were
important.  While enemies could generally be defeated by some combination of
a fast knock down followed by a series of elbows, there was a need to
tailor-make some moves for the tougher ones.  I find that the Amiga game's
enemies are fairly stupid, and often stand around for me to hit.  Even
without a reliable elbow move, I do OK in the game and am able to get to
the end of the third level without a continue.

CONCLUSION

	Even by the standards of 1988 Amiga gaming, Double Dragon is a
failure.  It's a study in lost nuances.  Graphically the game is only
slightly below average, but the various other omissions make it an
unacceptable conversion.  It could be excused if the Amiga hardware were
incapable of performing better (if this were a C64 port, I'd have to say
it's pretty impressive), but that's clearly not the case here.  I'd have to
say Double Dragon for the Amiga is for the less discriminating nostalgia
buff only, and only if it can be purchased for a meager price.  If you must
have a decent Double Dragon game in your collection, consider purchasing the
Nintendo version.  While it's inferior graphically to the Amiga version, it
has the music and it's considerably more playable with the two button
controller.  Note that there are two versions of the Nintendo cartridge:  an
older one that only allows one player, and a later reissue that allows two.

-Sherman Chan
[email-masked]

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