Developer: Kid Co. Publisher: Naxat Soft Release: 03/12/93 Genre: Beat em up
My initial exposure to Double Dragon 2 was the brilliant NES version which was essentially a remake. I did not play the arcade game until years later and to say it was disappointing is an understatement. When I heard about the Japanese Double Dragon 2 I hoped it would be a 16-bit version of the Nintendo game. But unfortunately it was an arcade conversion, and a poor one at that. The PC Engine CD version of Double Dragon 2 is what I imagined the Sega game to be and is nearly the definitive version of the game.
The game follows the same general plot of the other versions. Marian is gunned down by the Black Shadow gang and the Lee brothers are out for revenge. The NES version had brief cutscenes between levels to advance the story. Those are now animated with voice acting. Calling them animated is a misnomer honestly; there is only the slightest animation and it looks cheap. But I appreciate the effort.
Aside from the cutscenes and voice acting the game has been given a full visual makeover. The sprites are larger and have realistic proportions. Some of the enemies are massive like Abore and Burnov and facing two of these bad asses simultaneously is terrifying. The overall art style is more realistic than stylized and I would say looks even better than the arcade. Every environment looks significantly better although the lack of parallax scrolling is disappointing. The soundtrack is fantastic and presented in Redbook audio and one of my favorite aspects of the game surprisingly. Naxat Soft did the game justice in the presentation department.
The gameplay is generally the same outside of a few differences, mostly for the better. It is much easier to activate all of your moves. Those that are familiar with the NES game will remember how hard it was to perform a spin kick or hyper knee. When jumping you perform a knee first before it becomes a jump kick. The spin kick will always activate when performing a standing jump attack. The timing of the uppercut is still shaky but I was able to do it relatively consistently. With larger sprites the hit detection has been adjusted for the better making it easier to land attacks. Despite the better hardware the game still carries some of the limitations of the NES game. You only fight two enemies simultaneously although the game now mixes up enemy types. Despite that oddity I love the changes to the mechanics.
Double Dragon 2 follows the same general cadence of its Nintendo counterpart. While the stages are the same the flow is different. The maps scroll in numerous directions which is ultimately pointless honestly but whatever. There have been some cuts such as the moving bulldozer in the forest, some enemies like Abobo (sacrilege!) and Jeff and many levels do not have an end level boss. But there are just as many new sequences. Stage five has an elevator with numerous waves and the chopper feels like a full stage instead of a single room. You also get to fight Machine Gun Willy as an added boss battle near the end. You would never know they took some content away as they have added just as much and it feels natural.
I do wish Naxat Soft took the time to further change the later levels of the game. The ill advised platforming in stages six and seven have always seemed out of place and doubly so here. Even though the controls are better they still seem like a cheap way to sap your extra lives. The developers have already shown that they can create new content that slots nicely in the game. I would love to have seen some of the shorter levels like the previously Mansion of Death expanded. Or create some context for the game’s true final boss who comes out of nowhere. These are just my personal gripes; the game is still great regardless.
I do not think it is a stretch to say that most never completed Double Dragon 2. The game was hard, especially as you had to beat it on Supreme Master Difficulty to reach the final stage. Add to that the lack of continues without the codes none of us knew and you have one of the hardest games on the system. The CD version lets you adjust starting lives and credits to give you a fighting chance. It still puts up a fight of course and has its moments. Chintai is one of the most aggressive enemies in the game and hard to fight. The shadow boss can drain your life in a single hit that is hard to avoid. And the final boss….I’ll leave that alone. But at least you are not handicapped from the start and it feels doable.
In Closing
Double Dragon 2 – the Revenge is an awesome game and one of the best beat ‘em up for the PC Engine. It hits all the right notes and is more accessible than the brutally hard NES version. It is a damn shame it is Japan exclusive but it’s a brawler, the language barrier means nothing. Play this game.
