Quick Look: Double Dragon IV

Looks like Double Dragon Neon is still the best one huh.

Glad I didn't purchase this. It looks..not great.

Hey look! It's Lance Bluepants Trebouchet!

Those punch sounds are gnarly. Like mostly bad gnarly.

So there are like eight dragons now?

The sound effect on the punches is actively killing my ears.

This is a fighting game, right?

Really wish this was a Double Dragon Neon successor.

Yeah, I enjoyed that far more than I thought I was going to.

Oh this, this is.. bad. I mean it seems faithful to the original on the NES style-wise but with sequels you're supposed to build upon formulas and improve, right? This does nothing of the sort seemingly so it seems pointless. At least Double Dragon 3 tried some new things, and Neon happened which again wasn't for me but it had some cool stuff in it.

Yeesh. Maybe Arc Systems Works decided that they better do something with the art assets they own from the NES Double Dragon games, or maybe they thought the NES Classic thingie was supposed to signal some revolutionary return to a market for 8-bit games, but I agree with what Alex implied.

Double Dragon in the NES was cool because my friends and I could say "wow, arcade games in our homes!" Looking back, only an extremely niche market would say "Man, someone should fully replicate the sluggish, inaccurate, wonky-ass 8-bit mechanics in 2017!"

Boy. This should have been better.

@lestephan: I have a real weird affection for Double Dragon Neon. I don't think I beat it, but found it pretty funny and had a lot of fun playing it with my wife. I appreciated the neo retro 1980's direct to VHS aestetic they were running with.

Neon had a dedicated High-Five button. Double Dragon IV does not. QED Neon is the best Double Dragon game.

Ok, I'm not the only one who finds the sound effects to be grating.

Imagine if Elite Dangerous was faithful to the looks of the BBC Micro game...

Count me in among the 'DD Neon was surprisingly ok' crowd. Not as good as SORR but that's a fanboy war I don't want to have.

I think 7-8 dollars is probably the right price, 15-20 would have been well too far.

Still, for a quick nostalgia shot and a handful of new moves and duel mode I could see it being a good choice.

Hey, at least that new River City Ransom still looks rad.

People always talk about Neon's high-five button, and yeah, sure, OK, but the actual reason that game owned was the dodge/gleam mechanic. Rolling in through an attack and following up with a superpowered combo was never not cool. Also the soundtrack.

Neon was worth it alone for the ending and sing-a-long.

Man, that soundtrack. DAT MANGO TANGO

The backgrounds look weird, like they're either too advanced for era the game is going for or their design clashes with the sprites' design (like they're from two different games). And the new enemy sprites don't look like they follow the same design constraints as the recycled ones. And the fact that every enemy has rising and leaping attacks means no enemy has a distinct feel. And, and. . .

This game looks slap-dash.

@lestephan: Hard to improve on

It really makes me mad that they called this Double Dragon IV, when that was the SNES game.

Arc System Works played this as straight as possible and it seems kinda boring. If I wanted my classic Double Dragon fix I'd just go and play the older games again. Double Dragon Neon tried a bunch of new things, at least.

Another beat em up that is disappointing in its design. Do more.

It's like the sprites of an NES game over the backgrounds from a Turbografx game. If they'd restricted themselves to the NES palette if might have at least had a look to it.

I think the game is sloppy around the edges yet still absolutely fine for a cheap release that is not hiding any of its intentions. It's meant to be a throwback, not a step forward. Double Dragon Neon was more polished, don't get me wrong, but that game wasn't really trying to do the same thing in the first place.

Alex with the Ghostbusters reference at 24:00. Made me smile.

SNES had Super Double Dragon and Double Dragon V. Not sure if there's some kind of story behind this game, like maybe it was being worked on already when they started V, but was canceled; who knows.

Well, that's a shame. Really wish we could've gotten a proper Double Dragon based on the arcade version. Also, I'm surprised so many people liked Neon. That game's vibe was like someone desperately trying so hard to be funny and it was just pathetic and cringe-worthy. I had to shut it off.

This is the run?

No Bimmy and Jimmy?

This might be a good time to mention that the weapon/tool with the weights stringed together is called bolas (as in the plura of the Spanish word for "ball").

Green Abobo even has purple pants. A little on the Hulk-nose, don't you think?

oh god GBE playing buggy emulated rom hacks again. what am i even PAYING for? [/s]

@vinny I'm pretty sure those options at the menu that you asked about were if you wanted to allow friendly fire

Oh man @vinny's response to Alex's question at the beginning was so perfect. LOL

The dedication to recreating almost the same look and feel of the NES seems to have been part of the reason this seems lacklustre. Also the dull sound effects aren't helping.

Why would they not put it in a modern jacket? Games back then were extremely limited. I mean look at Mario, it evolved. They just made another one of those, why?

They made a bad one of those that doesn't even run properly on a machine thousands of times more powerful than an NES. It makes me sad that people do this, even though I have no particular love for the original game.

Streets of Rage is way better

The problem with this game is that Double Dragon wasn't that great to begin with. Those games don't hold up well at all, especially the arcade version, so you're starting with a base that is very bland at best. Arc didn't do anything special with this, instead making what is a very safe, bland game with reused nes sprites and badly done, flat looking 16 bit backgrounds.

Double Dragon Neon also had arguably the single greatest use of the "Achievement/Trophy awarded" pop-up.

Finished this just now. I enjoyed it. I've not got the affinity for the arcade version but this one seems fun enough to play through. The story's short and sweet and the stage select they hide in there at least allows you to persist through it.

Unlocking the enemy sprites and movesets is nice as well. Could've pushed the boat out a little more but it's clear from this and their River City Ransom treatment, they're trying to stay faithful (to a fault) to Tengen's original style. Plus they kickstarted RCRU so they're definitely testing the waters, rather than diving deep and being bold.

This is good. Hopefully this sells enough for them to do more with the license.

I guess I'm the odd man out, as I'm looking forward to playing this and think it looks fine.

Tell me please?

KaraKnee?

Never forget the most "important" Double Dragon.

@mezmero: That, Wing Commander, Street Fighter, and Mortal Kombat. I will freely admit to watching all of those. Wing Commander was actually pretty good if I remember correctly.

Damn, there are things about this that seem pretty neat. But I'm really weirded out by the backgrounds that almost look more PC-98 than even 16-bit consoles (and certainly not NES era) with their dithering and that kind of stuff. Don't mesh well with the sprites at all.

Music also sounds pretty late 80's home computer-esque, like it's played on an MT-32 or something.

As always, it reminds me how much I'd love a new Last Ninja game.

@bill_mcneal: Yes! I really liked the Wing Commander movie too, I always find it confusing when people bring it up as one of the worst one of those, even though there admittedly were some really poor choices made when they created that thing. Dropping the fantastic cast from WC3 and 4 for starters, but also the weird changes to the background story and making the kilrathi look like hamsters instead of lions.

I absolutely love their ship designs though.

@fisk0: I was actually referring to the cartoons, but I also actually liked the WC movie too. I'm also a little shocked to find someone else that did too.

I'm disappointment in Arc System Works. These are the same people that make all those good Anime based fighting games like Guilty Gear, BlazBlue, etc. They could have done much better with this game. Instead of making a cheesy and not well done rom hack of NES Double Dragon.