Developer: Technos Japan
Publisher: Acclaim
Released: 1990
Completed: February 18, 2020
What a difference a few years can make. The original Double Dragon was a fun, albeit vastly different game on the NES compared to its arcade progenitor. The same can be said of Double Dragon II, but in the two years since the original port, developers had learned to utilize the hardware much better. The resulting game is, in my opinion, superior to the original in every way. In fact, I'd even go so far to say that I enjoy the NES version of DDII more than the arcade original.
As a child, I was so excited for Double Dragon II that I nearly drove my local video rental store employees crazy. The day it was supposed to come out, I called them every fifteen minutes for about two hours until they finally told me they would set one aside from me - which was not their usual policy - if I would just please stop calling. True to their word, there was indeed a copy waiting for me when my mom drove me by after work, and I still remember the employee remarking, "So you're the one..." My excitement was not unfounded because the game is one of the best beat 'em ups the NES has to offer.
There are still limitations, of course. You can still only have two enemies on screen at once, and they will always be the same two. This time around, however, two player co-op made the transition! It might seem silly considering the limited enemies, but DDII is still a challenging game, though sometimes for the wrong reasons.
The graphics have gotten a nice improvement. Sprites are larger and more detailed, while the backgrounds are full of color and quite varied. Sprite flicker is even kept to a minimum. Enemies have all gotten facelifts, like their arcade counterparts, with Linda now sporting a mohawk, and Williams a Bart Simpson-esque spiky orange 'do.
The tunes that will grace your ears while you punch and kick your way through the game are even better. Like the original NES game, Double Dragon II has a killer soundtrack that eclipses even the arcade version for me.
It was not without its problems, however. For some unfathomable reason, Tradewest decided to retain everyone's least favorite part from the first NES game - the platforming. In fact, they doubled down and included an obnoxious series of rooms with Mega Man-like disappearing platforms. That's fine for Mega Man, but it doesn't work for Double Dragon. The spotty collision detection often results in instant death as you fall through a platform it looks like you landed on perfectly to the spikes below.
The other sticking point for a lot of people is the revamped control scheme. Instead of having dedicated punch and kick buttons, Double Dragon II opts for left and right attack buttons, similar to Tradewest's earlier hit Renegade. There are advantages and disadvantages to this system, as your kicks will always aim in the direction opposite you're facing, giving you a chance to defend yourself from behind, but it can be tricky for some to grapple with because the buttons change function depending on which way you're facing. Ergo, if Billy is facing left, the B button is punch and A is kick, but when he's facing right, they're reversed. You get used to it pretty quickly, but to this day I still see people complaining about it.
A few new moves were added to the arsenal as well, but they can be very difficult to pull off. The flying knee strike can be devastating and send enemies flying off screen, but requires precise timing that's tough to pin down. The hurricane kick makes a welcome return, but there seems to be no consistent way to pull it off. The easiest of the new power moves is the kneeling uppercut, and even that requires some precise timing, though it seems more forgiving than the knee strike, and its limited reach makes it just as dangerous to attempt if you whiff it.
Apart from the ill-advised platforming though, none of these things detract from the game in any significant way. They take some getting used to, but it's a much better system than the level-up mechanics of the first NES title that saw your moves severely hampered until late in the campaign.
Whereas the arcade version of Double Dragon II felt like a level hack, Double Dragon II on the NES outshines its forebear in every way. It looks and sounds better, there's two player co-op, there's new moves, and it's just overall more fun to play. Tradewest went the extra mile to rebuild Double Dragon II from the ground up, improving (mostly) on the flaws of the original. The result is one of the best beat 'em ups of the 8-bit generation.
Double Dragon II was completed on a real NES with no cheats.
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