Developer: Technos Publisher: Tradewest Released: October 1992 Genre: Beat em up
After the disastrous Double Dragon III it was easy to write off the series. In the years since its release the Streets were all the rage and gamers were taking part in a fight that was not so final. Double Dragon would have to grow to keep up with its revolutionary competition and grow it did. Super Double Dragon is an attempt to revitalize the series. And to an extent it does. But at its core this is an incomplete game and it shows. What is here is good but if it were finished it would have been fantastic.
Super Double Dragon brings the series back to its roots. Long gone are the mummies, ninjas, and international setting. The entire game takes place in a vague New York. The Shadow Warriors have returned under new leadership with the Lee brothers investigating after Marion goes missing. The story exists in the manual but not in the game. There were supposed to be cutscenes between levels that would advance the plot but they were not implemented. Sadly that is but one of many features that were cut which brings the game down somewhat.
The gameplay is the best aspect of Super Double Dragon. The controls make use of every button on the controller yet are not overwhelming. Punch, kick, and jump have their own button and are joined by a guard button and dragon power gauge. The guard button not only allows you to block attacks but doubles as a reversal. You can catch specific attacks and then either throw the enemy or punish them with a series of smacks. The fighting system is very flexible, allowing you to back attack enemies when you have grabbed someone or even reverse a jump kick.
One of the most frustrating elements of past games has been the inconsistent means of executing certain attacks like the hurricane spin kick, hyper knee, and uppercut. Many of those attacks use the dragon gauge for easy execution. Holding L or R will begin a charge. A short charge will perform either a roundhouse kick or spinning backhand depending on the button. You can follow up the backhand with an uppercut although it isn’t as strong as prior games. A medium charge changes this to a double backhand and full screen spin kick. At full charge you become empowered with every attack knocking enemies down. You can charge while moving but the gauge is just slow enough that you won’t be able to hit full power without risking damage every time. But that comes not just because the enemies are aggressive but because gameplay is slow.
For all of its strides in terms gameplay Super Double Dragon suffers because it is incomplete. There are unfinished graphics throughout many of the levels with some hinting at content that was cut. The most egregious is that the game runs at thirty frames per second. The slowness is instantly noticeable. It is a steady thirty with no slowdown but coming off of Streets of Rage 2 or Final Fight you will notice the sluggish pace.
Beyond the game’s frame rate and missing story Super Double Dragon suffers in other areas as well. The worst is its severe lack of enemy variety. This is a problem within the genre but Super Double Dragon is one of the worst in this regard. For nearly the entire length of the game you will fight the same three enemies, no joke. Occasionally you fight Jeff, a palette swap of the Lee Brothers but that adds little variety. They change their palettes but it is still the same three enemies, appearing in multiple waves in a row. Their attack patterns never change either making it worse. Bosses sometimes appear as regular enemies but this is infrequent. Fighting the same enemies repeatedly over the course of seven levels grows old fast and is what hurts the game the most.
Somehow Super Double Dragon remains compelling in spite of its flaws. The moment to moment gameplay remains fun due to the excellent mechanics. The many different attack options at your disposal is higher than in most titles in the genre which makes it fun. Weapons and such do not appear that often but when they do it is memorable. The punching bags in stage three and the oil drums in stage five make short work of enemies and make me wish there were more interactive elements like that. But in essence that describes the entire game. What is here is good, it just needed more of it.
In Closing
Super Double Dragon is hard to sum up. At its base it is a solid game. But it is lacking in many areas. You will enjoy the time you spend with it but will also see the parts that are missing. I like it but it reeks of wasted potential.
