Double Dragon is one of the first arcade games that I can remember playing with any sort of frequency. I spent the greater half of one summer going down to the local pharmacy and pumping quarters into that machine. When the owner finally got rid of it in exchange for another arcade game, I was never really the same. I played the Nintendo port, as well as the PC port, neither of which could recreate that experience.
Finally, Atlus has released a port of the arcade game for the Gameboy Advance. While it may not be exactly the arcade classic that I remember, it's as close as I'm ever going to get to recreating my experience from more than 15 years ago.
Story
Double Dragon Advance is set on the backdrop of a post-World War III New York City. Gangs rule the town and Billy and Jimmy Lee teach the neighborhood their brand of martial arts for defense. One day a rival gang known as the Shadow Warriors decides to kidnap Billy Lee's girlfriend, Marian, in an attempt to extort these martial arts techniques from them. No dice, as Billy and Jimmy's mission is to get Marian back from the Shadow Warriors and their machine gun toting leader, Willy.
But seriously, veterans of Double Dragon don't care what the story is. Some thug just punched your girl and carried her off. Isn't that reason enough to start busting some heads?
Gameplay
Double Dragon is the granddaddy of all beat ’em up games. The object is to punch and kick your way past endless waves of hostile characters. Aside from the standard attacks, you have at your disposal a jump kick, roundhouse kick, head butt, elbow smash, and many other moves and holds. In addition, there are many weapons that your enemies will introduce into the conflict. These weapons include bats, knives, whips, barrels, rocks, and many others. You can disarm your enemies of these weapons, pick them up and use them to your advantage.
The levels are designed to be very straightforward. As you scroll left or right through a particular level, you encounter different groups of enemies. Along the way there are some pits and traps that can instantly dispose of you or your foes. There aren't any puzzles in the levels, other than the occasional tricky jump. It's really what a pure beat 'em up game should be.
The novelty of Double Dragon is in the cooperative beatdowns that you can issue to the computer drones with your brother Jimmy. The Gameboy Advance obviously makes this much trickier than just plugging an extra controller into your console. However, if you can find another person with this game to link up with, it's a blast to play. It opens up new holds and combos that both players can jointly implement. As an added bonus, if both players survive to see the end there's an additional challenge to complete.
What's Changed
I am, by many accounts, a grizzled veteran of video games. While I like to see remakes of successful games remain true to their roots, I am always open to well executed improvements and enhancements to an already solid formula. Double Dragon Advance incorporates many enhancements and, with the exception of a select few, they are very successful and welcome additions to the game.
One of the most notable additions to Double Dragon Advance is the addition of 3 new levels. These new levels were borrowed from Super Double Dragon for the Super Nintendo console. The levels add new twists and turns to the game, but they also fit in well with the journey to rescue Marian. My only gripe is that one of the levels contains some platforming elements that involve jumping from ledge to ledge over water. While it's ok to have the broken bridge in the forest level, it's still only one point of frustration. The new cave level adds multiple instances, which take the focus off of beating up your enemies.
In addition to the new levels, a few of the older levels from the original Double Dragon were slightly altered. For instance, there's an extra section to level 2 after the conveyer belt. The new level endings do provide a good transition to the new levels; it's hard, however, not to see the original endings that I remember.
Along with the new levels are new enemies as well. Many of these enemies are borrowed from other Double Dragon incarnations and fit into the game well. Two of the most common new enemies are SAM (Secret Agent Man) and Burnov. SAM is a guy who reminds me a lot of the Agents from The Matrix. They dress in suits and have some lightning quick moves and an overwhelming desire to straighten their ties. Burnov is another big hulk similar to Abobo who can strike quickly and powerfully. In addition, there are occasional appearances by Chin, as well as a new boss, Raymond who can split himself up into copies of himself.
Double Dragon Advance also features new weapons. Aside from the typical barrels, bats, and knives from the original, there's also nunchaku, kali sticks, axes, and a ball and chain. These weapons are fun to use, however only the nunchaku and kali sticks add a new dynamic for weapon. The axes are just like bats and the ball and chain is just like the whip.
There's also a survival mini-game accessible from the main screen. You start with a full life meter, but no extra lives to spare. You fight many groups of enemies that appear in waves. It's over when your life meter drops to zero, hence the title. You achieve a letter ranking based on the amount of defeated opponents. My biggest gripe with this mode is that there is a predetermined set of enemies thrown at you each time. A random selection of enemies would have been much better.
Despite all of the welcome changes, there are a few notable omissions that were (pardon the expression) lost in translation. The most notable shortcoming is the absence Jeff, a very formidable enemy from the original Double Dragon. He had a really nasty roundhouse kick as well as an elbow he could execute frontward. I honestly believe that the lack of Jeff really hurts this game. With all of the added enemies, he would have helped to really solidify the game.
Finally, there's a new feature that allows one player to control both Jimmy and Billy by switching back and forth. While this is a great concept, it wasn't executed well. When you aren't controlling one of the characters, he just stands there taking as much punishment as possible. What's worse is that you have to constantly switch between the two in order to progress throughout the level. What would have been better is if there was some sort of primitive AI associated with the non-player controlled character, making it equal to that of an enemy like Williams. That way, it could walk with you and progress through the level as well as hold its own when not overwhelmed.
Graphics and Sound
The graphics remain true to the arcade original. The sprites are, for the most part, very accurate, right down to that weird looking cat on top of the garbage can in the background of level one. The animations also mimic the arcade classic. From the way that Williams holds the bat to the way Abobo tries to knock your block off, it all reminded me of what it was like to face off with these characters. Some of these animations will not impress people new to Double Dragon. For instance, when you elbow someone they fall in such an awkward and inaccurate way.
Another example is how Willy's bullets travel slowly enough for you to side step them without getting hit. While these animations do not always follow the laws of physics, to veterans of the series it all makes sense for some inexplicable reason. Finally, there are a few minor discrepancies in the sprites and animations that only hardcore fans will notice, however it's nothing that affects the overall graphical impression or gameplay.
While the graphics successfully recreated the arcade experience, the music and sound fell short. The sound effects and music are ported from the arcade game. The new levels also recreated the music from their Super Double Dragon and Double Dragon 2 counterparts as well as the generic boss theme for all the levels. The sound effects are directly ported as well. You'll notice that the same sound effect is used when you land a punch right down to the grunts that your enemies utter when you've defeated them.
The biggest problem is that the musical themes and sound effects just aren't rich enough. While I never really thought that the original Double Dragon had spectacular music and sound effects for its era, the fact that Atlus wasn't able to reproduce their richness shows a lack of focus in this area. I do have to admit that the muffled and pacified audio might have a lot to do with the horrible external speaker on the Gameboy Advance. If I had a Gameboy Player to hook up to my GameCube, then perhaps I could make a better judgment. Until then I have to base my argument on the hardware I have available.
Controls and Challenge
Double Dragon Advance implements so many moves that it really overextends itself beyond the limited number of buttons available on the Gameboy Advance. The A and B buttons are your basic punch and kick buttons, respectively. The R trigger is the jump button and the L button allows you to block or to drop the weapon you're holding. Other moves can be executed by pressing two buttons at once. For instance you can execute an elbow smash by pressing the R and B buttons together. Other moves like the jump kick require you to press buttons in succession. When an enemy is stunned you can hold them from the front or behind. From there, you can execute moves like the hair pull kick or a hair pull throw. By tapping the directional button twice you can start running, enabling you to perform other moves by pressing the jump and/or kick button. Finally, there are what are called power moves that can be executed from a kneeling position. From there you can either perform a hyper knee or a hyper uppercut.
The responsiveness of the controls allows you to execute all these moves with precision without having to resort to button mashing. However, finding the timing associated with pressing certain button combinations in succession takes about as much practice to master as executing Ryu's Dragon Punch from Street Fighter II. Once you're familiar with the patterns and options available, the fighting controls become very robust.
There isn't much challenge in Double Dragon Advance. While the survival game can be rather challenging, the main story isn't. There are 3 difficulty levels listed in the options screen and an additional expert difficulty level available via a "secret" code. However, despite how high you set the difficulty, it is still easy to recognize your foe's attack patterns. The abundance of moves at your disposal allows you many different routes to not only get out of trouble, but also to implement cheesy combos on the computer player. There are many ways to handicap yourself, from lowering the number of credits and continues to barring yourself from using certain moves or weapons. However, it's still the same enemies that act in the same sort of predictable pattern regardless of the skill level.
Replay Value
Unfortunately, there is very little replay value to this game. While kicking the crap out of Willy hasn’t really lost its magic after all these years, you can only go through this game at most a handful of times before it becomes repetitive. Only beat 'em up fans will find themselves coming back to this game numerous times after Willy has been vanquished. The only saving grace for the replay value is that Double Dragon Advance is based on a solid beat 'em up backbone that still holds up after more than 15 years. However, even the solid gameplay suffers with the lack of an adequate challenge. It's really a shame since the game features so many weapons and moves that put it in position to be one of the best sprite-based beat 'em up games to ever exist. While I am by no means a Double Dragon master, I found it disappointing to be able to beat the hard difficulty level by only using basic punches and kicks.
Double Dragon Advance is a game that will be well received by many arcade and gaming veterans. In today's age, it's hard to find a good beat 'em up and Double Dragon is arguably one of the best to ever come along. However, it goes without saying that this game should have been released 10 years ago for one of the 16 bit consoles. The lack of a cheap and accessible way to play cooperatively really hinders this game. The additional features, while nice, really do not overshadow Double Dragon Advance's shortcomings. Having a portable Double Dragon is nice, but it's just too little too late.
