Nostalgia is such a double-edged sword when it comes to video games. On one hand gamers seem intrinsically prone to looking back at games past with rose-colored glasses, remembering the titles of their youth with almost religious reverence. On the other hand, much of the time you can never go home again, and upon return you find that the games you loved have aged in horrible, heartbreaking ways. When it comes to Double Dragon Neon, developers WayForward Technologies are hedging their bets on the good kind of nostalgia. I have to admit that I don’t think I’ve thought about Double Dragon since The Shadow Falls in 1994 and looking back at that doesn’t inspire any warm feelings. Honestly, the beat-em-up genre feels a little like a relic, and Double Dragon didn’t strike me as the series that was begging for a reboot. So how does this title do? You might be surprised just how well it worked out.
The game begins with a scene that’s so familiar you might be having a flashback: Sexy hardbody Miriam, in her red miniskirt and thick bangle bracelets, is standing on the streets of Hong Kong when a group of shady goons approach. The lead ruffian decks our damsel right in the gut and carries her off. Billy and Jimmy Lee emerge seconds too late. To rescue Marian they’re going to have to fight their way to her. It may feel similar, but this isn’t the same game you grew up with. Hong Kong streets and the pompadoured thugs adorning them are only the beginning; as you progress through the game’s ten levels you’ll fight leather-clad dominatrixes, mad scientists, the walking dead, busty girls on jetpacks, a ten-foot tall skeleton overlord and, of course, Abobo.
At first glance the game plays almost exactly like it did 25 years ago. The Lee brothers can punch, kick, jump and roll. Don’t bother trying to play this one on a keyboard, it was meant for controller play. At first I felt a little underwhelmed by the gameplay which didn’t feel like it had addressed some of issues that can plague beat-em-ups. More than once I misjudged distances between my enemies and threw punches that appeared to be making contact but did not register, often leaving me at my opponent’s mercy, and the game can feel awfully finicky about whether or not you’re lined up with an opponent, leaving you throwing kicks if front of or behind a foe. You can dodge enemy attacks using the roll or jump, but it really felt like the game should have some kind of blocking mechanism, especially with some enemies who seem to have otherwise unavoidable attacks. While that wouldn’t be canonical with prior games, it highlights my point that some things just don’t age well. While these sound like major gripes, in truth they pretty quickly fell to the wayside once you get into the game a bit. Overall it’s pretty simple, meat-and-potatoes beat-em-up action but you are offered plenty of enemies, obstacles and novelties to keep things surprisingly engaging.
My only real complaint is that the pace of gameplay feels a little slow. I almost played the whole game not even thinking this was a problem until the penultimate boss battle which drags on painfully, then at the final confrontation which is a fast-paced, frenetic experience that’s easily the most fun in the whole game. Again, I don’t know how much of this is keeping in step with the original games, but it feels like with a slightly brisker speed the game would have been vastly more exciting.
Double Dragon Neon does offer some new innovations in gameplay. Ducking at the precise time of an enemy’s attack will give you a temporary damage boost. Also, enemies will drop cassette tapes which give you active and passive abilities, such as increased defense or special moves. You can take these tapes to the completely incongruous Tapesmith to increase the strength of their abilities with Mithril, which you collect from defeated bosses. These new additions aren’t bad, but their overall contribution to the game feels a little hollow. I found that different abilities performed fairly similarly to my regular attacks, and since it requires spending a rare commodity to upgrade them I stuck with one set and didn’t change it. After completing the game you unlock higher difficulty levels, so perhaps they become more distinctive as you upgrade them further, but for a one-playthrough experience I thought it was pretty underwhelming.
Be careful not to get sucked out the airlock in the slightly different throwback to the classic helicopter level.
Visually the game looks absolutely fantastic and while the character models are detailed and colorful with lots of animation, the settings are easily the star of the show here. From the gritty, neon Chinese streets in the initial levels all the way to the outlandish spaceships and haunted graveyards the artwork consistently charmed me the whole time. This is coupled with an exceptional soundtrack that’s a varied mix of very catchy music; specifically the song playing in the background of the second level is such a dead on 80’s throwback that it’s almost too perfect.
In terms of presentation the game is dripping with nostalgia and parody. This isn’t just an homage to Double Dragon, but to Saturday morning cartoons and themed-breakfast cereals, big hair and break dancing, neon clothes and Purple Rain. It’s an 80’s parody with all the insight and subtlety of The Wedding Singer and if you grew up in this time period it’s going to feel very familiar, but sometimes I felt like I needed a fedora and an ironic mustache to really appreciate some of the very on-the-nose gags. That said, save for a few things that I just had to cringe at, the entirety of the game feels lovingly made by a dev whose enthusiasm for the project shines through on all levels and by the end I found myself getting a kick out of it as well.
This is the Tapesmith, and I don’t understand him at all.
So while I have a lot of minor complaints about Double Dragon Neon, at the end I felt pretty satisfied with the experience. While I think this game is only a few small tweaks away from being something great, as it stands it’s a satisfying throwback that offers plenty of fun aspects that should satisfy both fans of the series and new players alike. One playthrough from start to finish lasted me just under three hours, which some might find short for the $9.99 asking price, but I think it’s just about the right length for its genre. If you ever loved Double Dragon take a chance on this one, I don’t think you’ll regret it.
