Review: Double Dragon (Arcade) (360)

Make no mistake, Double Dragon is one of the biggest names in the history of video gaming. Upon release it catapulted the scrolling beat em up genre into the top spot of the arcades. Before Double Dragon the only rival was it's spiritual predecessor Renegade, but it was to be the added 2 player co-op element and interactive backgrounds that would prove to be a major worldwide hit for Technos way back in 1987. Simply, if it wasn't for the success of Double Dragon, then the likes of Final Fight, Golden Axe and Streets Of Rage probably wouldn't exist.

Twenty years on and Empire Interactive in conjunction with Microsoft have decided to release the game for the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade along with a few expected extra's such as online co-op play, an achievements award system and a new high definition graphics mode. So with this being one of the greatest games ever created, 360 owners are in for a real treat, right? Well, not exactly!

Two decades is a long time and nostalgia can be a funny thing, no doubt some retro gamers amongst us will remember the title with great fondness, and will be thankful for the game to receive a nearly arcade perfect conversion. Others however, will no doubt find the classic gameplay and mechanics of Double Dragon extremely frustrating and tiresome. It doesn't help that the control system isn't really suited to the 360's joypad. The real problem though, is that instead of building the game up from scratch again (see Double Dragon Advance), the developers have decided to emulate the original arcade rom. This would be fine if it wasn't for the fact that the original game has of course aged somewhat, so all the glitches and bugs that were present 20 years ago rear their ugly heads again, but of course now look a lot worse and stick out like a sore thumb.

Playing as either Jimmy or Billy Lee, your mission is to rescue Marian who has been carted off by the local crime wave known as The Black Warriors in the opening sequence. Instead of doing the sensible thing and running away (the screen won't scroll in that direction) you are left with no choice other than to try and do the honourable task and attempt to rescue the dozy bint. You will have to fight, leap, and climb your way though four large levels before you get the chance to give the gun toting boss of The Black Warriors a good hiding. Then in two player mode fight one another to death for Marian's hand. Despite originally being Jimmy's girlfriend, Marian doesn't seem that worried about who wins and will go off with whoever is victorious.

Sadly doing all this will only take you about 20 minutes, even unlocking the 12 achievements will at most extend the game's lifespan by a few hours. This isn't helped by the fact that the developers have chosen to supply unlimited credits so that even the worst of players can complete the game with little effort. Of course you could try not using the famous elbow smash, which makes the game far too easy in the first place.

So all in all, with the impressive Double Dragon Advance being available since 2003, an arcade perfect version of the original was never going to wow today's audience, even with it's HD graphics & online co-op options.

Rating: 4 / 10

Words by Dean Swain