Vintage Video Games #38 – Double Dragon

Before Streets of Rage, before we had Battle Toads … we had the hugely entertaining Double Dragon. It first appeared in our arcades in 1987 followed in 1992 by a release on the Megadrive which is shown here. Although the Mega Drive/Genesis has a smaller color palette than the arcade original, due to the more powerful 16-bit hardware it actually fixes all of the slow down problems from the original arcade game. This version came closest to the arcade version at the time.

Plot:

Billy and Jimmy Lee are two hard as nails dudes who share everything – the same fashion sense, the same hairstyle, the same deadly martial arts skills and even the same girlfriend! They also share a common hatred of arch enemy, Mr Big. So, when this vermin of crime arrives at their doors and steals their lady, they are obviously a bit annoyed! They swear vengeance and off on their mission they go …. The game is divided into four different stages or “missions,” which consist of a city slum, a factory, a forest, and the gang’s hideout.

The players encounter seven different types of enemies during the game; with the exception of Linda and Willy, all have two different skin colors:

Williams: A low-ranking member of the gang, who can use bats, knives, and dynamite.
Rowper: Another low-ranking member, who can use the same weapons as Williams and also throws rocks, oil drums, and boxes.
Linda: The only female member, and the only one who will pick up or carry a whip to the exclusion of all other weapons.
Abobo: A tall, bald, shirtless gang member who can throw heavy items.
Jick: The boss of the first stage, identical in appearance to Abobo except for the addition of a beard, larger eyes and a Mohawk hairstyle.
Jeff: The boss of the second stage, who is a head swap of the Lee brothers.
Willy: The leader of the gang, and the final boss. He carries a machine gun whose bullets can instantly kill Billy and Jimmy, and he never drops it when knocked down.