The period attention to detail is really quite remarkable, and to all intents and purposes, Double Dragon IV feels like a brand new NES game.
Rather than aping the original coin-op's 16-bit style, or bringing the series bang up to date with modern audio-visuals, Double Dragon IV, in case you didn't notice the screenshots yet, is a hardcore retro game that looks (and indeed sounds and plays) like someone at developer Arc System Works discovered an unreleased Double Dragon IV NES ROM down the back of their corporate sofa, and emulated it on PS4. Despite knocking it for its flickering sprites and lack of simultaneous two-player action, I thought it played well, and I liked the additional one-on-one fighting mode that was also incorporated into the game.Īt this point, you may well be wondering why I'm highlighting the NES version of the game, and fortunately the answer to this mystery lies in the very next sentence. I reviewed it back in the day and ended up giving it a score of 83%. Most players, however, remember Tradewest's NES version.
Hell, even an Atari 2600 version was created (by Activision, no less). The game became one of the big arcade hits of the year, and was ported to almost all of the contemporary gaming platforms of the day, from the ZX Spectrum and Sega Master System to the Game Boy and Genesis. While it featured the same basic punch-kick-jump controls, and an almost identical viewpoint as Renegade, Double Dragon dialed up the gameplay with simultaneous two-player action, a more sophisticated repertoire of moves, and the ability for players to knock the weapon out of the hands of an enemy, and then pick it up – as well as other ambient objects – and use them. But Double Dragon? That took the brawler concept to the next level.
I'd enjoyed early beat 'em ups like Data East's 1984 Kung-Fu Master, and particularly liked Technos' 1986 genre-defining Renegade (whose original Japanese name incidentally translates to the brilliant-sounding Hot-Blooded Tough Guy Kunio). I remember first encountering the game at an arcade convention back in 1987, and absolutely loving it. But with a release date looming, expect Arc System Works to unveil more in the coming weeks.The mere mention of Double Dragon elicits a flood of very fond memories for me. Outside of a return to the franchise's roots and the fact that it will have a two-player duel mode, not much is known about Double Dragon IV. After that was Super Double Dragon in 1992 and Double Dragon V in 1994, which was actually an ill-conceived Street Fighter II clone. The last time Double Dragon had a numbered sequel in the beat-'em-up genre was 1990's Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone. Arc System Works even hired the producer, director, character designer, and composer of the original Double Dragon to return for IV. Billy and Jimmy are yet again pixelated crime fighters forced to go through stage after stage of enemies, just like they were back in 1987. Unlike modern revivals of older franchises-like the recent Tomb Raider and Doom reboots- Double Dragon IV is sticking to its retro graphics and low-fi gameplay roots. To celebrate the franchise's 30th anniversary, Arc System Works-which bought the rights to the series in 2015-is set to release Double Dragon IV on January 30 on both PlayStation 4 and Steam, The Verge reports. If 2016 didn't fill your need for retro gaming with the release of the NES Classic Edition, 2017 could do the trick with the return of a beloved old school franchise: Double Dragon.