It Is About Time
Nintendo Entertainment System, from 1985, has a version of Double Dragon. The Midi music in the game is fine. Double Dragon’s game play is effective. The NES cartridge was my first experience with a translation of an arcade title. This kind of experience was rare for the time. Arcades were a popular thing in the 1980s. Arcade translations, done well, on home video game consoles were far, and few, in between. Nintendo Entertainment System’s Double Dragon, from Tradewest and Nintendo, is a perfect example of this kind of experience. The spirit of Nintendo’s game mimics the arcade. However, the sprites in the game fail in comparison to the arcade counterpart. The lack of a two-player game is also a sad omission. The NES title is not the arcade version, but has its bright spots. Nintendo Switch got it exactly right, well almost.
Arcade Exact
Arcade Archives: Double Dragon, from Hamster, Co., follows Billy and Jimmy Lee. The Nintendo Switch eShop game mimics the Technos of Japan game, from 1987. The two go on a quest to save Billy’s girlfriend, Marian, from the forces of the Shadow Warriors, or evil. You play as Billy Lee. The player uses kicks, punches, an elbow, and jumping attacks to take down various enemies. Players can reorganize their buttons to control their character in the best way. The two-player game uses combinations of two Pro Controllers, Joy cons, or some combination for the perfect way to play. The game offers a Caravan mode. It is a speedier, timed, version of the game players can complete. A Hi-Score mode allows players to beat the high score the game offers at the top of your screen.
What is This?
What is the big issue in this game? This game slows down with multiple characters on screen. Two players on screen are fine. However, more means a slight drag in the game play. Players can still kick butt. They just look high while doing it. This is very noticeable when you play the game on television. However, portable play, while it stutters, offers a more natural game to players.
Conclusion
At eight bucks, this game is necessary, in my opinion. It is a solid portable version of the exact copy of the arcade game. The game, on a television, is just as good. It just might be better to play it in the Hi- Score, or Caravan versions of the game. It is so hard to explain what a game like this means. On an arcade machine, this game would eat many quarters. It would take up so much time. This game is the arcade version, you hit a button to add lives to your characters, and finish the game, through all the nonsense the game offers, period. This must be love? Happy Valentine’s all.