
Double Dragon II: The Revenge is a side-scrolling beat 'em up produced by Technōs Japan, and it is the second game in the Double Dragon series. Originally released as a coin-operated arcade game in 1988, Double Dragon II was released on Mega Drive/Genesis by Palsoft exclusively in Japan on December 20, 1991, one year before Accolade brought Double Dragon onto the console.
Plot[]
It is 199X AD. A nuclear war caused widespread violence on the streets. Among them was a massive organization that the public dreaded on a daily basis, a vicious gang known as "the Black Warriors." On the other side of town resided two twin brothers who ran a Kung-Fu school. Their names are Billy Lee and Jimmy Lee, known as Double Dragon.
One day inside the city, Marian, Billy's girlfriend, wandered into a secret meeting of Black Warriors, and was gunned down in cold blood. The Lee brothers have now vowed to get revenge by standing up to the Black Warriors.
Gameplay[]
Once again, the player assumes the role of brothers Billy Lee and Jimmy Lee, who are now tasked with the duty of avenging Marian's death. The biggest change in the game's controls are in the replacement of the original's punch and kick buttons with two directional-based attack buttons (Left Attack and Right Attack), similar to Renegade. Pressing the attack button of the player's current direction will do a standard series of punches, while pressing the opposite attack button will perform a back kick. A few new moves are added as well, including a "Hurricane Kick". The weapons that can be used by the player have also been redrawn and modified from the previous game. The steel bats and dynamite sticks, for example, were replaced by shovels and grenades.
Like in the original game, Double Dragon II is divided in four missions: a heliport, a lumber storehouse, a wheat field, and the new enemy's hideout. Each stage has its own boss character with his own leitmotif theme. After defeating Willy (the final boss from the original game) in the fourth stage, the player will confront a double of their own character for the game's final battle. If two players reach the end together, then both will get to face their own clone for the final battle.
Development[]
The Mega Drive version of Double Dragon II: The Revenge was developed Quest, who went on to create the Ogre Battle series. Double Dragon II is a straight port of the original arcade game, featuring the same stages, techniques and weapons, as well as almost every enemy character. The only significant change to the level designs was in Mission 2, which was substantially expanded in order to make it longer and more complex.
The characters were redesigned to much smaller proportions and are less colorful than the ones featured in the original arcade version. The game also has compatibility issues when played with a 6-button controller, suffering from slight input lag when the players move their characters with the directional pad.
Credits[]
- "Game Over" song: Masaharu Iwata (uncredited)
- Cover artwork: Kazumi Kakizaki (uncredited)
Reception[]
Double Dragon II: The Revenge received a lukewarm reception when it was released on Mega Drive, with Frank O'Connor and Paul Rand of Computer and Video Games rating the title with an overall 67%. While Frank considered Double Dragon II a "respectable addition to the genre" for its nice backgrounds and bashing noises, Raud thought the game was appalling compare to the arcade, feeling that the graphics, sprite animations, and sound were lacking.[1] Mean Machines (UK) were even less impressed when they scored Double Dragon II only 30% in their nineteenth issue, lambasting it as a slow, lackluster conversion of the coin-op.[2]
References[]
External Links[]
- Double Dragon II: The Revenge at the Double Dragon Wiki
- Double Dragon II: The Revenge (GEN) at Double Dragon Dojo
- Double Dragon II: The Revenge at Moby Games
- Double Dragon II: The Revenge (GEN) at GameFAQs
- Double Dragon II: The Revenge (GEN) at Sega Retro
- Double Dragon II: The Revenge at Sega-16
- Double Dragon II: The Revenge at Hardcore Gaming 101