Released in arcades in 1987, Double Dragon Without a doubt, he can be considered the father of scrolling fighting games. Before Technos Japan's classic, there were those who tried to use the same formula of progressive action and even similar narrative references, but they were limited to two dimensions.
The possibility of moving in depth within the scenarios literally added depth to the gameplay, and the rest is history: the great success of the coin-op led to the birth of many productions belonging to the same genre, from Golden Ax to Final Fight, with Capcom being in particular a brilliant interpreter of that type of mechanics.
Therefore, the recent relaunch of scrolling fighting games could not exclude the brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee, whom we find in this post-apocalyptic reinterpretation of Secret Base along with a large number of playable secondary characters, all committed to cleaning up what's left of New York. of gangs of marauders and criminals who have taken control of the city.
Is the experience desired by Arc System Works, the current owner of the brand, an experience worth mentioning or a simple consolation for the nostalgic? Find the answer in ours. Revisión de Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons.
Story and structure: interesting innovations and a touch of roguelike
Of course, the history The base of Double Dragon: Rise of the Dragons is nothing more than a banal resource to get the game's protagonists to go out into the streets to fight, and from this point of view the post-apocalyptic setting does not change things much. . However, the roles are revolutionized: the beautiful Marian is no longer the bride to be saved, but a policeman like Uncle Matin, who can also be enlisted during the campaign.
To these four characters are added nine unlockables: the enormous Abobo, the lethal Chin Taimei with his clubs and others, particularly some bosses. To obtain them, however, you must spend the precious tokens obtained during your expeditions, one of the intuitions that allow the structure of the game to greatly overcome the original limitations of scrolling fighting games.
Created with arcades in mind, these products are usually characterized by a fairly limited duration, but the guys at Secret Base have put into practice some really interesting ideas to overcome this historical lack, remembering mechanisms roguelike As for the management of "continuums" and the progress of savings, you literally have to earn it.
In fact, during the game it is possible to choose which area to visit four districts, each manned by a different group of criminals and a final boss. Well, the order in which we choose to tackle the stages will influence their complexity and duration, thus encouraging us to replay the campaign several times, once completed, to be able to see everything the game has to offer. And yes, there are some surprises and alternate endings too.
Gameplay: Rise of the Double Dragon
Lo almost chibi style from Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons made us turn up our noses when we first saw it, for purely practical reasons: when your character has short arms, the blows he throws consequently have a very limited range, so To hit your opponents you must necessarily get dangerously close to them.
This is an approach that we talked about both in the review of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World - The Game Complete Edition and, more recently, in the review of Fight'N Rage, which complicates things but, when done well, takes on a precise value within a game which turns out to be more strategic than you think.
In the first minutes all this does not seem obvious, but as the hours pass the decisions made by the development team make sense, confirming the attention paid to the different aspects of the experience to obtain a commitment that was the most varied, fun, difficult and long-lasting. And those who really want something more accessible can get it by turning on infinite "continuous" and changing the options regarding difficulty balance.
It is clear that it is what happens on the screen that tells the rest of the story, and what a story it is: a whirlwind of blows to the gums that are half enough, of impacts rendered very well and of a sensation of actually hitting, perhaps even in the air, in an unexpected concession to juggling that inevitably trivializes some sequences, but do you want to add the satisfaction?
Basic combos, flying attacks, grabs managed in a different way (there is a button for this, but you have to catch your opponent off guard), devastating blows on the run, really differentiated characters and the inevitable specials, all spectacular, which however do not They will not save us if someone slaps us: in that case it is the label that comes to our aid, because in the game it is not just one but there are two characters to manage.
The critical issues with the formula developed by Secret Base are evident: the cooperative only for two and only locally, a mortal sin, but also a certain lack of elasticity in the management of progress, because if we have started a solo game we will not be able to add the second player in the race, and vice versa. Too bad: the drop-in/drop-out concept is a concept worth giving proper consideration.
Technical achievement: between ups and downs
We are talking about the almost chibi style which from a practical point of view causes some problems, but in terms of design there is little to complain about given that the characters of Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragon are a clear expression of a fairly mature and convincing pixel art, without concessions to the generic except in scenarios.
Well, unfortunately the setup does not always hold up, some solutions are simplistic and therefore the opportunity to bring something suggestive to the screen is lost; but they will take care of it music, which reinterpret the songs from the original soundtrack in a captivating way and will not fail to conquer you.
PC system requirements
Test setup
- Processor: Intel Core i5 13500
- Video card: NVIDIA RTX 4070
- Memory: 32GB RAM
- Operating system: Windows 11
Minimum requirements
- Processor: Intel Core i5 9300H
- Video card: NVIDIA GTX 1050
- Memory: 8GB RAM
- Storage: 3 GB of space required
- Operating system: Windows 10
Recommended requirements
- Processor: Intel Core i5 8400
- Video card: NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti
- Memory: 16GB RAM
- Storage: 3 GB of space required
- Operating system: Windows 10, Windows 11
Conclusions
Tested version PC with Windows digital delivery Steam, playstation store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop Price 24,99 € Holygamerz.com 7.5 Readers (11) 7.8 your voteWe were quite skeptical but on the other hand Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons has a lot to say, and on different topics: how to enhance the impacts in a fighting game, how to manage a structure destined not to run out in a couple of hours, how to adds depth to such classic, bloated gameplay. In some ways it's absurd that a game designed so carefully would show the side of a couple of such obvious deficiencies, to the point of making us think they were intentional. So nothing, if you like scrolling fighting games you will really have to spend these €24,99.
PRO
- Solid gameplay, full-bodied and with several interesting ideas.
- Very well managed structure, lots of replay value.
- The reinterpretation of the characters in pixel art is nice.
AGAINST
- Only local cooperative and with too many limitations.
- The scenarios do not always give the best, on the contrary.
- Juggling trivializes some phases of the game
