1988-04-08
Double Dragon is a re-worked port of the arcade classic. It's infamously a single-player only game, but it compensates for this by adding an innovative experience system where you unlock new attacks by defeating enemies and leveling up. Like the original, it features a phenomenal soundtrack that strongly influenced the following decade of video game music.
There was a Double Dragon movie released that's widely considered to be awful and barely follows the story of the game. The experience system that allows you to unlock new moves sort of makes a return in Double Dragon Neon, where you gain new moves by collecting mixtapes.
Technos did an amazing job re-designing Double Dragon from the ground up for the NES. The EXP gimmick is awesome because it forces you to use bad attacks to unlock more effective ones. The gameplay is tight, satisfying, and challenging. There's some obnoxious platforming stuff but it's not hard to memorize and master. The soundtrack is superb.
