Thugs have kidnapped your girlfriend! Now its up to you and your brother Jimmy to save her! Using the discipline of martial arts, Billy and Jimmy Lee must take to the streets and take out hundreds of thugs in order to save the girl! It's a tried and true story that remains both timeless and simple, but still very much effective motivation for the brothers to do what they do best! It's one of the grandaddies of side-scrolling beat-em-ups with refinements that make this particular GBA rendition a must-have for any fans of the series or owners of a Gameboy Advance.

Graphics: 7/10
For a GBA title these graphics are as good as they can be. The characters are large and detailed well. Unlike the old NES port, there is no slowdown when multiple enemies appear on screen. The action remains fluid. The one problem I've noticed is that sometimes it can be impossible to see exactly where a dropped weapon may be due to the dark color of the weapon and the floor.

Gameplay: 5/10
Let's be honest here, Double Dragon on the NES didn't have perfect controls either, and neither does this one. While simple to a first timer picking up the game, for veterans they will find themselves getting frustrated with some of the new moves. When punching you may find yourself stuck in place, throwing an extra punch of 2 after you've stopped hitting the button. Sometimes you may want to mount your opponent and pummel them, but I found that after getting only 1 or 2 punches in the enemy will immediately push you off them. Oh and the infamous dragon kick is still as hit or miss as it has ever been. But do not let this worry you, prospective gamer! This game is still great fun to play and with enough time you WILL become an expert at handling the brothers Lee.

Sound: 5/10 The sound is very much average at its best. Much of the music is rehashed from the original games, as this port IS one of the original games, only enhanced. It works for what it is but never goes out of its way to impress you. You won't be disappointed and you won't fall in love with it.

Addictivness: 6/10
This game never really changes in any way. There are many ways to beat up the street thugs and its an even greater experience with a second player. You can even choose to have AI control Jimmy in a 1 player game, but I honestly wouldn't recommend it because the AI is terrible for Jimmy and he will either slow you down or just die. I have played this game many times as I can never get sick of a good old fashioned beat-em-up.

Story: 5/10
The story this time around is where this version of Double Dragon really takes off. I am not going to spoil any of it for you but I will say there are illustrated cutscenes between the levels that add to the story all the way to the end! The animation is done well even tho its just still frames, they look like they came out of a comic book from the 1990's.

Depth: 5/10
Its a beat-em-up you really don't play these games for depth, you play them to beat up bad guys and save the girl. In that aspect however, there is some depth. The fighting in this game is where the depth comes from. Not only can you punch and jump kick and throw your enemies like the original but now you can stomp or ground pound them, run and clothesline them, KEEP the weapons you grab throughout the entire stages, all sorts of cool stuff!

Difficulty: 5/10
While it may have different difficulty choices, I found that even set on easy this game provides a healthy challenge. If you slip up too much you could get surrounded by enemies and never get up! Don't underestimate these thugs they know what they're doing!

Overall this is a fantastic game that is a combination of the arcade original, and the first 2 NES games. Many bad guys from earlier Double Dragon games make appearances to add length to this fairly short game. The action is intense and overwhelming at times but thats what makes it so great! Its a heck of a feeling of accomplishment when you finally make it to end! Try it out for yourself and you will see that Double Dragon Advance on GBA is the way to be!

Awesome review. i never make reviews cuz im really bad at that sort of thing. 

Thanks guys this is my first "review" but I also did write up a silly little "strategy guide" for rock em sock em robots for GBA as well. I used to write a lot years ago and its been a long time since doing something of this nature so it really makes me happy that people are reading it and enjoying it! you guys rock! *fist bump*

Really good stuff here. If this is one of your first reviews? If so, that's awesome! Keep up the good work.

Great review, I'm pretty impressed... so much so that I'm going to recommend this for Featured Review for that game... compared to the other review this reviews is better and more detail and looks much more pleasant to look at.

Thank you so much! I'm definitely going to try doing more reviews in the future! I wanna try and review obscure games or just ones that don't already have a good review up yet. Dang this made my night after a long workday!

I think my addiction to watching game reviewers has finally paid off. haha! Really happy to see all this positive feedback!