Made in 1987, Double Dragon is one of the first successful martial arts beat em up style games. It spawned 2 sequels on the NES and subsequent copycat games on the NES and other consoles (Final Fight comes to mind). Double Dragon features Bimmy and Jimmy Lee, oh wait, Billy and Jimmy Lee. Sorry about that. Honest mistake. Players take control of either Billy Lee, or in 2 player mode Jimmy as well, as the brothers battle the “Black Warriors” gang in order to save Billy’s girlfriend Marion.

Graphics 8/10 – the graphics for this game are quite good for being released in 1987. The sprites themselves are fairly well designed and the enemies, though lacking in variety, are also quite detailed. The animations for the fighting is well done, though again quite repetitive. Not much to expect from a first try here.

Where the graphics really excel though are in the level design and backgrounds. Every level has something graphical basically everywhere. It doesn’t feel like there are empty spaces where there should be buildings or forest or something. Even within buildings there are extra details that add nothing to the gameplay but fill out the room and make it seem natural or believable as what the room would look like. This is a nice touch for this early of a game. Not many games of the same era had this level of detail on their game levels.

Sound 8/10 – this is another place where this game did an excellent job. The main theme is quite memorable and repeats throughout the series of games. Each level has a good theme (except the 5th level, that one was annoying). The music had a fast pace to it which fit the game style and story. You’re trying to track down and save your girlfriend. Of course things would feel a bit frantic and high strung and the music mirrors that fairly well.

Addictiveness 8/10 – this game is fun to play. It’s one of the earliest 2 player games of this style which definitely increased the fun factor. Playing alone is a good enough experience but having a friend to help you out when you get into trouble is awesome. There is also a 2nd mode to the game which allows you to fight the various bosses in the game (as the same character) or as Billy. The opponent can either be the computer or another player. The sprites in this mode are also bigger than in the normal game. This is a great practice mode for being ready to fight a lot of the enemies from the game which is nice because the game has no save or continue function.

Story 7/10 – the story is pretty straightforward. Members of the Black Warrior gang have kidnapped Marion. Why, I’m not sure since there is no real backstory here. I can only assume they do this in order to goad Billy and Jimmy into having to fight the entire gang. Again I assume this is because Billy and Jimmy are causing the gang some problems and the gang wants them taken care of.

While the story is simple it is also quite useful as a starting point for the game. It gives the player more than enough incentive to want to fight these guys. I don’t know too many people who would just walk away if their spouse or significant other were kidnapped. So, simple story aside it is strong enough to warrant a higher than average rating.

Depth 4/10 – Double Dragon is not a deep game. There are 6 levels to the game and none of them take particularly long to beat. An entire play through of the game should take less than an hour as long as you don’t die in the process. Not an overly deep game. However, it does make up for this by being a fun game to play and sometimes quite challenging. You are almost always outnumbered by enemies and they surround you. The gameplay itself is enjoyable so it doesn’t have to be super long in order to be fun.

Difficulty 7/10 – while this game isn’t nearly as difficult as other games of the same era on the NES there is more than enough difficulty to keep you from beating this game. As above, you are nearly always outnumbered by your enemies. They come at you in waves of 2 or 3 (depending on 1 player or 2 player modes) and even after beating 1 enemy there is almost always another one waiting just outside the viewable area to join the fight.

Then there are the bosses at the end of each level which are pretty challenging. The first 1 or 2 bosses become regular enemies in later levels so they aren’t too bad to fight. The final fight against Willy is pretty tough though. He has a gun that kills you in 1 shot so you have to be really quick against him to make sure you don’t get shot. A bit OP on that one but once you know it can be avoided pretty well.

Overall 7/10 – this is quite a good game overall. The graphics and sound are very engaging from the start. The gameplay itself is fun. Beating up bad guys in a gang doesn’t really get old for me. The game is pretty short though and that is one of the worst things about it. However, if it were any longer you would need continues or save system of some sort to make it fair.

Still, this is a great early beat em up style game that I highly recommend if you are interested in the origins of games like this.

I loved this game and used to play it tons as a kid.

The part that disappointed me the most about this game was the "2 player" mode.
Just like with POW, when this was ported to NES, simultaneous 2 player mode was removed!

I don't really have any other complaints about this game other than that.

Another great review, geeo. :3

I always loved Double Dragon growing up, in fact I just loved Beat 'em Ups. Too bad we don't see many of them anymore.

As for this specific game, it's a great game from it's time, and even though I think Streets of Rage was better, it's considerably older. Had it had the same release date as Streets, it very well could have topped it. Regardless, it's good as it is and helped spawn one of my favorite genres, so I can't help but love it.

I would personally agree with all of your ratings, except maybe difficulty. I would have rated it slightly higher simply because of a lack of a save feature (as was the case with most games back then). In comparison to other NES games the 7/10 in difficulty makes perfect sense though.