Buy Cheap Double Dragon II: The Revenge Nintendo Keys & Digital Downloads port

Summary

Technōs created once again a vastly different experience with Double Dragon II on the NES. The experience system was dropped, but the moveset still underwent a few changes. The elbow attack and turning jump kick are gone, but with the standard kick directed backwards they seemed a bit redundant anyway. There are two new ways to make enemies in a grapple suffer, elbow smashes to the head, and a high kick to propel them away. In the brief time window when the Lee brothers are crouching after a jump or after getting knocked down, it’s possible to perform a rising uppercut or a knee jump attack. The timing for these isn’t easy, but they are the most powerful moves in the game.

On the NES, Double Dragon II is a much more innovative and unique sequel than in the arcade, but it marks also the time Double Dragon started its schizophrenic shifting between wildly different tones and gameplay styles. In a way it’s one of the best games to bear the Double Dragon name, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that Technōs had already started to loose a cohesive vision of what it meant to be Double Dragon, both in tone and in gameplay.

The PC Engine CD version by Naxat Soft is surprisingly modeled closely after the NES game, from featuring mostly the same levels down to the rule of having no more than two enemies on screen at a time. But it does mix and match different types together, and in general extends the stages with additional hoodlums. There are a few other notable structural differences – namely, the fight on the huge moving bulldozer at the end of the forest level is missing, but to make up for its omission, the Lee brothers actually have to fight Willy before they meet their own shadows like in the arcade game. They also get to face the Shadow Master (now without the cape) on any difficulty level, although you miss out on the second round in a church and the good ending with Marion revived unless you beat the game on the Hard difficulty mode.