Double Dragon

What the HELL happened here? Why do we get a game labeled as Double Dragon, while it has obviously nothing to with the original famous street brawler? Actually the full title reads "Double Dragon: The Revenge of Billy Lee", because apparently Billy's brother Jimmy has been killed by the villainous "Evil Dragon Clan" and he seeks revenge.

But let's get straight to the point: no matter how much you love Double Dragon, this version sucks. Surprisingly it isn't a straight port of the "not too good but still playable" Master System version (like a lot of other Game Gear games), but rather this is a totally new game. Which isn't a good thing in this instance.

The graphics are grainy and look just terrible overall. The animation is choppy and slow and the stages are uninspired "it's late at night and a lot of (similar) thugs are out on the street to beat the crap out of you" designs. The sound is on par with the visuals. That means it's crap, that is, as long as it's actually there.

The controls and the enemies are what makes this game genuinely unplayable. As you probably already expected, the hit detection is horrible. Furthermore, most enemies stay just out of the screen for too long. You can punch (not very effective) and jump kick (impossible to calculate the right distance to actual hit an enemy). "Billy" moves slowly and is easily surrounded by enemies, harmless to defend himself. Especially a chick with a stick (yeah, I can't help it) seems impossible to hit, while she beats the crap out of our hero. There are some weapons to make life easier like ... guns? In a Double Dragon game? That's weird, I've never seen that before. Unfortunately it only has limited ammo, leaving the player stuck with just Billy's crappy moves. The guy really must envy Jimmy, for not having to experience this horrifying game.

Overall, what we have here is a real stinker accidently called Double Dragon. Well, at least it isn't a two-on-two fighting game as the equally piece of garbage called Double Dragon V on the Atari Jaguar. If you're looking for a quality street brawler for your Game Gear, get Streets of Rage 2 or Battletoads. If you're looking for a quality conversion of Double Dragon, try the Game Boy Advanced edition.