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| The theme music is playing in your head right now isn't it? |
Developed by Wayforward Technologies
Published by Majesco Entertainment (they're still alive?)
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Double Dragon series, Double Dragon Neon is released as a downloadable game on PSN and XBLA for $10 or 800 Microsoft points. Inspired by the series and the 80s decade it was born in, Double Dragon Neon is a colorful remake or reboot I am actually not clear on that. What I can tell you is it is definitely a love letter to the series.
Synopsis
Not that people actually play this for the story but to be complete in this review here it is: Marian the love interest of Billy (and Jimmy?) gets kidnapped by the villain the undead lich called Skullmageddon who basically wishes for her to be his. In order to bring her back from his clutches the Lee brothers smash hundreds of henchman, robots, mutants and expensive large weaponized vehicles like tanks and helicopters.
Gameplay
The Lee brothers have a variety of moves in their arsenal. On top of the standard heavy and light attacks and combos from mixing those attacks up, they also have a duck and roll move, a jumping divekick, a jumping axekick a crouching sweep and a flying knee done by crouching and pressing heavy attack. They also have different magical attacks that use up a magic meter and only one magic attack can be equipped at a time these attacks represented by mixtapes. There are also other mixtapes in the game that affect stats and knowing when to equip these will make sure you live to see the end of the level. As the game is not impossibly hard but is still quite challenging.
The game rewards dodging enemy attacks by ducking out of the way by giving a power boost to attacks. When you receive the boost your character will glow and the game calls this a gleam. Getting the power boost from rolling or ducking out of the way is a nice way to reward skill in the game and to encourage the player to not just run into the thick of things. The mixtapes I mentioned earlier are also crucial to learn about. You can power them up by collecting more of the same kind of mixtape and then use mithril which is obtained by defeating bosses to go to the Tapesmith and upgrade the mixtape you want to upgrade to be able to collect even more and power it up further. There are two kinds of mixtapes, passive ones that increases stats, or gleam time and the like, and mixtapes that give you a special move like summoning a dragon or shooting a fireball. Knowing which ones to equip is also important like knowing when to dodge and what attacks to use.
There are also the high fives which give the Lees different stats almost like mixtapes. When playing co-op the high fives are executed with the right analog stick on either the PS3 or Xbox 360 controller. Knowing when to high five for more damage or to split life to make sure one brother doesn't die to soon is also important but I have to say knowing which mixtapes to power up and equip are more important however.
Now the Lee brothers do walk slowly but I can't call the gameplay slow like I've seen in other reviews. They do still punch and dodge and kick at a good speed. The slow walking speed doesn't really throw the experience off, and their ability to run, which isn't nearly as slow as their walking makes up for it.
Presentation
Here is where Double Dragon Neon really shines. It truly is a love letter to not only the Double Dragon series but to the decade it came from. From the great 80s homage tunes that the mixtapes you collect play when you're on the screen to equip them to the art by Genzoman to the wonderfully cheesy and hilarious dialogue spouted by Skullmageddon and the Lees. Double Dragon Neon is a wonderfully fun game to not only play but to look at and listen to.
Verdict
Double Dragon Neon is tons of fun, even more fun when you have a friend. The slow walking speed, and the lack of online co-op do hurt it and hopefully online co-op will be patched into the game in the future.
For $10 or 800 Microsoft points it's totally worth it. Or if you have Playstation Plus it's definitely worth the totally awesome price of free.
I give this a 9 out of 10.
That's my review this week. If you want to follow me on twitter look for @ikariradio
Also check out my podcast the Ikaricast on iTunes
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