textfiles/games/REVIEWS/doubdrag.rev

 DOUBLE DRAGON 

 DOUBLE DRAGON is a translation of the martial arts game that has
been a favorite in arcades and on the Nintendo system. Binary Design
converted it for the computer, Arcadia (ROCKFORD, ROADWARS) and
Tradewest publish it, and Electronic Arts distributes it. DRAGON
features colorful graphics, fast action, simple joystick control, 
and a 2-player mode. This review is based on the Commodore 64/128
version; IBM-PC version notes follow. 

 DRAGON is okay as an arcade game, although (as noted in the
instruction manual) the limited memory of the C64 forced the
programmers to make some compromises: The characters were created
from "stacked sprites," a coding design that leaves a gap between
the upper and lower portions of their onscreen bodies. While this
probably won't mar your enjoyment of the game, it does illustrate a
burgeoning problem: Game programmers are losing control. 

 The plot of DRAGON concerns twin brothers, Billy and Jimmy Lee, a
pair of good-guy thugs with extensive street and martial arts
knowledge. Billy's girlfriend Marian has been kidnapped by the Black
Warriors, a street gang led by the elusive and mysterious Shadow
Boss. In order to rescue Marian, you must use martial arts skills
and whatever weapons you find to defeat the members of the Black
Warriors, including Shadow Boss. 

 In the alleys, slums, and backstreets of the city, you'll battle
Lopar, Abobo, Williams (who wields a baseball bat), Linda (who
cracks a whip), Chintai (a karate master), and Shadow Boss (who uses
a machine gun). 

 The C64 screen display consists of a scrolling area made up of a
city street, burned-out buildings, and factory docks. Your
character, controlled by the joystick, moves through the scenery. At
certain points, one or more members of the Black Warriors appear to
impede your progress -- which is to say, they want to kill you. 

 DRAGON is controlled with a joystick that works in two modes. 
Without using the trigger button, moving the stick steers your
character in one of eight directions. Moving the stick and then
pushing the button results in any of three jump maneuvers, a punch, 
three different kicks, an elbow smash, and a head butt. On defeating
an opponent with a weapon, you'll automatically acquire that
weapon, which can be used by way of a button push. 

 Below the main display are energy bars, a lives-remaining
indicator, and score. A character starts with five lives; when the
energy indicator runs down, a life is lost. As in the arcade
version, DRAGON offers five levels, each of which descends deeper
into gang territory. 

 In 2-player mode, both brothers will be onscreen, and both
energy/lives/score displays will be active. 

 That's about it. 

 The graphics on the C64 are fair -- hardly excellent, but not
particularly cheesy, either. Gameplay is frantic for the wrong
reasons, and sometimes frustrating. It is impossible to stand
toe-to-toe with any Black Warrior: two combat moves and you're
kissing the pavement. 

 The only way to defeat an opponent is to run around like an
imbecile and perform a lot of forward, backward, and straight-up
jumps. This serves to elude an attacker so that you can wait for him
(or her or them) to catch up. When he (or she or they) does catch
up, you'll have time for one or two kicks to a face, at which point
you'll have to do more running and jumping. You'd think that with
all this activity, your opponents would get tired of chasing you and
drop dead from exhaustion. 

 My only question concerning DOUBLE DRAGON is this: Why was it
ported to the Commodore? Scores of (original) arcade and
strategy/arcade games have been created for this machine -- DELTA
PATROL and MAINFRAME come to mind immediately. On the flip side, I
can't think of any arcade translations (other than maybe ROCKFORD) 
that have been worth the effort. Well, obviously, the programmers
thought DRAGON would be worth the effort.... 

 DOUBLE DRAGON more or less fills the bill as an arcade game, and
I'm sure arcade gamers will be pleased. Personally, I'd rather go to
the arcade room. 

 IBM-PC VERSION NOTES 

 The MS-DOS version of DOUBLE DRAGON is not one of Arcadia's finest
efforts. Not that it's a poor translation, but it does have a major
problem that can add up to a frustrating game experience (depending
on your system). I think Arcadia has done better in the past. 
ROCKFORD, for example, is a high-resolution, fast-action arcade game
(also from Arcadia) and is absolutely phenomenal in the way it
overcomes the IBM's limitations. DOUBLE DRAGON isn't quite as
ambitious; more's the pity because it's a popular arcade game and is
liable to garner more attention than ROCKFORD. 

 The game comes on two 5-1/4" diskettes; the 3-1/2" version is
available from Electronic Arts (the distributor) for a $10.00
exchange fee. This is an amazingly expensive (and generally
unwarranted) option. You can probably find a way around it; the
disks are entirely without protection, so you can copy the files to
a 3-1/2" disk (if you have access to a machine that sports both
drives formats). Your machine will require 512K and a CGA, EGA, or
Tandy (for Tandy 1000 family computers) graphics card. Although the
manual makes no mention of a hard drive, a "README" file describes
the simple installation procedure. No key disk is required. 

 The graphics are excellent if you have EGA. CGA graphics
are...well, CGA graphics. The backgrounds especially are colorful, 
atmospheric, highly detailed, and truly of arcade quality. The
bodies tend to be a little grainy, and some strange color
combinations are used that make details hard to see. But overall, 
the graphics are superb. 

 As in other versions, two players can battle the villains at once. 
You may, if you wish, start a single-player game and add a second
player at any time; however, the game slows down slightly every time
a new character enters the screen. Therefore, if you have two
players on screen battling three or four bad dudes, you'll suffer a
noticeably funky slowdown, and gameplay will become awkward: A basic
4.77 MHz PC may turn out to be too slow. Forcing CGA mode speeds up
the gameplay, if you consider CGA graphics adequate. I don't. 

 The box will tell you that a joystick is optional. This is where I
vehemently disagree and, in fact, encountered DOUBLE DRAGON's
outstanding weakness: its interface. With a joystick, the game gets
my nearly unconditional approval (given the speed caveat mentioned
above). Without a joystick, though, you're up the bitstream without
a paddle. Get this: In a single player game, you control the
right-left movements with the "O" and "P" keys, and the up-down
movements with the "Q" and "A" keys. The space key assumes the role
of fire button. So, if you want to move diagonally down and to the
left, you hit "O" then "A"; if you want to make a
defensive/offensive move (a kick, jump, punch, elbow, head butt, or
other fancy move), you have to press the correct two- or three-key
combination. The numerical keypad, usually available in these
cases, is only functional in a two-player game (to the second
player). 

 This arrangement is positively unworkable. Not only is it
unintuitive, but a two-player game requires that both players have
small hands; therefore, I deem a joystick mandatory equipment for
the MS-DOS version of DOUBLE DRAGON. Moreover, if you're planning on
playing many two-player games, I'd recommend two joysticks, not with
a "Y" adapter (which won't permit two-player simultaneous play), but
with a genuine two-port game card. There are several on the market, 
but tracking them down may take some work. 

 DOUBLE DRAGON is a fine translation that goes further toward
recreating the arcade game than some of the other ports (noticeably
the SEGA and NINTENDO versions). The characters are larger and
closer to their arcade counterparts. But my recommendation demands
that you have an EGA card and at least one joystick. If you lack
either or both of these, you should definitely try the game before
you plunk down the cash. Ideally, you should purchase the game from
a dealer who will let you return it if you find it unsatisfactory. 

 DOUBLE DRAGON is published by Arcadia and Tradewest, and
distributed by Electronic Arts. 

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