Double Dragon NEON Review
Story
The story for this game starts out as a cinematic, where Marian (whom of which reminds me of Princess Peach and her captures) is punched in the stomach by some allies of Skullmageddon. Next up, the two boys/heroes, Billy and Jimmy Lee show up literally one second to late and here is where the journey starts.
Gameplay
Gameplay is rather slow and difficult, especially if you're playing alone. I quickly found out that I would need someone to help me out. The downside is that this game is not yet equipped with the ability to connect with players over Xbox Live, leaving me with the only other choice, Local Co-op.
Upon finding someone that committed to play along, the game became easier. Especially when we could perform a high five, which allowed us to share health, as well as achieve a "Gleam" which gave us double damage. Your partner is also able to revive you if you fall and lose all of your health. This was performed by a pencil being stuck into a cassette tape and rewinding it.
I rather enjoyed the fact that the enemies would drop cassette tapes that would give you special abilities. You had a tape collection that you went through to find what you wanted to use to aid you in your journey. Whenever you would be on the move you wanted, it would play a very 80s song for you to enjoy. There are two sides to each cassette that drops, one side will be a passive ability and on the other side are moves that require the player to hit a certain button to activate.
Visuals
The visuals for this game were actually very stunning. For a remake of an old classic, they certainly did a fantastic job of making it feel more modern (or... as close to it as a remake of an oldie can be). They definitely had me feeling that I was back on the couch as a kid again. The animations were also very appealing. Something I would consider a con for Double Dragon Neon is the overuse of the same models for enemies. Which, granted, is something that was classical for old school games. Though I never grew tired of the HD upgrade to the Dragon Swarm move!
Overall
All in all, this game has a lot of ups, as well as a lot of downs. Pros for it would be the visuals, the music and the fun that is to be had playing co-op with a partner sitting beside you. Though, at the same time, this can also be a con because of how much easier it would be to find an XBL player. The cons lie in how difficult this game is and how slow-moving your characters are. Sprinting was mainly frustrating due to the amount of deaths I would incur.
The lines spoken were completely lost on me since I was not really an 80’s child, and the same goes for the styles used on characters.
I really and truly wish that I was able to give the game a better rating, but sadly, I cannot. The game, as mentioned, was insanely difficult even when played on the Normal setting. However, the visuals, music and other formerly mentioned pros for the game have bumped the “out of 10” mark up a notch.
5/10
Review By Jackie C
