DOUBLE DRAGON

Practically everyone who plays games has heard of Double Dragon. Many describe it as a monster of a beat 'em up in the arcades and they would be right. I loved it before I had even seen it. My friend, Nigel, one day in 1987 came back from a trip somewhere (I can't remember where) and he raved on about this new arcade fighting game called Double Dragon in which you could pick up barrels to throw at the bad guys, climb ladders and fight on a conveyor belt. This sounded very exciting and when I saw it myself, I wasn't disappointed. I always watched people play this at the fairground and had a go myself when I could (my mum or dad had to pick me up because I was too small to see the screen!). This game scared me. It made me feel like only tough, hardcore gamers were worthy enough to play it, what with its loud, crunchy sound effects and Arnold Schwarzeneggar-size characters. Yep, 'monster' was definitely the way to describe this game. I could only beat the first few enemies and usually got killed by Linda, the woman with the whip!

This game was stylish. I thought it was so cool how Billy and Jimmy Lee (the main characters) would open the garage door at the beginning of the game (what were they doing in there in the first place?) and immediately start beating the poop out of the baddies. All the characters' muscles were massive. Well, their arms were but their legs were weedy but this gave the game personality - later Double Dragon games strayed away from this and hence didn't look like Double Dragon games.

One of the features of Double Dragon that made it stand out from similar games, even those following it, were the levels. The levels in many scrolling beat 'em ups contained just a floor with an upper and a lower horizontal boundary in which you could move, resulting in pretty boring stages. Double Dragon offered far more variety, allowing you to climb ladders onto higher ledges which you could then do a flying kick off of, there were pits, broken bridges, walls with blocks that would come out and knock you over, statues that would spear you, etc. Even the ground had varying upper boundaries within each level so it wasn't just one long rectangle that you walked on.

I must mention the music. This is one of the most memorable features of the game. How could anyone forget the incredible title track? It was just so cool! Everytime I hear the part when it momentarily stops then blasts in again makes me feel like I'm seven years old again.

Probably the major gripe with this game was the randomness of the combat. The game did play well but wasn't very responsive when attacking, which meant that no matter how rapidly you pressed the punch or kick buttons, the moves would come out at the same slow speed. Compare this to Final Fight or Streets Of Rage which corrected this and you'll see what I mean. This is interesting because in every other respect Double Dragon is amazing. So what about all those gamers who say gameplay is everything? Well, what this game shows is that, while gameplay is a very important part of a game, there are many other important factors which go into the package. In Double Dragon's case, I believe it is mainly the level structure and interactivity within those levels.