Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons - Making New The Old

The year is 199X, and the world is living the aftermath of nuclear war. New York is now a rubble reduced dystopian nightmare ruled by four gangs. The Okada, Triangle, Royals, and Killers. In the midst of it all Billy and Jimmy Lee, the Double Dragon Duo, get drawn back into the heat of battle after their female partner in arms Marian is beaten in a gang incident while patrolling the streets. Against their leader Uncle Matin's wishes Billy, Jimmy, and Marian choose to take on each gang on their own turf. Racking up coins, and cash as they restore law and order to the city for the new sitting mayor.

Paying homage to the original NES classics with a distinctly different take on the flagship formula, Modus Games, and Arc System Works brings to the table a gritty grind with arcade like tag and co-op features. Using a diverse casting of characters, some of whom are unlockable, a single player or two players via co-op (online & offline) can opt into the two man/woman fight with the premium, and non-premium currencies at stake within a static story mode playthrough. 

As Billy, Jimmy, Marian, their militant leader Uncle Matin, or some of the more well known baddies from the past titles you can battle until there's no health bar left, and no character left standing. Switching after being downed or beforehand the tag partner, which alternatively acts as an assist mechanic for extended combos, will aid in your combo and crowd control efforts as well as continued play past the primary character's defeat. If you are in co-op the duo deals the KOs at the same time on the same screen, and can assist each other in doing so without the need to tag. 

Gameplay ...

Your goal in the game's Story mode, whether it be solo or co-op, is to progress from area to area clearing out mobs while capitalizing on the new fangled combo system. Completing lucrative side objectives in the process. The combo system, itself, incorporates the characters' main attack, sub-attack, and special attacks that are unique to the individual character. Chaining these character specific moves will, in turn, net you food items if you can maximize your crowd control or special KOs with multiple enemies combined. Creating ways to stave off death, and continue unto the game's finale without fail. Combos can also be chained between co-op/tag partners during mob and boss battles extending combo damage potential. In solo play pressing L1 will tag in your partner with an assist attack that can be followed up with an extended combo in order to up the combo count.

The enemies you face along the way, and in stationary sections, will come in the form of the lesser mob types with a slight variety that are themed according to gang affiliation. That, and end stage bosses with a beefier health bar, and more damaging attacks. Killing the lesser mobs will drop crystals and coins in kind. Often times bosses will call in these mobs to assist allowing for meter building in the final battle. Crystals refill the special attack/tag meter, and coins like coin bags can be spent on after stage RNG based main and secondary character upgrades. In addition to the coins, and crystals the total lump sum of coinage you earn will unlock tokens at coin milestones that can be spent on the game's unlockables. This includes new characters, tips & tricks, art, and music from the soundtrack. These bonus items are the reason for returning to the story mode to play.

While there's a reason to grind in Double Dragon Gaiden I personally feel the game is way too easy in comparison to the original outside of the use of slider options, or handicaps. You can plow through mobs with ease, and even bosses pose little threat if you mind their attack patterns, especially if you play on normal settings. In the way of extras I did notice some slider options in the main menu though that allowed you to tweak things like how many tokens it takes for a continue (Infinite, Permadeath, or 3). That and revives as well as options geared towards player health or enemy aggressiveness will not only change the difficulty, but also how you go about earning tokens. The harder the settings are stacked against you the easier to gain tokens it is. A trade off for braving the odds. Speaking of which, when a continue screen is reached you'll have one of two options. You can cash out, and take your current token earnings with you, but suffer a progress reset or alternatively continue for a set amount of coins. 

The Presentation ...

Visually, Double Dragon Gaiden only holds a slight visual hint from the original retro entries. Mind you they do keep the costumes, and characters looking familiar as they should, but they have been comically distorted in a big-headed fashion to give the game it's own unique look without outright copycatting the source material. That being said there's not much variety enemy-wise, and the levels themselves feel oddly short lived at times. In fact there are assets reused in each stage, and noticeably so. I'm not trying to say the game looks bad, but it's design, while modernly stylish, does little to make-up for the game's lack of diversified details.

The Verdict ...

I'm not all hate when it comes to Double Dragon Gaiden as it does have it's undeniable charm, but as a veteran Double Dragon player I found this to be less of a challenge at base level, and more of an unwarranted grind with the more challenging settings in place. The trade off with the difficulty sliders offering the only real experience is a welcome addition though. Gameplay-wise, Double Dragon Gaiden doesn't really have solid replay value outside of the 100% completion goals, and the goals to unlock all the in-game unlockables. The fact that it can be played solo or with 2 player co-op does little to incentivize time spent on it past a certain point. 

Looking back, Double Dragon Gaiden seemingly of lacks the brutality of the originals, and the impact that each attack had, especially on base settings with the enemies so easily killed. How you could abuse the system to get in some extra dirty hits before the enemy faded into oblivion is still intact, but to a lesser degree. Traded for an arcade-like combo and tag team system that is obviously more stylish. That being said the combo and tag mechanics are rewarding enough when mastered. Pricewise, I do imagine Double Dragon Gaiden will be a fairly priced upon release given it's content and indie nature, regardless of my slightly negative opinions. Making it a decent buy for what it does offer. If you don't mind something a little grindy, and optionally challenging under the Double Dragon label this one might still be good enough for you.