Double Dragon II: The Revenge

Double Dragon II: The Revenge (ダブルドラゴンII ザ・リベンジ, Daburu Doragon II: Za Ribenji) is a side-scrolling beat 'em up produced by Technōs Japan originally released as a coin-operated arcade game in 1988. It is the first sequel to Double Dragon, released during the previous year. The sequel involves Billy and Jimmy Lee in a mission to avenge their girlfriend Marian after she is shot to death by the Black Warriors leader Willy, who is retaliating against the Lee brothers after his defeat at the end of the previous game. Double Dragon II was initially developed as an upgrade kit for the original Double Dragon, but evolved into a stand-alone game due to an increase in memory size, resulting in the developers reusing assets for both games.^[1]

Gameplay

The arcade version of Double Dragon II: The Revenge begins with Marian, the damsel in distress from the original Double Dragon, being shot to death by the leader of the Black Warriors. Once again, the players assume the role of brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee, who are now tasked with the duty of avenging Marian's death. The arcade version of the game is essentially an improved version of the original title. The biggest change in the game's controls are in the replacement of the original's punch and kick buttons with two directional-based attack buttons (Left Attack and Right Attack) similar to Renegade. Pressing the attack button of the player's current direction will do a standard series of punches, while pressing the opposite attack button will perform a back kick. A few new moves are added as well, including a Hurricane Kick.

Almost all of the returning enemy characters from the first game were given makeovers and new moves which they can use against the player. The weapons that can be used by the player have also been redrawn and modified from the previous game. The steel bats and dynamite sticks for example, were replaced by shovels and grenades.

Like in the original game, the arcade version of Double Dragon II is divided into four missions: a heliport, a lumber storehouse, a farm, and the new hideout of the boss. Each stage has its own boss character with his own theme. After defeating Willy (the final boss from the original game) in the fourth stage, the player will confront a double of their own character for the game's final battle. If two players reach the end together, then both will each to have to face their own clone.

Alternate versions and ports

An 8-bit console version was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System by the start of 1990, developed by Technōs themselves, although it is a very distinct product from the arcade game. It was remade by Naxat Soft for the PC Engine in 1993.

Virgin Mastertronic released ports of the arcade version for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, IBM PC, Commodore Amiga, Amstrad CPC and Atari ST in 1989. The computer ports were developed by Binary Design, the same outfit that handled the computer ports of the first game.^[8] In 2013, the Internet Archive put the undeleted assembly sources (DRGNSRC.LZH) of the DOS version available for download.^[9]

The Mega Drive version of Double Dragon II: The Revenge was released by Palsoft exclusively in Japan on December 20, 1991. Unlike the NES version, the Mega Drive version is a straight port of the original arcade game, featuring the same stages, techniques and weapons, as well as almost every enemy character. The only significant change to the level designs was in Mission 2, which was substantially changed in order to make it a longer and more complex stage. However, the characters were redesigned to much smaller proportions and are less colorful than the ones featured in the original arcade version or even the Genesis port of the original Double Dragon by Accolade released a year later in North America and Europe. The game has compatibility issues when played with a 6-button controller, suffering from slight input lag when the players move their characters with the directional pad.

Double Dragon II was re-released in 2013 alongside the other two arcade games in a compilation titled Double Dragon Trilogy produced by DotEmu, which was released on iOS, Android and Steam platforms.

Wander of the Dragons

Double Dragon II: Wander of the Dragons is a 3D beat-'em-up loosely based on the arcade version of Double Dragon II: The Revenge, developed by Korean game studio GRAVITY and published by Barunson Creative Co. Ltd.^[10] The title was first announced in 2011, but was shelved for release for two years. It was eventually released on April 5, 2013 as a digital download for the Xbox 360 via the Xbox Live Arcade service.^[11] It received extremely negative reviews, with a score of 18.12% on Gamerankings and a score of 17 on Metacritic. It is currently the lowest scoring Xbox 360 game on Metacritic and the sixth lowest game on all platforms. GamesRadar ranked it as the 42nd worst game ever made. The staff compared it unfavorably to the previous Double Dragon Neon.^[12]

References

External links

• Double Dragon II: The Revenge at World of Spectrum
• Double Dragon II: The Revenge at MobyGames
• Double Dragon II: The Revenge at the Killer List of Videogames