Here's an interesting bit of trivia from the US Commodore 64 Mastertronic/Arcadia (Binary Designs) instruction manual:ĭuring our Herculean task of cramming as many as possible of the multitude of animation and graphic elements that make up the arcade game into the Commodore 64, we were faced with a problem.
Two C64 versions exist, the original Melbourne House release by Binary Designs and a later, rare cartridge only release by Ocean, ported by Imagitec Design. In 1989, Tiger adapted this video game into a board game. The Arcade version of Double Dragon appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott. Players have to punch, kick, jumpkick, and even use a weapon against their opponents until someone's health bar is fully drained. Players choose from a field of six different characters (Billy and 5 of the enemy characters) and enter into a one-on-one fighting match. The NES version of this game also has an additional VS. Using whatever techniques they have at their disposal, from the basic punches and kicks to the invulnerable elbow strike, as well any weapon that comes into their hands, the Lee brothers must pursue the gang through the city slum, industrial area and the forest before reaching their hideout to confront the big boss, Willy. The Lee brothers set out on a rescue mission to crush the Black Warriors and save Marian. The Black Warriors demand the Lee brothers disclose their martial arts secrets in exchange for Marian's freedom. One day, Billy's girlfriend, Marian, is kidnapped off the street by the "Black Warriors", a savage street gang led by a man named Willy. Together, they manage a small martial arts training school, teaching their students in self-defense. The SMS does have 2 player co-op which is something that the NES version sadly lacks but even that can’t make up for the SMS version’s poor screen designs coupled with bad, almost unforgiveable collision detection which results in us giving the NES version the edge… just.Not an American user? DescriptionSet in a post-apocalyptic New York, Double Dragon is the story of Billy and Jimmy Lee, twin brothers trained in the fighting style of Sou-Setsu-Ken. Better screen design on the NES version make playing it more enjoyable than its SMS counterpart. The fact that only 2 enemies appear on the screen compared to the 3 on the SMS gives Sega’s effort the advantage in that area. Poor collision detection on the SMS makes it almost unplayable especially on boss levels. Both had so many flaws that they almost cancelled each other out. Soundįrom the intro music, through to the level-start and in-game sound effects, there is only one winner here and that is the Sega Master System. These issues are more prominent on the SMS version especially on boss levels and this along with the lack of graphical detail gives the NES a win. The NES also has splash screens announcing the next level, something which they clearly couldn’t be bothered with on the SMS version.īoth versions have numerous glitches and bugs regarding the screen redraw, with flickery sprites and characters only being half redrawn when knocked to the ground being just two of many issues. Double Dragon on the SMS has bland, featureless screens with little or no thought to actual interaction between characters and scenery. Yes, the colours are brighter, the characters more detailed and the intro screen is much better, but play the game a while and you will realise that whilst some degree of thought has gone into the NES screens, the same cannot be said of the SMS version. The idea for this Head 2 Head came from a conversation on Twitter with Danny Major ( well worth a follow!Īt first glance, the Sega Master System seems to have this one licked, but first appearances can be deceptive.
The game was then released in 1988 on the NES and Master System followed by releases on Atari 2600, 7800, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC464, Amiga, Atari ST and MegaDrive.
This episode features the home version of the arcade smash hit Double Dragon, originally developed by Technos Japan and distributed in Europe and North America by Taito in 1987. The aim of Head2Head is not to say which console I think is the greatest (all consoles have their own particular strengths and weaknesses), but rather to examine the same game released for rival consoles and to say in the fairest possible way which I think was the best at the time.
Number four in our new series of face-offs between classic games on rival consoles.