Stealing from the Best

It’s been a while since we last looked at the Double Dragon games, in large part because we’d entered a period where the series really seemed to lose itself. Boring belt scrollers fed into boring fighters, and the series lacked the punch (no pun intended) that it had from its earlier arcade days. Arcade fans had moved on, in no small part due to the rise of Street Fighter II, and if a company wanted to keep cranking out titles in their premiere fighting series (at least, premiere in the U.S.), then they were going to have to recalibrate and figure out how to make Double Dragon relevant again.

And so that’s what Technos Japan did… in a way. They tried to make Double Dragon relevant to the Street Fighter II fans by cribbing everything Street Fighter II had done, effectively making one of the better Street Fighter II clones out there. Sadly, while competent, it was pretty clear what the inspirations for this title were. Audiences could play this if they got bored of Street Fighter II, but with Capcom continuing to iterate on that game (with Street Fighter II Turbo, Street Fighter II Championship Edition, Super Street Fighter II, and then more sequels after that), would fighting fans really turn away from their beloved series for this game?

The answer was no, and this title didn’t really turn around Techno’s fortunes. This was the last game that Technos published before going out of business, with control of the series getting snapped up and swapped around by other companies. And, really, could anyone have expected this game to save Technos? It really doesn’t do anything better than Capcom’s titles, acting more like an also ran in a very crowded genre. Hell, even on the Neo Geo arcade machines this was produced for, there was plenty of competition, with The King of Fighters ‘94 coming out from SNK and dominating the Neo Geo fighting scene. On all fronts, Technos’s last Double Dragon effort couldn’t compete. Which is sad because, in a vacuum, it’s actually pretty decent.

The game does have the unfortunate distinction of being tied to the 1994 Double Dragon film, which was universally panned at the time, so that likely didn’t help matters. Even though the game largely eschews tying itself too tightly to the movie, there are characters, backgrounds, and scenes linked to it. Die hard fans of the older games might have avoided this just because of the stink that came off it from guilt by association, even though the game features its own anime art style and doesn’t take its tie in seriously. Sometimes the damage has already been done.

The greater flaw, though, is that this game really does feel like a riff on Super Street Fighter II. The basic mechanics are exactly what you’d expect from that series. As a player, you pick one of ten different fighters, including the likes of Billy and Jimmy, their best pal (and gang leader) Marian, and many of the foes seen in the film and the games before. Each fighter then goes head to head against the other nine warriors (plus a mirror match against themselves) to work their way up to the final to fighters, Duke and then his boss, the feared Shuko. Each fighter has their own fighting style and compliment of moves, although many of them feel cribbed right out of the Street Fighter series.

Take, for example, Billy. Although not a one-to-one clone, his moveset heavily resembles Ken and Ryu from Street Fighter II. He has a rising uppercut, a flying spin kick, and a powerful fireball. His brother is even a direct copy of him with slightly varying stats, just like Ken and Ryu. If you were a Ken or Ryu main over on the Capcom games you could easily pick up Billy or Jimmy and feel right at home. Many of the characters follow this format, too, with Marian kind of playing like Chun-Li, Burnov kind of acting like Blanka, and Abobo kind of playing like Zangief. Not all their moves match up exactly, but you could easily look at the fighters and their combat sets and say, “yeah, I know this guy. I can do this.”

Credit where it’s due, Double Dragon on Neo Geo does change one thing to differentiate itself from Street Fighter II: its buttons are context sensitive. Instead of dedicated kick and punch buttons at varying speeds and strength, Double Dragon for Neo Geo has a four button scale for moves. These can perform either kicks or punches depending on the character’s position and relative distance to the other fighters. It gives some leeway in planning your attacks since you can determine speed and strength and let the game take the wheel.

With that said, anyone used to the Street Fighter way of doing things would likely be at least somewhat confused. You’re both getting similar move sets but have the buttons work in odd ways. It takes a bit of getting used not, not on the moves front but just for the basic attacks and planning, and that could shoo some players away that were looking for a break from the usual Street Fighter fare. Not to mention it just feels weird in the context of so many other fighting games, on and off the Neo Geo, as well.

As strange as this button layout is, it doesn’t feel like Double Dragon does enough otherwise to stand itself apart from the rest of the fighting fare of the time. There were so many fighting games around, many of which were deeper and more complex that Double Dragon, that this game really needed to do more. The anime art style is nice, but it’s not really that different from Street Fighter II or The King of Fighters in any meaningful way. It was more of the same in a very crowded field.

I almost think it would have been better for the game to lean into the film it was inspired by. That title might have been a failure, but if Technos had doubled down (no pun intended) and gone extra goofy that might have worked to its favor. Have the characters be modeled after the actors from the movie, give them over the top sayings and have them fight in truly ridiculous arenas. Almost make the game a parody not only of the film but also of the genre as a whole. That could have helped it stand out better. Lord knows the Street Fighter: The Movie game actually developed a cult following simply by leaning into its movie tie in, shitty as that film was.

The biggest flaw with the game, though, was something I’m not sure Technos even realized they had to fix: it’s just too easy. With a good fighter, and a competent player (even at my skill level), you can easily wipe the floor with most combatants in this game. A simple combo set, a couple of power moves, and the computer really isn’t able to fight back. The difficulty amped up more strongly in Street Fighter II, and that’s really where this game needed to be. I’m not looking for anything as bad as Mortal Kombat, which actively cheated and read your controls, but a little firmer scaling of challenge would keep this game from getting stale. Double Dragon feels like easy mode, and it gets boring after a while, even with ten combatants to try and master.

Technos tried to do something to save their ailing company, and I can appreciate the effort. They saw where the winds were blowing and wanted to be part of it. Their effort feels like too little, too late, especially in 1995. This same year saw the next iteration of the Street Fighter franchise, Street Fighter Alpha, and in comparison to that gorgeous title, Double Dragon simply couldn’t compete. Technos got into the scene at least two years too late with a game that couldn’t keep up with the competition, and the company paid the ultimate price for it. Sad to say, but sometimes that’s just how the game market goes.