{"id":8183,"date":"2012-09-24T00:01:13","date_gmt":"2012-09-24T00:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=8183"},"modified":"2012-09-23T12:35:22","modified_gmt":"2012-09-23T12:35:22","slug":"double-dragon-neon-ps3-360","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/24\/double-dragon-neon-ps3-360\/","title":{"rendered":"Double Dragon Neon (PS3, 360)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Back in the 80\u2019s, Double Dragon was a huge hit in arcades, and is considered to be the first co-op side scrolling beat \u2018em up. Or at least the first one to do it right anyway. The game became insanely popular, and spawned many sequels and ports, a cartoon show, and even a live action movie! Now, Majesco and WayForward have teamed up for a totally bro-dacious Double Dragon remake, dripping with 80\u2019s rad-ness, downloadable for PS3 and 360 (PS3 version reviewed here).<\/p>\n

Like the many clones that came after the original, Double Dragon Neon plays like any other side-scrolling brawler. Billy (or Billy and Jimmy Lee in co-op), must punch and kick waves of bad guys to save his girl Marian. It starts out just like the arcade game, with Marian being kidnapped by thugs, and then the heroes appearing from the garage behind her. Pick up weapons lying on the ground to give you a temporary edge, and punch objects to reveal and collect other goodies like cash and health pickups. You\u2019ll fight familiar faces such as the whip-wielding Linda and the hulking Abobo on your quest to save Marian!<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re looking for a serious Double Dragon remake, this game may not be for you. Since the original was released in the \u2018Me\u2019 decade, this remake takes every opportunity to utilize 80\u2019s references and poke fun of the franchise and the era and culture itself. The graphics are full of bright, florescent colors (it\u2019s called Neon for good reason, folks). The remixed arcade tunes are pure 80\u2019s cheese. There is a boss that makes blatant fun of Mega Man, and the main bad guy, Skullmageddon, looks and talks exactly like Skeletor from the old He-Man cartoon. There\u2019s even a button that lets you high-five your partner, which serves no purpose whatsoever. Even the \u2018co-op\u2019 mode is called \u2018bro-op!\u2019<\/p>\n

The 80\u2019s-ness seeps into gameplay elements as well. By properly dodging enemies\u2019 attacks, you can go into \u2018gleam mode\u2019 and deal extra damage. Some defeated enemies will drop cassette tapes, too. You can then collect these tapes and equip them to give you special moves and boost your stats. By gathering more of the same cassette, you\u2019ll power-up those moves. Gather mythril from defeated bosses to upgrade your tapes so you can power them up even more! Even in \u2018bro-op\u2019 mode, to revive a defeated pal, you must press the circle button repeatedly to bring up a picture of a cassette tape with a pencil rewinding it!<\/p>\n

I only had one tiny problem with Neon, and it\u2019s really more of a personal preference, actually. I thought the game was a little bit too hard (or maybe I just suck at it). Granted, it\u2019s WAY easier with two players, as you can revive each other multiple times. But if you lose all your lives in a stage, you\u2019ll have to start the level over again. It\u2019s not like an arcade game where you can put in a quarter and return where you left off. After playing with a buddy, you\u2019ll never want to do single player again. But other than that, this is a fantastic classic remake. Fun gameplay, smooth animation, a long quest, and heck, I even liked the cheesy music (but then, 80\u2019s music is one of my guilty pleasures, shhh, don\u2019t tell anyone, it\u2019s a secret to everybody).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Double Dragon Neon is rated T for Teen with ESRB descriptors of Fantasy Violence, Partial Nudity, and Suggestive Themes. You do punch, kick, and throw all manner of bad guys and gals, but defeated characters just yell out \u2018argh\u2019 and fall over and disappear. The partial nudity and suggestive themes manly come from one of the enemy characters: Linda. She wears a skimpy, revealing outfit (although she does have the decency to wear leg warmers). Some of the things she utters is a bit suggestive, too, and it\u2019s what you\u2019d expect a woman with a whip to say (although I did chuckle when she bellowed out to the Lee twins, \u201cOn your knees, Lees!\u201d). But really, the best reason why this is best for older gamers is the high difficulty level.<\/p>\n

However, I would be OK with kids younger than teens playing this, on one condition. That parents or older gamers play WITH them! That way, you can discuss with them what things in the game you find inappropriate, and even better, share stories about what games were like when you were a kid. Plus, the game is way more fun with two players anyway!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in the 80\u2019s, Double Dragon was a huge hit in arcades, and is considered to be the first co-op side scrolling beat \u2018em up. Or at least the first one to do it right anyway. The game became insanely popular, and spawned many sequels and ports, a cartoon show, and even a live action […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8183"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8187,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8183\/revisions\/8187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}