After playing a few Double Dragon titles recently, I decided to revisit the first one released on the NES. I remember playing it back when I was a kid and not liking it much, so I wanted to see if my opinion would change now that I’m a lot older.
Title screen for Double Dragon for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Let’s talk about the game today!
Game Basics
The NES and Nintendo Famicom version of Double Dragon is a port of an arcade game by Technos Japan Corp. Both the port and the arcade game are side scrolling beat ’em ups. Unlike the arcade game, the port released on the 8-bit Nintendo consoles did not have cooperative play. In this game, players take on the role of Billy Lee as he attempts to rescue his kidnapped girlfriend from the Black Warriors.
The kidnapping of Marian.
While the main game mode can be played with two players, the game will alternate between them. The game has a health system, and each player gets only three lives and no continues. There are no items to replenish health, but each section starts with the player at full health. There is also no way to earn additional lives, not even through cheats.
The game has a versus mode which can be played with two players or against the CPU.
The game has a bonus versus mode where two human players can fight each other, or one player can battle the computer AI. While you can select from six different characters, this is always a mirror match so whoever Player 1 selects is also assigned to Player 2 (or the computer AI). This mode had a lot of potential, but it’s hard for me to like it because of this limitation.
The Level Up System and the Low Level Moves
The first Double Dragon released on the NES was known for its level up system. Essentially, you can’t do all your moves at the start of the game. You’ll need to gain experience points which give you hearts. Then you gain the ability to do a new move or two with each heart that you earn. You start the game with one heart, so all you can do is jump (press B and A), kick (B), punch (A), and do a headbutt (double tap forward). The punch is the weakest move in the game but it also gives the most experience points.
Billy’s high kick.
Earning a second heart will let you do high kicks and uppercuts. These are just punches and kicks, but the difference is you do them when the opponent is stunned and these attacks knock enemies off their feet.
You’ll need to gain three hearts to be able to do jump kicks.
When you get the third heart, your jump changes into a jump kick. This attack also knocks enemies down. Enemies can dodge this by ducking, and regular enemies will start doing jump kicks against you too.
Enemies are defenseless in this position.
With the fourth heart, you’ll be able to do the hair grab against most enemies. This happens automatically if you hit an enemy from a certain distance. Once you have an enemy grabbed, you can either do knee bashes or a shoulder throw. You can actually kill most enemies with a grab and multiple bashes, but you don’t get any experience points by doing this.
The Other Moves
When you earn your fifth heart, you’ll be able to straddle an enemy that’s been knocked down. You can then punch them in the face until they die. Like the hair grab moves, doing this won’t earn you experience points. Some enemies can also knock you off of them.
I like calling this move the Ground Pound.
Getting the sixth heart will let you attack enemies from behind with your elbow. This is tied with the final move in terms of how much damage it deals to enemies. I think that you’ll need to learn this before you get to the end of the first section in Mission 3, because this move is really effective against Abobo.
Elbowing your enemies is an effective strategy.
The seventh and final heart will let you do the spin kick, which replaces the high kick. This isn’t like the spin kicks in Double Dragon II and Double Dragon III where you do multiple spins. This is just one spin, has noticeable lag before it hits, and enemies can duck to avoid it. Still, it is powerful enough that regular enemies die after getting hit with this.
Dragon Difficulty
My issue with Double Dragon is how difficult it can be because of how it was designed. Not having continues and no means of getting extra lives means there isn’t room for mistakes when playing this game. The level up system also contributes, because you need to rely on your weakest moves to be able to unlock your strongest moves quickly. Enemies don’t get stunned for long, so they can easily counter-attack while you’re in the middle of punching them. It doesn’t help that you actually have longer stun frames, so enemies can really wail on you before you can even react.
Make sure you can already do elbow attacks before you get to this point.
Mission 3 is where the difficulty really spikes. At the end of the first section, you’ll be attacked by two Abobos. One is tough, so two of them can really give you trouble. If you don’t enter the caves they come out of, this section is going to loop. In the next section, there’s a challenging platforming sequence that will send you to the beginning of that section if you miss your jump!
Moving platforms.
Mission 4 has the Wall, where pillars push out from the wall and deal lots of damage to you. You can lose a life just by attempting to cross this area. This section is so difficult, there’s actually a guide on GameFAQS specific to this!
The Wall is the most annoying part of this game, in my opinion.
And if that wasn’t hard enough, you’ll have to face off against a gauntlet of enemies before you can get to the final boss. That includes two Abobos, two Chins (the bosses of Mission 1 and 2). Oh yeah, there are two final bosses! How could I forget to mention that?
A Handful of Enemies
Double Dragon only has a few enemies, and you’ll fight them over and over. Will, Rowper, and Linda are the regular enemies. Like I mentioned earlier, Abobo is the Mission 1 boss, and Chin is the Mission 2 boss. You’ll fight them over and over in Missions 3 and 4 too. I think having a few enemies works to this game’s advantage, because they’re actually very memorable. Or maybe we remember them because we learn about their names in the fighting game mode?
Willy’s got a gun.
Willy is the final boss in the Game Boy version of Double Dragon, but here he’s the second-to-the-last opponent. He’s got a gun that he shoots when you’re far away from him. He can also use this gun to hit you up close.
Battle between brothers.
At the end is Jimmy, Billy’s brother and the final boss of this game. He’s just a palette-swap of Billy with all the same moves. Still, this is one of the classic mirror match moments in video game history.
Visuals, Sound, and Presentation
For a pre-1990s NES game, the graphics of Double Dragon were impressive to me. Character sprites are clear and it’s easy to identify who the characters are and what they’re doing. Billy’s moves are nicely depicted and well animated. Stages are colorful and have enough detail that will let you understand what these locations are. And the sprites in the fighting game mode are even better.
You can actually see Billy do a spin when he does the spin kick.
In terms of sound effects, this game does alright. But what’s really good are this game’s stage themes, which are really quite catchy and memorable. I especially love the use of the opening theme and the Mission 1 theme in certain sections of Mission 4. Repeating them made me feel that the game was nearing its conclusion. If you’re looking to beat this game, you’ll need to replay it several times. It really helps that the stage themes are really good because you won’t mind listening to them over and over as you do your replays.
That uppercut really looks good.
Another thing that impressed me was this game’s presentation value. There’s an opening cutscene showing Billy’s girlfriend, Marian, getting kidnapped. When you beat the game, you get an ending cutscene with Billy actually meeting up with Marian to save her. The start of each mission has an introduction image in sepia that shows a preview of the upcoming stage. The HUD is clean and easy to understand.
Final Thoughts
After playing and beating Double Dragon several times, I still think it’s too difficult to enjoy without the help of save states. It’s hard to avoid getting hit, and you can easily lose a life (or two) at specific sections. The lack of continues and extra lives means that you’ll have to start over from the beginning if you make too many mistakes. Thankfully, I played this game via emulation so I definitely made use of save states.
If I want to play some 8-bit beat ’em up action, I’d play other games first before the first Double Dragon on the NES. Double Dragon II is much better, and I’d rather deal with the difficulty of Double Dragon III than this game. But the game isn’t that bad. If you’re a fan of the beat ’em up genre or the Double Dragon franchise, you’ll definitely have fun with this game.
Click here to read about all the Double Dragon games that I’ve played. And click here to check out every NES video game that I’ve played!
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