#106: Super Double Dragon

TWO DRAGONS?!?

Super Double Dragon is exactly the game I thought it was going to be. It's a beat-em-up where you play one of the two dragons. Dragon brothers? Ninjas? I don't even know. The game may have had a plot on other platforms or something but there was absolutely nothing given to me in my entire time playing this game to indicate why it was I was beating up all these (presumably bad) dudes.

Hold your hand, kick your face!

There's really not much to say about this game, really. It ran smoothly without the SNES slowdown lag that sometimes plagues games of this genre. The enemy AI was pretty sketchy so it felt relatively easy? But it also felt entirely playable which is sadly a little surprising for an SNES game. I suspect it would have been more fun with 2 players but it was still fine as a single player game.

NUNCHUK HO!

One thing that did make me sad was how trying to straight up brawl the enemies was a recipe for disaster. If they ever connected with a hit you'd get dazed which meant you were apt to get followed up on with a few more hits. This meant the 'optimal' way to play was to strafe up and down and abuse the AI's obsession with staying on the same z axis depth as you. They wouldn't attack while doing this so you could get the first hit in. Dazing them, which would allow a followup of your own or would let you keep strafing if there were other enemies on screen. It made for a rather monotonous experience.

That whole monotonous experience thing got me thinking about why I don't care much for the SNES versions of this genre yet I love DmC. DmC is set up so you have a bunch of cool moves, and then it makes you mix your play up by giving you bonuses for using a variety of moves and throwing in enemies that are weak to different things. 'Optimal' play isn't the exact same thing over and over until you win. I like that.

All that said, for the time, this is a pretty good game.

Rating: B+