Double Dragon PS1 Review

Double Dragon was released for the PlayStation in 1995 and this game was a spin-off of the original double dragon series as like other games before us with the likes of even golden axe and final fight, once they went into the arcades they also changed their perspective from a beat'em up to a fighting game pretty much to cater for the arcade's popularity back at the time. 

This version of the game was only seen in Japan and originally it had been released for the neo geo and it later then got ported to the neo geo cd and then the PlayStation in late 1995. 

And the concept of the game is also based off an adaption of the double dragon movie which was released in 1994 and the idea behind the game based off the film is that the story is based off of two brothers Billy and Jimmy where they return to their childhood city and to find out that it has been overrun by loads of mobsters and gangs that have literally taken over every aspect of the city and it's rampant and rife with crime. 

And if you've played any of the double dragon games from previous years even with the beat em ups, it almost has a very similar style to the likes of the Streets of Rage games as that was a similar type of concept where a city has been overrun with crime so you can definitely see a lot of similarities to it. 

But this approach with this game takes on more of a street fighter style to it and when you play it, the characters in the game are very very similar to likes of street fighter 2 characters if you're familiar even with street fighter 2 which i'm sure you all are because again it was probably the most dominant fighting game in the arcades and consoles of the 90s growing up. 

I myself personally played it for years not that i was very good at it but i played it anyway and the two main characters billy and jimmy are very very reflective of ken and ryu from the street fighter games also and you'll know that when you're playing through the different modes that are available because a lot of the move sets from those characters are very reflective and borrow a lot of ideas and moves from the street fighter games. So what is it like to play overall?  

As you go through the tournament even though there are different game modes available where you can play like verses and there's different types of elements that are involved, you play through the tournament and your goal is to play through a story element were each fight, you fight against a number of the roster and after each fight you get greeted with like a graphic with a load of text that tells a further adaption of the story leading up to the final events of the game and each opponent that you fight throughout the course of the game gradually improves or increases in difficulty as you progress. 

And like a lot of these fighting games if you play these games on a harder difficulty you'll know how tough they are. 

It's very very hard to win games but from a playability perspective, the gameplay may not be as fast-paced compared to other fighting games or similar to it but it does play really well. 

It does play to a good tempo, the moves and the combos that you can pull off are very easily adaptable with the buttons on the controllers. 

You will know the move sets because when you see them, especially with the main characters how similar they are to that of street fighter 2 and you can pull them off very very easily and you can put together some really nice combos and take a lot of damage out of your opponents to each of the fights. 

So even with the tournament mode in the versus mode you also have some additional modes so you have likes of overdrive mode so that increases the overall speed and intensity of the game so it makes for a more frantic experience. 

Then you also have tiny 3d mode what it tries to do is it tries to scale down the graphics and almost try to give like a 3d style effect to the gameplay although it doesn't look as good because everything looks a lot smaller and you're looking at everything from a distance so for the best experience you're just better off to play it in the normal modes. 

But even with the gameplay style and how it plays overall, it is a very well-rounded game and it's a pity that it didn't get a release outside of japan as it would have done quite well and if you were into the likes of street fighter or any of those similar type of 2d fighting games this would have worked really well. 

It would have definitely satiated that appetite for those type of games as graphically the environments in the game they're very well drawn and really good character animations and i just love the whole kind of aesthetic and style and it goes for a type of anime type of graphical style which will be very familiar with the likes of anime style comics and it really captures the unique tone of games from the late 80s and early 90s so it does that really really well. 

Graphically it is a very very well-put-together game, it's very nice to look at as you're playing it. 

So it is a good mix of visuals and gameplay style and overall just from playing it, it is a decent game the only downside with it that i found there is a little bit of a learning curve in terms of the characters and stuff it does take a little bit to get used to the move sets but that's the same with any type of fighting game that you play. 

Just the loading screens are the only real main issue because it does take a while to load up each level or each fight in question but once you get in you can definitely have a lot of fun so it's really good like when you're fighting and you get different points depending on the amount of moves that you use or combos that you initiate and with each move or hit that you connect with you can gain more points as a result. 

So it is a pretty cool feature but it is really cool to see you putting together combos and being able to mix and match all of the move sets to put together some really cool hits and as a result depending on the combo styles that you utilize you can do a serious amount of damage to your opponents and you can take them out of the equation very very quickly and in saying that when you play the game on harder modes it is also equally as difficult because they can do the same on you as much as you can do on them. 

But all in all it's a decent title, not the best fighting game on the system but definitely a good all-round title and if you're a fan of street fighter 2 or your typical arcade style of fighters this would fit in quite well and i would recommend that you give it a go, you will enjoy it and even though this is a spin-off of the double dragon series if you're more used to playing with the likes of the beat em up style games this would be a very different take on it. 

So it may take a little bit of getting used to if you're familiar with playing those type of games but it's still worthwhile if you're a fan of the series, this is still worth the luck in my opinion so i highly recommend you do go and check it out. 

And i would love to know your thoughts on double dragon for the ps1 if you have played it at all and if so what do you think of the game? 

What are your experiences of it did you enjoy it or maybe not so much? 

I'd love to hear your stories about this game so as always be sure to share them in the comments below and be sure to keep watching to see more content on other games similar to Double Dragon, you can check out the blog where we will be diving into the iconic elements of these classic video games and as always keep those gaming memories alive...