The first Double Dragon game where "Double" actually comes in to play, and oh what a difference it makes!!
After firing the NES up you'll come to the main menu after viewing the title screen, from here you have two choices to make. The first choice is what type of game you want to play. Your three options are "1P Play" (a 1 player game), "2P Play A" (a 2 player cooperative game) and "2P Play B" (a 2 player cooperative game where the players can cause damage to each other). The second choice you need to make is the difficulty level you want to play at. The three levels available are "Practice", "Warrior" and "Supreme Master". I mentioned in the opening paragraph that this game is nine missions long, but you only get to play all nine missions when you play the game on the "Supreme Master" difficulty. When you play on the lower two levels the game ends after the eighth mission. After confirming these two choices press the Start button and you'll be taken to the opening mission of the game. The next nine paragraphs are a description of the game's events as they happen in order, when playing on the "Supreme Master" difficulty:
Mission 1 is called "Into The Turf" and play begins at a very industrial looking type of facility, with crates and what not spread all about. Right off the bat you'll have to take care of some Will, Rowper and Linda enemy characters, before climbing a ladder to a new section of the facility. As soon as you get to the top some Lindas will attack, followed by some Wills, this time toting knives. After dispatching them you'll climb another ladder up to a platform near the top of the facility. Some Rowpers attack, finish them off and then climb the final ladder to the very top level of the facility. Once at the summit you'll have to deal with hordes of metal pipe wielding Wills before coming across the end boss of the mission, a burly guy in some sort of S & M welders outfit, named Burnov.
The second mission is called "At The Heliport" and starts off at the top of a tall, blue bricked building. By alternating jumping and climbing on the pipes attached to the sides of this building, make your way down far enough so that you can jump across the chasm to an adjacent building. Once on the other side make your way to the top of this new building, during your travels up to this point you'll have had to take out a handful of Rowpers along the way, fyi. Anyhoo, once at the top of this new building a green helicopter will attack with it's machine guns. Avoid the blasts and it will then hover over top of you and release waves of enemies. Pairs of Lindas, Wills and Right Arms (a new character that resembles a boxer) are dispatched. After defeating them keep heading to the East and jump off a ledge down in to the heliport, where a helicopter is parked nearby. A healthy amount of Rowpers attack before the bosses of the mission show up, a pair of Ninja characters (they kind of look like Chins from the original game, only bigger, faster, more agile, carry weapons, etc.). Break out the jump kick on these sorry bastards and end the mission! After your victory the helicopter will then start up and begin to take off . . .
Mission 3 is called "Battle in the Chopper" and sees you grab on to the helicopter at the last second and make your way inside. This is a very short mission as inside the chopper you simply have to defeat a few waves of enemies and then it's over. The only complication is that the door to the chopper opens up randomly and sucks anybody nearby out in to the sky . . . so tread carefully! Successfully beat down waves of Right Arms, Wills and even a couple of Bolos (look like Mexican cousins to Abobo) and the mission is complete.
"Undersea Base" is the title of Mission 4 and it starts off on some sort of large steel platform in the middle of the ocean. Moving across the platform a number of Rowpers first attack, these ones are able to throw these weird mace boomerang things . . . ouch. After getting rid of them you'll come across some Lindas, but throw 'dem beeyatches against a wall and move along, soon you will enter a door that opens up after the beatings are complete. This door ends up being an elevator and takes you down a few levels to a tunnel that has low ceilings all covered in spikes. Right off the bat you'll have to take out a number of Right Arms before the Abore (in the same mold as an Abobo/Bolo character, only looks like Arnold the Schwarzenegger instead) character makes his first appearance. After dealing with him move along and scoot by a series of spiked pistons that repeatedly descend from the ceiling. You'll then reach a point in the tunnel where there is a shaft opening above you. From this shaft drops a number of Lindas, this time carrying grenades instead of their usual maces. After the Lindas come a series of knife wielding Wills, followed up by a lone Bolo. After defeating this motley crew a nearby door will open up . . . enter it. In this next room are two stone platforms featuring fast moving conveyor belts. Leaping from one platform to the other you will make your way through the next door and end the mission.
The fifth mission is called "Forest of Death" . . . rather ominous, don't you think? Anyhoo, it starts off with you heading down a densely forested path, not too long in to your travels some Lindas attack, but are easily dealt with. Then make your way down a cliff face, first by jumping down a ledge and punching out the dopiest Rowper in the game by far, and then the rest of the way by climbing down a long ladder set in to the rock of the cliff face. At the bottom dispose of some more Lindas before jumping across a nearby stream using a broken down bridge. Once across you come to a rock face with a couple of heavy vines hanging down. From these vines come a handful of Rowpers that you must beat unmerciful before climbing up the vines yourself. At the top is a small wooden building that belches out enemies like they're going out of style! First up are hordes of Rowpers, and these ones throw dynamite. After the Rowpers come a couple of Bolos that you must deal with. Afterwards keep heading East and jump off a ledge on to a smooth boardwalk, where a couple of Chin characters finally make their first appearance of the game, only this time they carry wooden sticks of some sort and look a hell of a lot like Link. After dealing with them the "boss" of the level shows up, a giant, weird looking snowplow type of vehicle that features tank treads instead of wheels!! The first task is to climb it . . . once at the top you then have to defeat waves of dynamite throwing Rowpers, some Right Arms, and then an Abore to finish things off.
Mission 6 is when things really start to get tough, it is called "Mansion of Terror" and starts off in the corridor of some sinister looking mansion, with candelabras dripping hot flames and some evil music playing. After first jumping up some ledges you'll come to a series of three disappearing platforms over top a pit of spikes. After clearing those jumps you'll come to a couple of doorways that spit out enemies. First up are a series of Right Arms, followed by a series of Chins. Moving along after beating on those thugs, the final part of the mission is another series of disappearing platforms over a pit of spikes. This section is a little more difficult as it's six platforms instead of three, once you finally get to the top you'll jump to a ledge containing a doorway that signals the end of the mission.
The insanity continues and even amplifies in Mission 7, titled "Trap Room". To start off you are in a room full of pipes and other equipment, having to traverse a series of three randomly spinning conveyor belts and enter the doorway at the end of them. The next room is just a long corridor featuring a floor that slowly but surely recesses in to the wall . . . over a pit of spikes of course! Before you get the door at the other end of the corridor to open up you'll have to defeat a single Right Arm before facing the Burnov character one more time. The next room is the one that's truly confounding. It's a large room full of ladders and platforms and no enemies, but to make your way across said room you have to navigate a series of randomly spinning cogs that fire you down on to the spiked floor if your jumps aren't timed correctly. To make matters worse there are these silver spiked objects that continuously shoot up from the floor! Once at the top of this room and through the doorway you'll come to another one of the corridors with the recessing floors. To open up the door on this one you simply have to fight off hordes of dynamite throwing Rowpers. The next room is the final one in the mission and for once is just a large, wide open furnace looking room with no tricks or traps, just straight up fighting!! To clear the mission you'll have to defeat waves of knife throwing Wills, dynamite toting Rowpers, Chins, Right Arms, and finally an Abore.
Mission 8 is called "The Double Illusion" and begins in what looks like some sort of palace made of ice. Set out down the first hallway and you'll run in to some Chins, disposing of them quickly enough. After rounding a nearby corner a healthy number of Right Arms come at you with a vengeance, man these guys are a pain in the arse!! After surviving them you descend a nearby ladder. Once on the lower level you'll be set upon by more enemies, including an Abore and two Bolos. Limping away from that fight you then come to what looks like a replica of the entrance hall at the very end of the first Double Dragon game, with the big double doors at the top. Once in the room a number of Ninja characters attack, but are dispatched easily enough . . . and then the real fight begins. Two (or one if you're playing solo) doppelgangers of your own character(s) show up, they look like they're made of stone and have the ability to disappear at will. After scraping through this fight you'll end the mission, and possibly the game depending on what difficulty level you're playing at.
The final mission, Mission 9, is called "Final Confrontation?". The foe backing the mysterious Shadow Warriors that attacked and killed Marian finally reveals himself, creating an illusion of where you are to finally fight him, which looks like some sort of space planet or something. Billy and Jimmy refer to this character only as the "Mysterious Warrior", he has long green hair and wears a cape, kind of looks like The Ultimate Warrior a bit. This fellow has some devastating moves at his disposal, none more so than the spinning corkscrew arm attack, just play it careful and pick your spots. After damaging him somewhat his illusions fail and you'll end up finishing the fight in a room made of stone. Lay more licks on him to finally take him down and finish the game, afterwards Marian is returned to Billy, being brought down from heaven by an angel.
As you make your way through Double Dragon II there isn't really much to look out for in terms of pickups, the only thing you need to keep your eyes open for are weapons. As you probably noticed in my mission overviews, a lot of the enemies you face in this game tote weapons. If you get some licks in on your enemy first and stun him or her they will then drop their weapon, allowing you to pick it up and turn it on it's original wielder! The usable weapons in this game include maces, knives, pipes, grenades and dynamite. Also, in the original Double Dragon game you would acquire new fighting moves every time you reached a certain point level and earned yourself a heart. In this game that is not the case, you have all fighting moves in the game available to you right from the get go.
The game screen contains a bit of information at the very bottom, but otherwise it is pretty wide open and offers a great view of this classic, side scrolling beat 'em up game! In the bottom left corner is player one's health bar, the health bars in this title consist of 8 blue squares. One hit does not take off a single square, it takes a various combination of hits, depending on the type and strength of said hits, to deplete a square. Once all 8 of them are gone your man is dead and you move on to use your next man. Underneath player one's health bar is a counter showing how many lives he or she has left, as well as player one's current score. In this game you start off with three lives, once they are all gone the game is over . . . no continues. In the bottom middle of the screen is the high score for your current round of play. And finally, in the bottom right of the screen appears the exact same information as in the bottom left, only for player two (if applicable).
The controls for this game are similar to the first Double Dragon and another classic beat 'em up called Renegade, in that the buttons you press to punch and kick all depend on which direction you are facing at the time. While you are facing to the left press the B button to punch, and press the A button to perform a backwards kick on any enemies approaching from the rear. Similarly, while facing to the right press the A button to punch and press the B button to perform a back kick. You can string along a combo of punches and eventually take your enemy down with a vicious uppercut. Also, while punching an enemy he or she may become stunned. Walk towards them when this happens and you will perform a hair grab, once in the hair grab you have a number of options. If you are facing to the left press the B button to perform a knee smash, or press the A button to perform a hair throw. Also, if you hold down on the control pad and press the B button you'll perform an elbow drop, while if you hold up on the control pad and press the A button you'll perform an upper kick. When you are facing to the right simply reverse the buttons and you'll perform the same moves from the other side. To execute a jump kick press the A and B buttons together. Now, there are a few special moves that were added to this game which really come in handy a lot of the time. To perform a hyper uppercut simply press the corresponding punch button immediately when you touch the ground after performing a jump kick. To perform a cyclone kick, press and hold either the A or B button when you are in the air after performing a jump kick. This function works best when your character is at the apex of his jump kick, or slightly before . . . so be fast. Finally, the high jump kick is a lot trickier move to execute. To do it you have to be crouching to begin with, so basically it has to be performed once you land from a jump kick. Once crouching press the A and B buttons simultaneously while holding either left or right on the control pad (depending on which way you're facing). If you get it right you will unleash easily the most powerful move in the game!
Double Dragon II's presentation is right on the mark! The graphics were top notch for back then in 1989, they basically just took the graphics from the original Double Dragon and gave them a bit of extra polish, also making them maybe a bit more cartoony, but otherwise they are pretty consistent with the original game only slightly improved. They also made a slight change in that the characters are just slightly smaller in this game compared with the original, which I think made for a larger playing area as they could increase the scale of what they were able to put on the screen. New to this installment are cutscenes that link each mission, containing dialogue and graphics of what's going on with the main characters, helping to deepen the plot surrounding this game. The soundtrack is a very memorable one, the analog bleeps and bloops will get in to your head and have you humming along before you even know it, also very similar to the first game! As for gameplay, this game scrolls along with the least amount of issues. The controls respond perfectly, and although some of the more advanced moves can be harder to execute, that's more learning the skilled controls than any type of control issue. This game is put across just beautifully.
As for pros and cons, there aren't any cons at all, and I do mean that honestly. While we were playing this game I literally sat and tried to think of one bad thing about it and I couldn't! As for the pros, conversely they are indeed many. The main pro is that this time around they made the game 2 player cooperative. When they didn't give the first game a 2 player mode I honestly thought they must have been smoking crack or something during the design phase, so weird. But in this title they finally got it right. It's a fun game to begin with, but when two buddies get down to business together the fun is multiplied exponentially! Another pro is that they extended this installment quite a bit. The original is only 6 missions long I believe, a few of them quite short, and although it has some difficult spots it's overall quite easy to complete. In Double Dragon II they went a long way to reversing this. Nine total missions, a couple of them short but most longer, and quite a few tough sequences too, especially the bosses near the end. This game is no easy thing to beat, especially on the hardest difficulty level. The last pro is the diversity they added to this game, in a lot of different respects. First of all they added quite a few different locations you get to visit in this game, even implementing vehicles here and there such as the chopper in missions two and three, and the snowplow thing in mission 5 (I remember that being my favourite part of the game as a youngster!). They also introduced some new characters like the Right Arms, Abores, and the final boss, the Mysterious Warrior. Finally, probably most importantly, they introduced some new, game changing combat moves in this title! The first game has a lot of good moves to use, definitely no shortage, but in Double Dragon II the introduction of the three special moves really make a difference, especially when fighting bosses. It's fun because there's a risk/reward element to the moves. They can be hard to execute so if you don't perform a move successfully you can land yourself in a spot of trouble, but if you do get it right they can really save your bacon!
In terms of tips and tricks I can offer for playing this game, I do have a few. First off, do your best to learn as many of the special moves as you can. Like I said they can be hard to execute and although you can skate through a good chunk of the game without using them, they sure come in handy late in the game when you have to face a few really tough bosses in a row. Also, take your time and be patient when you have to. For a lot of the game you can just barrel on through and plow down whoever gets in your way, but there are times when you have to slow down, take a break, pay attention and get the timing down on things. This holds especially true for missions six and seven, "Mansion of Terror" and "Trap Room" respectively. There is also a lot of fighting near the edges of long drops throughout this game, so it pays to be careful and calculating in these areas too. Lastly, learn the tendencies of your enemies and what moves work especially well on each type of character. Learning how to dispatch each enemy as quickly and efficiently as possible will help further the length of your lives in this game, and you definitely need to . . . remember there are no continues.
To sum it up, for an NES game released in 1989, Double Dragon II: The Revenge was the absolute cream of the crop. There is nothing wrong with this game whatsoever! One of the true tests of how good a game really is, is how it stands up over time . . . and also it's replayability factor. Playing it all the way through 23 years after it's original release I'm pleased to say that this game has not only stood the test of time, but gotten even better. Long live the Double Dragons!