A faithful rendition of an arcade classic
The second group doesn't make sense to me, so I'm going to review Double Dragon as a member of the first group.
First, let me point out that all the criticisms made in the official GameSpot review are accurate. The gameplay is rather one-dimensional. The elbow strike is good against anybody anytime. The same music loops continuously throughout the game. And more than a few enemies onscreen will cause the frame rate to drop like a rock in a pond.
And yet, when compared to the original game that was in arcades twenty years ago, this game is great. The original graphics are exactly the same as the arcade version, pixelation and all. The enhanced graphics are intelligently done so as to provide sharper visuals without altering the gameplay one bit. The elbow strike is the same powerful move that it was in 1987. And that slowdown? Yep, even that was ported faithfully from the arcade original.
Sure, the creators of the XBOX 360 version could have "fixed" the game to create more balance between the various moves you can do. They could have "fixed" it so there were a greater variety of characters to fight, rather than black, white, and green palette swaps of the same hulking figure. They could have "fixed" it so that the frame rate was rock steady throughout the game. But even if all these "fixes" have made for a better game, that game would not have been Double Dragon.
No, instead we have a game that represents an era when processing power was limited, memory was measured in kilobytes, and two buttons next to a joystick was an adequate control system. And that game is represented more faithfully than almost any port I've ever seen, warts and all.
With all that--and a cost of only five dollars--I would be remiss to give this game a low score simply because my definition of a "fun" video game had evolved a bit over the past two decades.