Download Double Dragon II - The Revenge

We were already hosting parts I and III of this series, so I thought we should have this, the second part, too.

First off let me just tell you that this game supports a two-player mode (although it seems a very strange way to activate it). If you want to play in the two-player mode you need to select the Joystick as your input device. In this case one player will play on the left side of the keyboard and the other player with the numeric keys. The keyboard keys are Q, W, E, A, D, Z, X, C for moving and either S or Space for attacking. The joystick keys (I know it sounds like an oxymoron) are the numeric keys 7, 8, 9, 4, 6, 1, 2, 3 to move and either Enter or 5 to hit. Why this is so I haven’t a clue, but that’s how this game works.

The moves you can perform are quite basic (punching or hitting with the elbow, jumping, etc). You need to kick the crap out of everybody that moves, except your partner if playing in two-player mode. Yes - you can hurt each other.

The graphics are made well enough; I’d even say they are really good for 1989, but the sound (what little there is) is simply horrid. The game itself is very hard! It’s really difficult to beat the baddies up - luckily, however, you can get some weapons (my favorite is the shovel) to help you on the way. Unfortunately the opponents will gang up on you, and as soon as you’re hit you'll let go of the weapon. This makes it much harder, and the need for a partner is evident (so go find a friend to help you out).

As for the story... well, it’s really weak. You need to avenge the girl who's been killed. Thus the subtitle The Revenge.

Each player has 3 lives and if one player dies the other simply continues alone. So in the spirit of teamwork you might consider getting killed if that means that your partner would preserve enough energy and lives to finish the game (but you’ll probably want to be the guy for whom the other sucker sacrifices his life, of course.)

All in all this game doesn’t deserve more than 3 out of 5. The graphics are nice, but the sound isn’t. The gameplay is repetitive, but the game is challenging. You can play with a friend (which is always a plus in my book). And last, if it weren’t for this game they never would have made Double Dragon III (in my opinion the best game of the series).

Part of the Double Dragon Series