Welcome back Star Struck Gaming fans,we are going back to 1987 when 3 men and a baby and fatal attraction were riding high in the box office and living on a prayer and u2 with or without you were peaking in the charts it’s also the same year a genre defining best em up was released – Double Dragon Sega Mega Drive.
Defining beat em ups as we know it
Double Dragon Sega Mega Drive is a side scrolling beat em up and you play as either Billy or Jimmy or team up in one of the first truly successful 2 players games created, you fight your way in to the domain of the black warriors gang who have Kidnapped your mutual love interest Marian.
Characters are colourful and well drawn but obviously due to restrictions in hardware had limited moves some melee attacked you others had weapons such as bats, bars, and chains. I still remember the first level clearly of this game as the large muscled mid level boss crashed out of the wall and proceeded to pound me in to oblivion but that never stopped me coming back for more as the game was so unique and you just had to keep playing.
Time for an assist
Moves could be also performed together with each player assisting the other in holding and hitting or throwing a thug to your partner to kick in to the next level, the levels were varied in size and ranged from a city slum, a factory, the woods, and the gang’s hideout each level or mission as it was called had a end of level boss usually in the form of a muscle man.
Make no mistake Double Dragon Sega Mega Drive was no push over with a basic life bar and enemies coming from all sides throwing barrels and knives at you it really was a challenge and the final level where the developers obviously decided “you know something just throw every character in to the mix” and that’s just what happens with muscle bound thugs coming through, walls traps trying to kill you and eventually you come to the last boss a machine gun toting lunatic but is he really the last boss( of course he is you all shout) but actually no he isn’t.
A loving affair?
You may recall at the beginning I mentioned a mutual love interest of Billy and Jimmy, that’s right they both love the same woman and if you managed to defeat the game in 2 player mode you have to fight each other to get with your one true love a rather bitter pill to swallow considering you just been through the biggest rumble ever to get to her.
Double Dragon Sega Mega Drive spanned across all computers and consoles over the years from the Spectrum 48-128k up to the Mega Drive and even spawned sequels but as is the usual situation with sequels it couldn’t quite pull off what the original had achieved.
Double Dragon Sega Mega Drive set a standard for future games
If Double Dragon Sega Mega Drive had never been made I truly believe streets of rage and final fight would never have been as good as they were or more harshly may have never even existed as no foundation had been put in place but luckily for us Double dragon had and was solid enough to build on.
