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Like beat-’em-ups? Beaten every Streets of Rage more times than you can count? If you’re wondering which brawler to turn to next, there’s always Kaneko’s DJ Boy. It may not be high on the list of games that come to mind, but it’s… out there. Keep your expectations low and you just might be surprised.
Many people believe that DC Comics jumped the shark with the Death of Superman storyline. We all know that flagship comic book characters never stay dead (Jean Grey and Captain America, anyone?), but the completely silly way in which the writers handled Supes’ “death” and return was enough to make issue #75 of Superman end up less valuable than a square of used Cottonelle. The Sunsoft Genesis game was almost as bad, and it had few redeeming qualities as a beat-’em-up. Hey, at least it wasn’t as bad as Marvel’s Spider-Man clone saga…
See, I knew that if we looked hard enough we’d find a Double Dragon game on the Genesis that’s worth playing. It took the addition of the three Battletoads, but I think we might have a winner here. Tradewest’s aptly named Battletoads & Double Dragon pits the three action-loving amphibians and Billy and Jimmy Lee against the powerful team of the Dark Queen and the Shadow Boss.
While NES owners were relishing the awesome experience that was Double Dragon II: The Revenge, Genesis gamers were left wondering why they never got to play Technos’ long-awaited sequel. It turns out that the localization gods were looking out for us, and The Mega Drive port just plain stunk. The NES version was an incredible adaptation that made the most of the hardware, while the Pal Soft translation went out of its way to do everything wrong.
Double Dragon has been around in one form or another since it exploded onto the arcade scene in 1987, producing innumerable immitators. As time wore on, however, Technos went in all different directions with the franchise, even going so far as to team Billy and Jimmy with the Battletoads! While none of the games released over the years have been particularly bad, some have definitely been lacking. Double Dragon 3: The Arcade Game is probably one of the worst offenders, and many consider it to be the dark horse of the franchise. But is it really so bad?