Double Dragon II: The Revenge

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Double Dragon II: The Revenge
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: PALSOFT
Developer: PALSOFT (Quest?)
Developer(s) of original games: Technos
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code JP 1991-12-20 ¥8,8008,800 T-74023

Double Dragon II: The Revenge (ダブルドラゴンII ザ・リベンジ) is the sequel to Double Dragon. It was released for the arcades in early 1989, although it has a copyright date of 1988 due to the prototype testing conducted that year. The arcade version was essentially an improved version of the first game, featuring revamped graphics, a different combat system, new bosses and all new music, while retaining the same level structures and enemy characters from the first game. The Famicom/NES version, released by Technos at the end of the same year, was a completely different game that shared only the basic premise and a few superficial similarities in levels and character designs.

The Sega Mega Drive version, released by PALSOFT exclusively in Japan in 1991, is notably the only console version of the game that was actually a conversion of the arcade game, as the later PC Engine version released in 1993 by Naxat Soft was a remake of the aforementioned Famicom version. However, the Mega Drive version was poorly received by critics and was never picked up for export release. Acclaim, who owned the console publishing rights to Double Dragon II in the west, choose to skip this version in favor of producing their own Genesis version of Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone under their Flying Edge subsidiary, while the original Double Dragon would be ported around the same time to the Genesis by Accolade , leaving an unusual gap between western releases (in contrast, Double Dragon II was the only game in the series released for the Japanese Mega Drive).

While the Mega Drive version has no official credits, it is known that the sound conversion was handled by Hitoshi Sakimoto, while Masaharu Iwata, who composed the game over theme for this version, claims that Quest may had handled the actual conversion.

Gameplay

Marian is gunned down and killed by Willy in retaliation of his defeat at the hands of the Lee brothers during the events of the previous game. Swearing to avenge Marian's death, Billy and Jimmy Lee embark on a revenge mission to eliminate Willy and his gang, the Black Warriors, once and for all. This time Billy (Player 1) wears a black outfit, while Jimmy (Player 2) wears white.

The combat system was revamped from the previous game. Instead of having specific punch and kick buttons, attacks to the left and attacks to the right, with serving the jump button. Pressing the front attack button while standing will cause the player to throw a flurry of punches towards his direction, while pressing the rear attack button causes a kick. This also applies while grabbing an enemy's hair (the front attack button will do repeated knee kicks, while rear attack performs a shoulder throw) or performing a standing jump kick. Pressing the attack button at the peak one's jump will cause the player to perform a whirlwind kick, which will sent enemies from both sides flying away. Like in the previous game, certain enemies can be disarmed of their weapons and used against them and certain large objects can be picked up and used against them.

The game has a total of four stages, much like its predecessor, which consists of a heliport, a lumber storehouse, a farm, and Willy's new hideout. While most of the enemy characters are redesigned versions of the bad guys from the previous games, the bosses at the end of each stage, are completely new.

Versions

• The characters are designed on a much smaller scale than the arcade version. The Lee brothers, who were each 32x64 pixels tall in the arcade version when standing, are only 24x48 pixels in the Mega Drive version. Colors are also much darker. This was not due to the hardware limitations of the Mega Drive, as Accolade's port of the first game that was released in the west managed to preserved character scale of the arcade version, while later beat-'em-ups on the console such as Streets of Rage 2 displayed much larger characters in much greater numbers.
• The amount of on-screen enemies could go as large as up to eight enemies in the arcade version, whereas the Mega Drive tends to restrict itself to only two or three on-screen enemies at a time for each battle. The actual enemy placement is also very different in the Mega Drive, such as the second fight in Mission 1 being against a trio of Lindas, whereas there was only one Linda in this fight in the arcade version.
• The seamless transition sequences when the Lee brothers leave one stage to enter the next one are gone. Instead, the screen fades to black after defeating the stage boss and then cuts in to the start of the next stage. However, the intermission music can still be played during the options menu.
• The jumping reverse kick (performed by pressing jump and front attack simultaneously) is missing in the Mega Drive version.
• All the enemy characters from the arcade version are present, except for Jeff, a Lee brother clone who served as a sub-boss in Mission 3 and 4 in the arcade game. The Mega Drive simply substitute his appearances with more Lindas.
• The level designs for the stages are closed to the arcade version, except for Mission 2, which has a completely different layout: it is much longer and has several more conveyor belts and pitfalls to avoid.
• The Mega Drive version pauses for a second when certain enemy characters are killed just before playing their death scream. The Mega Drive version also has incompatibility issues with the Fighting Pad 6B, as it causes the player's character to move much slower than the standard control pad.
• Instead of a photograph of the Lee brothers with Marian, the ending is a black and white montage of Billy Lee fighting against the game's bosses.

Magazine articles

Main article: Double Dragon II: The Revenge/Magazine articles.

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source Computer & Video Games (UK) 67 №124, p32/33 Games-X (UK) 10 №38 Famitsu (JP) 45 Joystick (FR) 45 №24, p148 MegaTech (UK) 39 №3, p40/41 Mean Machines (UK) 30 №19, p106/107 Sega Pro (UK) 29 №4, p62 Sega Pro (UK) 29 №18, p65

	37
Based on 8 reviews

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 30 Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J 48 Consoles + (FR) 71 Console XS (UK) NTSC-J 29 Cool Gamer (RU) 50 Computer & Video Games (UK) 67 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 45 Games-X (UK) 10 Hippon Super (JP) NTSC-J 30 Joystick (FR) NTSC-J 45 Mega Drive Fan (JP) NTSC-J 58 MegaTech (UK) NTSC-J 39 Mean Machines (UK) NTSC-J 30 Mean Machines Sega (UK) 30 Power Play (DE) 38 Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-J 29 Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-J 29 Sega Opisaniy i sekretov (RU) 50 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 31

	40
Based on 19 reviews

Double Dragon II: The Revenge

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 a8bfdbd6 MD5 57169954f90bfef473f4952b9633e57a SHA-1 68dc151ada307ed0ed34f98873e0be5f65f1b573	512kB	1990-07	Cartridge (JP)

References

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