Double Dragon II: The Revenge

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Double Dragon II: The Revenge
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: PALSOFT
Developer: PALSOFT (Quest?)
Original system(s): Arcade boards
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

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Double Dragon II: The Revenge (ダブルドラゴンII ザ・リベンジ) is a 1989 side-scrolling beat-'em-up released for the arcades by Technos. A Sega Mega Drive version was produced by PALSOFT in 1991. Unlike the earlier NES version that was developed in-house by Technos, which was a different game with a similar plot, this was intended to be a more direct conversion of the arcade game. While this version ended up being exclusive to Japan, other Double Dragon games (including a port of the first game) were later released for the Sega Genesis by other publishers in North America and Europe (which were conversely unreleased in Japan).

Story

At the end of the 20th century, violence ruled the city after the nuclear war. The people of the city were living in fear of the Black Warriors, a criminal organization that has acquired tremendous influence. On the outskirts of the city also lived twin brothers named Jimmy and Billy Lee, who were running their own kung-fu gym.

One day, the Black Warriors were gathered on a certain spot after their usual rampaging of the city when a young woman accidentally stumbled into their meeting. The gang brutally murdered her without mercy. Her name was Marian, Billy Lee's girlfriend. With his older brother Jimmy, Billy sets out on a mission to get his revenge on the Black Warriors.

Gameplay

The game starts with Marian being gunned down by Willy. After Willy and his gang walk away off-screen, Billy (and Jimmy, if a second player is present) emerge from the garage. Player 1 controls Billy, who wears a dark blue outfit and has blond hair, while Player 2 controls Jimmy, who wears white and has brown hair.

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.

Development

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.

Magazine articles

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

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source Beep! MegaDrive (JP) 48 №1992-01, p78 Beep! MegaDrive (readers) (JP) 31 №, p85 Computer & Video Games (UK) 67 Famitsu (JP) 45 №158, [1] Games-X (UK) 10 №38 Hippon Super (JP) 30 №1992-02, p97 Joystick (FR) 45 MegaTech (UK) 39 Mean Machines (UK) 30 Sega Pro (UK) 29 Sega Pro (UK) 29 №18, p65

	37
Based on 11 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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