Double Dragon Neon

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Jonny2x4
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Re: Double Dragon Neon

Post by Jonny2x4 »

I missed out on Dynamite Cop, but I did played its predecessor Die Hard Arcade on the arcades a few times. It felt rather weird how the characters were polygonal, but it still played like a 2D belt-scroller. There was a third arcade-only game in the series (Asian Dynamite), but it was pretty mediocre based on the one review I read of the game.
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Re: Double Dragon Neon

Post by mechapop »

Gah, fond memories of Deka/Die Hard and Deka 2/Dynamite Cop in arcades. Mid to late 90's were pretty much the last throws of the arcades in my area. I knew it was coming to an end so I lived it up. A lot of times I feel 3d beat em ups don't feel right, but for some reason I really enjoyed the Deka games. Had no idea there was a third one!

Anyone play SPIKEOUT or any other 90's era 3d beat em up?

The BEST polygonal beat em up in my view was 2003's Demolition Fist.
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Jonny2x4
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Re: Double Dragon Neon

Post by Jonny2x4 »

There was also a PS2 port released under the Sega Ages label that came out only in Japan. It even had an optional mode that causes the two player characters to dress up as Ax and Tyris from Golden Axe (the Dynamite Deka series was made by the same creator).

Going back on topic, here's a new preview video by X-Play with some footage from later stages. There's a few new enemies shown, including kunoichis, another Williams skin-swap (looks a bit like Chin) and robot spiders. Yeah...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifIdtoHdGfQ
Jonny2x4
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Re: Double Dragon Neon

Post by Jonny2x4 »

New screenshots from Majesco's site. Looks like they redid the HUD a bit. Almost every new enemy shown there seems to be a skin-swap though (kinda lazy to be honest).
http://www.majescoent.com/games/double-dragon-neon
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DojoMaster
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Re: Double Dragon Neon

Post by DojoMaster »

Hmmm, speaking of which, isn't it releasing soon?

Oh, and which one of you guys wants to review this? Johnny? Steve? Cloudmann?
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Eddie MountainGoat
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Re: Double Dragon Neon

Post by Eddie MountainGoat »

Pic 6 seems to have a DD II-style punk Linda (or is it Daby? I doubt it - these guys really don't seem to have done their homework).

The new Williams skin-swap dresses similarly to Machine Gun Willy, although I'm not sure what's with the beret.

Pic 7 reminds me of the Underwater Fortress level, in NES DD II - hoping I'm right, on that one. Maybe they did more homework than I thought!
Rockman
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Re: Double Dragon Neon

Post by Rockman »

I'm trying really hard to get hyped for this one, but to paraphrase someone else in one of the other threads "once I saw that spaceship take off, I pretty much lost all hope" lol.

But, I was still holding out for a solid game, gameplay wise. With the new footage from X-play I'm seeing a weird fighting system (if anyone has seen any of my zeebo vids or read my reviews, I'm all about the fighting system), and it's throwing me a bit. There are quite a few things I've noticed from the vid, but the one thing that REALLY throws me is that the Hyper Knee doesn't knock your opponent off their feet =( . I mean, that is the move that's supposed to deal the most damage and get the opponent that's in front of you out of the way so that you can deal with the others & now it seems to only work that way under special conditions. Basically the knee has 3 new properties that I've noticed:

1. If you juggle the knee you get the "fly away" property.
2. If you hit the knee on a "stunned" opponent, they fly away
3. The knee itself induces stun if hit on a standing opponent.

That being said, a friend of mine made a really good point: None of the Double Dragon games have ever been similar from a gameplay standpoint. Not counting Arcade DD1 & DD2 (which was pretty much the same game sans the Kunio-style left/right attack buttons), all of the games played drastically different from each other. Nes DD1,2, & 3 are not alike at all and SDD plays different from every game in the series! DDA, & DDZ share a lot of similarities but the movement speed, attack ranges & hit boxes, and what moves can juggle into other moves make for a completely different experience between the two. DDi borrows from both A & Z, but it adds the limit break meter, as well as both Billy & Jimmy leveling up their moves & combos to make them to similar yet totally different characters in the end!

I guess what I'm saying is: gameplay wise I still have some hope for this game...

But design & story wise? ... really not with it =( .

Somebody alluded to it earlier & I totally agree: I think this game was essentially supposed to be Battletoads/DD 2, but for whatever reason they couldn't get the 'Toads licensing & just went ahead with it anyway. From Spaceships, to over exaggerated Abobo, to the high five system, it just reeks of 'Toad juice.
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Re: Double Dragon Neon

Post by Jonny2x4 »

Yeah, the Double Dragon series never really had a consistent fighting system, even between games that were released on the same platform (like the NES trilogy). The same is true for all their Kunio beat-'em-ups (all of them were rather different too, with the exception of River City Ransom and Downtown Special). Granted, a lot of it has to do with the fact that each game had different designers working on them (DD2NES had the same lead designer as River City Ransom), but even Capcom's arcade beat-em-ups (all of which were based on different IPs) maintain some consistency in them.

I don't think the arcade versions hold up that well to be honest, even though I still find them enjoyable for nostalgic reasons. DD1AC is really broken with the elbow punch and while DD2AC fixes this by buffing all the enemies, it ended up making the game cheap instead (the final stage in particular is almost impossible to clear without getting a time over on the factory settings). Do I even need to mention DD3AC? I actually think the NES versions have aged better despite being constrained by 8-bit limitations and a two-button jumping mechanism (DD2NES is still one of my favorites).

Going back on topic. I've seen footage of the newer build of Neon from E3 and my impressions haven't changed that much. The art style is still as corny as it was before (and the HUD probably looks even worse now) and while you might say that "the gameplay is all that matters" (which is usually a weak defense mechanism used by people when their preferred game doesn't look too hot), the game seems completely shallow mechanically speaking. I know only the first few stages have been shown, but there's almost no enemy variety (taking the same Williams character model and giving him a differently-colored shirt or an afro doesn't count) and the fighting seems rather clunky. I know the original Double Dragon was like that, but at least that had the excuse that it was made in 1987. It's almost as if the developers ignored every beat-'em-up (including Double Dragon Advance) made since then. It's definitely a throwback to the 80s and not in a good way.

Also, where the hell is Roper? How can they include Williams, but not Roper?
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Re: Double Dragon Neon

Post by Jonny2x4 »

Forum post with character models. Be warned that one of the images shown is a spoiler. Even though I don't like the art style that much, it's still interesting to see how the models were created.
http://forums.luxology.com/discussion/t ... x?id=65594
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Billy Lee
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Re: Double Dragon Neon

Post by Billy Lee »

I don't know if it is the art style as much as the concept for me. I think my biggest gripe is how Billy and Jimmy look amongst other parts of the concepts.
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