Well, I don’t know about the sales, but I know IGN didn’t give DDi a great review because the virtual controls were horrible. They said it would have been a good game the controls were better and didn’t cover a third of the screen. Other reviews called it decent I think, but Ign is one of the bigger gaming sites. Personally, I didn’t have a huge gripe about the controls; they play decent for a virtual keypad. As far as sales, unless it’s a breakout game like Angry Birds, usually most cell phone games get lost in the shuffle. DDi probably had decent to good sales, but not enough to make it a front runner.
I think Neo Geo got caught up in the SFII era, but the DD franchise itself did before Neo Geo took over when they released DDV. I feel Neo Geo had its own twist and they wanted to make DD a fighter as well. It was a good fighter and because of that they released Rage of the Dragons.
I’m sure they thought of making it a beat em up at one point, but they might have felt they would have gotten more out of it making it a fighter due to fighting games success at that time.
As far as the sprites, I completely agree with you. I really do like those sprites. I felt at that time if SNK did a new DD beat em up, those sprites would have been new and refreshing. They look more modern and would have been a good look for Billy and Jimmy. I thought I was the only one who liked it to be honest. I think what hurt it in everyone’s opinion was that it was linked to the movie and that’s probably what killed it. I’m not a fan of the transformation sprites because it’s too close to the movie but the regular sprites are just fine. Hopefully we will see more fan games with those sprites or the Rage of the Dragon sprites but no you’re not crazy. I also think people don’t want Double Dragon to lose its classic feel as well. At the same time, they would have had to eventually change it.
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