CiB Game Boy Theater - Alleyway and Double Dragon 3 (Episode 51)
2The Original Game Boy is one of the biggest 'game changers' in the history of video games, and essentially ushered in the popularity of handheld games. There are many games that will be classic forever. There are, however, a much, much higher number of simply awful, forgettable, or downright weird games. CiB Game Boy Theater shows you some of the games you might not (and shouldn't be...) familiar with.
I hate to do extremely short reviews and write-ups, but Alleyway is Breakout. Breakout has been Breakout for 40 years. Next?
Double Dragon 3 --- I hope I don't trigger anyone, but I always found Double Dragon to be one of the most overrated retro series out there. Like, the original Double Dragon (NES) isn't even a co-op game - they didn't even start that until DD2. Was Double Dragon an innovator of sorts? Oh, for sure. But does it hold up at all? I find that it does not - although I am hopeful that Super Double Dragon at least would be a passable beat-em-up game.
And here you have Double Dragon 3 on the Game Boy. Like, there are two buttons and a d-pad, so WHY is it so hard to do ANYTHING? Why am I getting BTFO instantly by any enemy, even in the first part of stage 1? I understand that there is a fine line between a game like this being too easy or too hard, and this is simply too hard, which I chalk up to bad game design. I'm sure there's some sort of a secret to not getting killed by every enemy but... why???