Game:

Double Dragon II (1988)

Duration: 3:00

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56

Okay, so we've gone through on the whole sampling of the gameplay, up through the duration of what "Practice" difficulty entails. Now it's time to get a little further into the nitty gritty of it all. You've seen Billy and Jimmy run amok on hapless thugs aplenty now, using way more than a simple attack plan obviously covered by the "punch, kick, jump" controls, so I figure that some explanation is owed.

This stage is where the game pretty much starts getting more demanding of your attack patterns and general approaches to enemies...I mean, you can keep carrying on with the "punch, kick, jump" deal, but you'll eventually be ground down to the point where Game Over is inevitable as the game continues. I suppose technically then that the "difficulty" system of shortening playtime does have some merit in that sense, but still...I can't help but find it more than a little misleading.

Right then, on to the particulars. As stated in the beginning, the controls are highly contextual...and this goes much deeper than the mere idea of the attack buttons being dependent upon player facing.

Pressing either attack while jumping will produce a jump kick. Pressing either while at the precise apex of your jump, you'll perform a devastating spin kick attack.

As you kick or punch an enemy, you'll notice that they will double over in pain. If you walk into them, you'll latch on to them and be able to perform several different follow-up attacks with the hapless foe. You can knee them in the face with the use of a forward attack. You can bash them with your elbow by holding down as you use a forward attack. You can kick them high into the air by holding up as you use a forward attack. You can throw them backwards over your shoulder by executing a backwards attack. None of this applies to the larger-than-Lee-brothers enemies, however.

The brief moment of crouching when getting up from being knocked down or landing from a jump also creates an interesting opportunity. Pressing punch while "crouched" will make your player character perform a powerful rising uppercut. Pressing jump at this point will trigger a ridiculously devastating flying knee attack.

You'll notice that enemies are allowed to freely crouch to avoid most of your more complex and devastating attacks.

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Mission 4: Undersea Base

This stage is pretty...striking. Very strangely upbeat music compared to the rest of the game. The opening couple of thugs actually use a rarely-seen projectile weapon. It's definitely important to avoid remaining in line with these guys when they start backing away from you, at any rate.

The second segment of the stage is accompanied by what has to be the *strangest* perspective shift in the whole game...that elevator ride is...just wow. But anyway, you're in a simple two-dimensional tunnel with a spiked ceiling, so jumping is now impossible. You can still perform uppercuts upon rising from being knocked down, but this makes fighting certain enemies a challenge, to say the least.

The mid-boss of this little tunnel is...well, I don't know. A lot of people like to joke about him being an Arnold Schwarzenegger knockoff, but my pet name for the guy has always been "Mitch"...yeah, it's ridiculous, I agree, but I swear his belt buckle looks like an "M" to me. So yeah, I don't know what I'll call him, but he is a bronzed bodybuilder type with some moves and range that will defy simple reprisal on our heroes' part...so we took advantage of the fact that two people punching at once from opposite sides proves impossible for him to deal with. Hooray for that!

The little "arms" that fill the corridor pas this point will deal a whole block of health at once.

There's actually a little hole you can use in the final parts of this section, but it won't actually serve you as well as you might think against dodging daggers. It may or may not be useful in tangling with the enemy Abodo, though.

Strangely the next screen will replenish all your health...but of course it really doesn't mean anything as there are no more enemies between it and the end of the stage.

Incidentally, this *might* be a case of one difference between Warrior and Supreme Master...if memory serves, the conveyor belts are faster on Supreme Master, meaning you can't walk fast enough against their flow to inch your way along, whereas in Warrior you can. Just a little food for thought on how it changes the dynamics of this one screen, anyway...and of course, if anybody can confirm or reject this recollection, I'd be most appreciative.

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