Double Dragon Longplay (C64: Ocean Version) [50 FPS]

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AL82 Retrogaming Longplays

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Published on January 13, 2013 2:11:30 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtIOfjBGwt0

Game:

Double Dragon (1987)

Duration: 29:59

18,033 views

137

Developed and published by Ocean in 1991.

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I've already done a longplay of the terrible Binary Design version of Double Dragon on the C64. What I didn't know is that another version by Ocean existed; according to rumour, this version only existed on cartridge and didn't get a full retail release in the UK. I've done a longplay of this version as I was very curious to see whether it was any better than the Binary Design version.

The good stuff first then: the sprites are bigger and better defined; more combat moves are available and are much better animated (which isn't saying much); certain enemies attack in in different ways and there's some really good music from Barry Leitch and Ian Howe that plays in each of the stages.

The bad stuff: the character sprites faces are laughable; it looks like an elephant has sat on Billy Lee's head and it's given him one hell of a double chin. Most of the opponents don't have mouths and some of them appear to have breast-like curves...I think those might be Linda from the arcade version. The crowning glory has to be the Abobo sprite though, who looks like Dr Robotnik joined the Village People and is camping it up big style.

The coders included jump attacks, but they've mapped the jump button to the space bar, so if this were a real C64 you'd be sitting with joystick to fight and having to hit the space bar to jump and hit the fire button to attack; not a great solution.

Probably the most glaring problem is the fact that some of the levels are only half the size that they should be, which is not doubt a constraint of the C64. Bigger sprites with more animation and music meant that something had to go, but half the level?! The final boss doesn't even has his own sprite graphic; I thought the game had bugged after I'd knocked him down for the 20th time, then realised that it must be the boss.

I don't think the game even has a 2-player mode...

I know I've criticised this game, but it's still many times better than the Binary Design version. I guess it's a shame it only featured on a cartridge (and a cracked disk version that didn't work properly), but now we can all see what it looked like.

Enjoy!
#retrogaming

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