Double Dragon (Lynx) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
83A playthrough of Telegames' 1993 beat 'em up for the Atari Lynx, Double Dragon.
Played through the normal mode on the medium difficulty setting.
Double Dragon for the Lynx is an interestingly mixed bag compared to the other ports of the game. It is quite accurate to the original arcade game - more so than the Genesis or the Master System versions were. This is probably because the developers focused on being "pixel accurate." The graphics are unscaled, 1:1 representations of those used on the original arcade cabinet. Awesome, right?
Yes, if you want to be impressed by absolutely massive sprites on such on a small screen, Double Dragon on the Lynx looks fantastic. The Lynx was a hugely powerful piece of hardware, and it had arcade ports that oftentimes put offerings on the SNES and Genesis to shame. That's probably not at all what you'd expect from an Atari handheld released in 1989, but seriously - the Lynx was a sprite-crunching beast. Just check out any of its pseudo-3D games, and make sure catch your jaw before you break it on the floor.
The problem is that the original runs as the standard arcade resolution of its time - 334x220 - while the Lynx is equipped with a super-blurry screen that displays at 160x102. This means that while you get an up close and personal look at everything, there is *a lot* that you can't see at any given time. Enemies constantly lurk just off-screen, and lining up attacks can be difficult because of it. It also makes it a bit too easy to go jump-kicking yourself into pits.
That's a real shame, because the port is very good overall. The Lynx's piss-poor sound engine makes a valiant attempt at recreating the original's soundtrack (and limitations considered, does a good job at it), and the controls are rock solid.
If it weren't for the limited screen size, this would have easily been the best port of its day. Actually, it probably still is the best direct conversion of the arcade game of its era - it's just too bad that it is still as flawed as it is.
*Recorded using Retroarch shaders for the look of the original hardware. Yes, it really was that blurry, and the contrast really was that poor!*
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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