Double Dragon - Sega Master System "Full Playthrough"

Channel:

Village Monk's Gaming Memories

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Published on February 12, 2017 5:23:38 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1HOzjnQfvc

Game:

Double Dragon (1987)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 31:53

358 views

4

Double Dragon is a Technos arcade classic from 1987 and was ported to virtually every computer and console at the time from the Atari 2600, famously on the NES and even today it has been rereleased on the Xbox Live Arcade, Steam and IOS. The version that I am talking about today is the Sega Master System version which was developed and published by Sega in 1988.

The game is a scrolling beat em up which sees martial artist Billy Lee and his twin brother Jimmy fight their way through the evil Black Warrior gang in order to rescue Billy’s girlfriend Marian who literally gets beaten up in the first scene. Unlike the NES version this port sticks closer to the arcade original with none of the platforming and levelling up systems coming across here. It’s also worth noting that this version not only allows for up to three enemies on screen at any one time, it also retains the simultaneous 2 player mode, which is a bit of a rarity for the system and is great fun.

Graphically the game is colourful, smooth and has a fair bit of detail to the drawings on screen. It looks a little different to the arcade original, but overall I do like the sprites on show here. My only fault would be is the amount of flickering when there’s a lot of sprites on screen. It is very noticeable when playing 2 player.

The game controls easily enough with one button for punching and the other for kicking, with flying kicks coming when you press both together. The kick is virtually useless to me as it has absolutely no range, as well as the baseball bat weapon, so I would recommend ignoring these attacks. Punches and flying kicks seem to work best, along with the whip, dynamite and boxes. The enemies however seem to be much stronger in this version with the early ones taking around six hits before they finally die and they do have a habit of surrounding you quickly.

But to balance this Sega decided to give you a whole bunch of continues for levels 1-3, I don’t think that it is infinite, because I do remember running out before then, but you should be comfortable to reach the end of stage 3 after a few tries. However regardless of how many continues you have used previously, you can no longer use continues in the final stage level 4 – so naturally die shortly before you are due to start the level. This is the reason why I have never managed to beat this game because between the enemies to deal with, those stupid spear traps that seem to have no pattern and the final boss, I can’t get through the thing without using all my lives. I would have liked them to simply just say 3 continues for the entire game like most titles do because at least then it seems like a fair challenge. As a result I often have to use the cheat of preforming 10 flying kicks at the start of the 4th stage in order to get some continues just so I can see the end credits.

I do think that technically Double Dragon is the best scrolling beat em up on the Master System. I wish they fixed the continue system, but this is great fun with a friend and is well worth playing.

If you're interested in seeing more retro or current game videos then feel free to subscribe or check out some of my playlists:
Atari ST: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx4xxIIv8AfzF1WNCk2yjFs9SNEZUf6o3
Sega Mega Drive: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx4xxIIv8AfzY6iR6W6cRsFRt7zUlgHIE
Sega Master System: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx4xxIIv8AfySbjh71hXweL28cqu-DbR5
Windows PC: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx4xxIIv8AfxkkqPP6dWcSarH94BPrbvr

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