Double Dragon 2

STORY / GAMEPLAY
The arcade version of Double Dragon II is essentially a reworked version of the original Double Dragon, using the same engine and redrawing most of the game's graphics. The main change in the game is the replacement of the original game's punch and kick configuration in favor of a two-way attacking system (Left Attack and Right Attack) similar to one of Technos's previous beat 'emup game, Renegade. The objective is to avenge Marian's death (the girl that was kidnapped on the first game). There are four different stages to fight through that include a heliport, a lumber storehouse, a corn-field, and the gang's main hideout. All the enemy characters from the first game are back, with some of them given some makeovers such as different hairstyles or physical features, as well as some new attacks. Although its "great" name, the overall gameplay is nothing special to speak of. It gets a bit frustrating as mostly you will find yourself surrounded by several bad guys, looking to kick or punch you heavily! And more on that, you can only hit, walk or jump either from left to right (which will leave your back uncovered most of the times). Other than that, Double Dragon II (and the whole series actually) is a pretty much decent game and surely you should give it a try, just to remember the good old gaming days.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The Atari ST version features decent visuals and well animated sprites (note that the game does not run on the more advanced STE). The game's graphics use up to 16 colors on screen while the gameplay window is smaller (much like the MS-DOS version) compared to the Amiga version. But, considering that the original (the arcade) version uses almost the same color palette, this is a rather good looking conversion. The sprites move fast and the screen scrolling is quite smooth. Soundwise, the ST version offers some sampled sound effects when running on 1MB STs, while there is a brief sampled tune playing during each level loading!