Double Dragon Neon (Xbox 360)

While the original Double Dragon beat ’em up was released in 1987, it never felt like it was a product of the times. Sure, some of the fashions character wore were big in the 80s, but nothing particularly overt would tell you it was made during that time period.

Double Dragon Neon tries to make up for that by embracing the 1980s as hard as it possibly can.

Created in 2012, Double Dragon Neon takes a look back at all the things we now consider indicative of that period of time and its culture and mushes it together into an over the top action game that still remains pretty faithful to the formula of the Double Dragon series. Brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee are back as the protagonists, and this time they’re delightfully corny meatheads perfect for dishing out the cheesiest jokes. Quick to call each other some of the lamest insults like butt weasel, goob, and prince of butts with their ridiculous style of delivery, there are plenty of great lines from these two parodying the most extreme cases of 80s slang and attitude. What’s more, the main villain of the game is just as over the top. Skullmageddon kicks off the action of Double Dragon Neon by sending some goons to kidnap Billy’s girlfriend Marian, and when you manage to encounter this fearsome looking skeleton fairly early on… he calls you a peanut and has the same voice as Skeletor from Masters of the Universe. Incredibly powerful but delivering punchline after punchline as he resurfaces over the course of the game, he quickly became one of my favorite comedic villains I’ve faced in a video game.

Beyond the deliberately silly writing and line delivery, Double Dragon Neon manages to capture many of the aesthetics of the 80s very well. Unsurprisingly, neon and its associated colors like bright pink and dark blue are common in menus and environments, and the soundtrack especially draws inspiration from popular music of the time both in direct parodies and the common instrumentation of the era like guitars and keyboards. There’s a button combination to beat box or break dance just for the sake of it, and the game’s action is unafraid to go for the rule of cool, the boys already fighting in space fairly early in the game and taking on tanks and helicopters with just their fists later on. Even for people who only know the 80s by reputation, both the authentic and silly elements represented in Double Dragon Neon give it an enjoyable atmosphere and enhance the action by adding an extra layer of pronounced personality to the affair.

Billy and Jimmy’s abilities aren’t too extensive, but they are a good fit for the brawler action and can be augmented in quite a few ways. You have a light and heavy attack, the weaker one being speed and combo focused and the stronger one slower but dealing more damage, and if you combine these with jumps, dashes, or use them on prone enemies, you can execute different maneuvers like a jump kick, shoulder tackle, or a finisher on a fallen foe. You are also able to grab and throw enemies, the same button being used for picking up items you find in the environment to use against enemies. Weapons are often much stronger than your basic attacks and easier to deal damage with but they will break after a while, but some have different traits to make their use more interesting. Some are simple bludgeons like a wooden plank, others like the boomerang and fan are thrown as projectiles, items like the whip have more range, and as you might expect, there are some more ridiculous weapons featured as well. The enemies with big afros can drop their hair picks which you can then toss at another enemy to deal damage and have it stick in their hair, and if you steal one of the guns being fired at you, Billy or Jimmy will pick it up… by the barrel and swing it like a club. Enemies can use the same weapons as you and are often your source for them, and similarly both you and the enemies can be hurt by environmental hazards such as spiked rollers, explosive barrels, or deadly drops.

These basic attacks are a good fit for most of the brawler action and augmented often enough by introduced items to stay fresh, but the contexts for them also continue to shift to keep things interesting. Most of the time you’ll be on a tilted plane for your battles, but sometimes you might be locked into a two-dimensional fight with bad guys coming from each side. You pack a dodge roll and duck to get away from them, the player even able to get a brief double damage mode called Gleam if they do so with expert timing, but the enemies come in decent numbers and pack different gimmicks to make these battles more interesting. The fan throwing geishas teleport around and assist the packs of simpler baddies they often accompany, the muscular man Abobo can survive plenty of damage and can really crowd a battle if there are hazards you need to avoid, and the women with rocket packs will fly above you, harassing you if you don’t knock them down to where you can properly combo them. Bosses take things further in having designs that can break away heavily from the regular brawler formula. The Giant Tank boss involves you having to scale it in a platformer section as different parts fire on you, the player needing to break the weapons to make the ascent easier. The Mecha Biker zooms around on a motorcycle for the first part of his fight to make him hard to hit, and the Killacopter is mostly a matter of dodging telegraphed abilities. Even the bosses that embrace the regular fighting mechanics tend to bring something interesting to the fight while also ensuring their fairness by having tells or patterns to identify, Double Dragon Neon’s most hilarious character designs saved for some spectacularly silly but challenging battles.

Besides just the simple goal of beating every enemy in your path to get to the next area, Double Dragon Neon has a few collectibles and secrets that can help you along your journey. The biggest way this manifests are in the mixtapes enemies drop, these providing special abilities and stat enhancements based on which ones you have equipped. Stat enhancements take the form of Stances, these altering your strength and defense mostly but some have unique effects like making weapons last longer or powering up your moves if you avoid getting hit… but the one that lets you heal with every attack you land is hard to justify not having equipped. The special moves range from fireballs and spin kicks to giant screen covering dragons, but they rely on a special meter to execute that gradually fills up as you fight so having the option to execute more small attacks can make you pick them over the bigger, stronger options. As a nice touch, each mixtape actually has an associated song to it, these being fairly short but a few are very catchy like Training Wheels and Bomb Toss. Batteries can fill up your special meter if found though, with soda recovering health and additional mixtape pickups of the same type powering up the effectiveness of the associated magic or stance.

Despite a few moments that involve timed platforming, Double Dragon Neon clearly wants to be played in co-op, and while it features the expected multiplayer benefit of one player being able to revive the other if they’re killed (by way of rewinding a cassette tape with a pencil), the high five is a much more interesting two player mechanic. Based on how you set up the high five, you can either split the duo’s health evenly between both players, have one player outright steal health from the other, or you can get a free Gleam boost without any dodging required. Many fights are made much better with having someone who can distract some of the enemies, but the single player experience isn’t overly difficult so much as more reliant on Gleam and good mixtape setups. It seems some players think a grind is required to get these tapes powerful enough to make the solo run feasible which could be true on the highest difficulty, but there are plenty to find naturally or buy from the stores without going out of your way. Things like the Tapeworm that drops tons of goodies the more you hit it help as well, but it is always possible this reputation for the game comes from those trying to play it like a button masher brawler rather than one where dodging and special skills are more important. Double Dragon Neon isn’t a brainless beat ’em up despite its main characters being lunkheads, and that’s what helps make the action all the more interesting.

THE VERDICT: Double Dragon Neon constructs a solid brawler out of good enemy arrangement, interesting boss design, and the mixtape ability system, but what makes it more than just a fun beat ’em up is the cheesiness and style. The 1980s are in full force here with homages to the sounds and look of the era and parodies of the most over the top aspects of the decade’s culture, making for a game that’s both incredibly hilarious and packing a great soundtrack. The gameplay mechanics aren’t the most ambitious, but they work well as a way to experience the action and aesthetic on offer.

And so, I give Double Dragon Neon for Xbox 360…

A GREAT rating. The humor and flair really make Double Dragon Neon. While the fighting is definitely good enough on its own, if you weren’t fighting upside down helicopters or having Skullmageddon make bone puns throughout, it would certainly be a lesser game. Wayforward made sure to have a well constructed foundation to support the jokes and visuals though, the brawler gameplay changing up its context and foes often enough that it keeps engaging the player mechanically as well as with the weird and wacky story. It’s definitely strengthened immensely by having someone join you for the playthrough, either because you can laugh at the jokes together or overcome the tougher spots with the high fives and tape rewinding, but it still has enough to appreciate even if you have to pay more attention to dodging and windows of opportunity as you play solo.

Double Dragon Neon’s commitment to fun is what makes it such a blast to play. It’s not just telling jokes and it’s not just providing a bunch of bad guys to beat up, it’s mixing the two together into something that mixes proper game design with parody and loving tributes to the past with ridiculous battle concepts. With both hilarious heroes and villains, Double Dragon Neon’s powerful personality makes it much more than a well put together beat ’em up.