racketboy.com

I think I've decided to play Streets of Rage 2 and Double Dragon Neon again. Neon is either a games you love or hate and I love it.

Has anyone tried the new Double Dragon 4 that came out last year?

I got it on Steam day 1 and latter double-dipped on PS4, it was heavilly criticized but my only gripe was some graphical inconsistencies.
The game is fun but not polished, there's a endurance mode called Tower that you can unlock NPCs to play on Arcade mode, it's rad.
Go for it, it's cheap and a good weekend fun

I think Double Dragon Neon is best on its second run through. It feels the most balanced. The highest difficulty is, well, difficult to the point of being less fun. I still enjoyed it, but you're seriously going to test your skills. I think I stuck with Training Wheels almost the whole way in that mode, otherwise you just get hit way too hard.

I really like Guardian Heroes, although the game can get really tough as well, at least from my memory. I'm not sure I ever beat it, but I know my brother did. I have it on 360, so that might be one worth playing through for real.

As far as handhelds go, I'm having a hard time thinking of really great ones, but I will say that the Game Boy Double Dragon was actually far better than you'd expect. And anyone that loves Double Dragon in general absolutely needs to play Double Dragon Advance. Another surprisingly good brawler on GBA was Star Wars Episode III. I think there's also a DS version. You'd assume it was licensed trash, but it's actually not!

Poking around, apparently Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure is really fun. Kinda in the Astro Boy vein where it's a side-scrolling beat-'em-up/platformer. I also liked Konami's TMNT games on GBA. Again, single-plane beat-'em-ups with platforming elements.

Sarge wrote:As far as handhelds go, I'm having a hard time thinking of really great ones

Yeah I'm not too great as a resource there either, but GBA has quite a few:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gba/categ ... beat-em-up

GB/GBC to a lesser extent:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gameboy/c ... beat-em-up

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gbc/categ ... beat-em-up

Sarge wrote:Poking around, apparently Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure is really fun. Kinda in the Astro Boy vein where it's a side-scrolling beat-'em-up/platformer.

I have this and can confirm that it's actually pretty fun. It's been a while since I played it, but I recall it doing a good job following the Dragon Ball storyline (at least it did as far as I played), so it would probably be more fun for fans of the show. But casual players would likely enjoy it too.

RCR on GBA is fantastic, though the karma system does make it very difficult to get the "good" ending. There are way too many cool things you aren't allowed to do if you're going for karma.

The combat felt a little different to me with the GBA RCR. Not sure I like it quite as much as the NES version.

Speaking of the NES, while I'm on my Double Dragon kick, all of them are worth playing. That's right. All of them. Sure, the platforming can be pretty frustrating, but I just love the feel of the combat. DD2 is the best. If you're really up for a challenge, give DD3 a shot; pretty sure that's the only version of DD3 worth playing. (The Game Boy version is absolutely awful and broken; avoid unless you're like me and morbidly curious.)

Final Fight, of course, might be even more recognizable, but I've never been a massive fan of the original (it's still good, just not amazing). I do, however, love Mighty Final Fight. Give that a go, along with Final Fight 3, to see the best that series has to offer.

The best Double Dragon II is on PC Engine Super CD. The soundtrack is a little... odd... but the gameplay is this weird midpoint between the arcade and the NES. It plays a touch faster than either, and the gameplay is smoother than the arcade by a good bit.

I actually don't care much for that version. I know, that's pretty weird. I much, much prefer the NES game. It feels a lot more varied as an experience.

NES Double Dragon II is a very good game, so there's certainly nothing wrong with liking it.