Racketboy

As a young gamer, I grew up in the arcades. And in those early years I lived primarily on the grand-daddy of all beatemups, Double Dragon.

So I was more than pleased to hear that Double Dragon will officially be making its way to the XBox Live Arcade in the near future.

The original was the first to feature two-player co-op gameplay and weapons such as baseball bats and whips to used to whomp on your enemies. It also features a number of memorable moments for classic arcade junkies — who can forget…

• The sweet sports cars revelead in your garage as you go off to save your girlfriend.
• The massive Mr. T lookalikes bashing through the brick walls.
• The adrenaline pumping as you battle two guys while on the conveyer belt that may throw you to your death.
• Trying to jump over that stupid broken bridge
• And finally ** spoiler ** battling your brother for the girl at the very end (if you play two player).

Anyway, back to the XBox port. The XBLA download will be 12.56MB and will feature “enhanced graphics” as well as online co-op mode. The co-op mode is basically a requirement as 75% of the fun comes from two-player action.

The enhanced graphics I’m not so sure about. Double Dragon is one of those arcade games that really got the right look down on the first try. I’ve never seen a console port or sequel that I’ve liked as much as the original arcade version. This isn’t just nostalgia talking here, either. It just had personality and many of the original sprites are quite iconic.

Now if they want to add support for widescreen and such without stretching involved, I’m all for that. But PLEASE do not mess with the style. And while your at it, don’t break it like Konami did with Contra.

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