Growing up playing video games in the 80s and 90s, I’ve played my fair share of side-scrolling beat-em-up games. Final Fight, Battletoads, Bad Dudes – they’re all games where my journey took me from the left side of the stage to the right, beating the snot out of anything that got in my way. One of my favorite side-scrolling beat-em-ups has got to be Double Dragon, and thanks to Aksys Games, all of you young whippersnappers will finally get to see what a real side-scrolling beat-em-up looks like when it hits the iPhone next month.
Double Dragon iPhone won’t be an exact replica of the game from the 80s, instead, it’ll have enhanced artwork, music, and a couple of extras thrown in such as achievements, new attacks and new bosses. You’ll still play as Billy or Jimmy as they fight their way through the Black Warriors to rescue Marian, but you’ll also be able to unlock some hidden characters which I’m hoping will be Abobo since playing through the game as him would be pretty sweet. Although, I don’t think Marian would be too happy seeing one of the biggest and baddest characters in the game “rescuing” her.
As you can see by the screenshots, the game will have an on-screen controller placed underneath where all the action will be taking place, similar to how SEGA has been placing the controller in their games. And seeing as how Double Dragon was always better when you played with a friend, you’ll be able to play a local multiplayer game of Double Dragon iPhone over Bluetooth.
I’m hoping Aksys Games can deliver a great Double Dragon experience on the iPhone. A new coat of paint, sounds, and moves all sound great, but hopefully they can get the core fighting mechanics down as that’s what made playing Double Dragon so much fun.
