Double Dragon II: The Revenge (NES)

Difficulty - ***1/2

Controls - ****

Graphics - ****

Sound - ****

Overall - 15 1/2 out of a possible 20

You thought you put an end to the Shadow Warriors for the last time. But following the nuclear war that ravaged the cities the Black Shadow Warriors resurfaced! And this time they've gone too far. They gunned downed your girl Marion! With your martial arts burning for vengeance you grab your twin brother Jimmy and hit the streets to exact revenge!

First and foremost, you won't find a better two player beat 'em up game than Double Dragon 2. While its not the most difficult game in the series, that's not too say this is a pushover. Far from it. You'll be begging for mercy when you hit the various jumping aspects of a few stages. The game also sports three different difficulty settings ( Practice, Warrior and Supreme Master). You can also select whether you and your partner can actually beat each other up! (watch those cyclone kicks Billy!)

You get a plethora of moves too. Ten in fact. You punch, kick and throw enemies with ease and you can execute your super moves more often than not (its not the easiest to perform a hyper knee as you're getting up, trust me!). Jumping can be a pain if you're not careful. Like a lot of other games from its time once you jump, you're committed to it. Whether that's you barreling off the rooftop of a building or into a pit of spikes.

Graphically, the sprites are rather good. The enemies are easy on the eyes and the larger boss' are just imposing! (the various Abobos') The stages all look nice and eerie for a post nuclear ravaged era (my favorite being the Mansion of Terror, a dark Japanese pagoda. Oooh scary!) Note however there is some flicker and screen tear. Too many enemies on the screen at the same time will do this. As well Billy and Jimmy are just colour swaps of one another. No big deal really, they ARE identical twins.

You get some great butt kicking tunes too! You'll be hair pulling and punching some guys as you sing along. The end battle theme gets you charged up and ready to fight. The various sounds for the moves you execute are great too (you know you've executed a hyper knee when you hear that sound.) Too bad the Acclaim team couldn't add in some death cries or something. That would have been really neat!

This beast of a game will have you jump kicking, face smacking and spin kicking for hours of great fun! You'll be treated to some great scenery as you hear some really memorable music. Although the protagonists are just a colour swap of one each other, the boss sprites more than make up for that. If you have a friend who likes these kinds of games, go out and seek revenge as Billy and Jimmy. Remember, throwing your enemies off of buildings is perfectly acceptable in a post nuclear world!