Following the 2D Ninja Gaiden revival with the excellent Ragebound, Double Dragon Revive feels more like a series tribute band than a true tour. It doesn’t recreate hits as you remember them, instead giving everything a different feel – from how it looks, to how it sounds, to how it plays. All of these aspects not only fail to meet my admittedly subtle expectations for the fresh Double Dragon, but after many hours of its disharmonious wandering, they have begun to reinforce my belief that perhaps we should keep a little more distance between attempts to revive this series.
Even though I’ve been playing these games most of my life, I’m a little annoyed by the simplicity of Double Dragon Revive. Side-scrollers of this arcade-style “bar-scroller” variety have found plenty of ways to spice up the punch-to-the-right recipe, and Revive seems interested in keeping as much of this fresh spice off the plate as possible. It’s a basic protein with eight unbranched levels, accompanied by a starch that’s filling but has almost no sauce.
Selecting any of the four playable characters is basic and intuitive, and normal strings of attacks can be assigned with a single button, along with special attacks and hyper punches that can be used to interrupt these combos or, in some cases, extend the attack with a wall-bouncing juggle. All of these actions are unique to each warrior. Well, Billy and Jimmy Lee have differences that don’t translate into mechanical differences, but the former lady turned head, Marian, and ninja enemy Ranzo have attacks that are a bit more flashy and utilitarian. However, I rarely felt the need to apply more than basic combo loops on normal difficulty. As long as the enemy didn’t have an annoying shield or hyper-armor protecting them when they ended up in a major attack (something ubiquitous in later levels), they were reliably vulnerable to a good old-fashioned punch to the face.
The options for those looking to style these street thugs are circumscribed, but they all rely on bouncing enemies off walls to keep them in the air long enough to land more hits once they fall. It often felt like enemies, when fired or thrown, simply went where they wanted rather than where you told them to go, doing the tedious task of trying to set up basic combo extensions, shoving enemies into background environmental hazards that instantly eliminated them from the fight, or using the super powerful wall punch and wall crash options.
There are also no air combos, so chasing a launched villain upwards only allows for one disappointing ground strike, so you can wait for them to get up and let you hit again. Anyone can get a free hit on downed enemies if you can find a finicky button prompt that’s unresponsive and unreliable. If there’s the right kind of wall around you – the right kind is the one they decide is right based on the lack of reliable contextual clues – you can make a huge aerial attack, but even the wall kick required to gain the required height is a dice roll.
Each has powerful, screen-clearing finishing attacks that are charged by all punches, and buffs are granted when you dodge at the right moment, counter a immense enemy attack, or enhance your combo meter. However, no playable character, not even one with Ranzo’s explosive kunai or Marian’s charging knee, will keep Revive’s combat unique, or even engaging, for long. It took me about three hours to complete my first playthrough, and I lost interest much sooner after three more playthroughs, one for each playable character.
That said, the enemy variety is varied to say the least, and effectively forces you to apply the petite menu of available options. As the levels progress, ancient bad guys appear and mix with newer ones, creating a sort of street thug gumbo that can get a little hot by the end of the run. It’s very much a numbers game where you’re often overwhelmed by the sheer number of hits coming from all directions. I liked the little puzzle of having to identify the most hazardous threat to take out first, or finding the most proficient way to get as many people as possible into a large attack, but it wasn’t captivating enough to make me forget that the process of taking down these guys was still pretty monotonous. Even a whole range of limited-use weapons, although it’s usually worth reaching for sturdy tools when something happens, include standard knives, two-by-fours, sledgehammers, etc.
As the challenge grows, some of Revive’s jokes become their own enemy. Little things like your character sometimes inexplicably heading in the opposite direction stop being a quirk you can work around and start being the reason you drop a combo or get penalized.
Bosses break up the monotony a bit by introducing slightly more engaging stage hazards and pattern mechanics, like Linda, who you have to shake off the pillars she’s hiding on before you can attack her directly. However, they do become quite brutal towards the end, especially with the boss in chapter seven, which has to be the most infuriating fight I’ve ever had in one of these games – a real test of endurance in the face of a constant onslaught of some of the most cheating cheaters the game has to offer.
Visually, there’s not much flash either. Most of the character models look good, but the fire, wind, and dragon effects that come out of their limbs as they transfer chi are a step behind in terms of quality. Camera work and sound design complement each other just right to make the large hits and all that jazz feel good. The soundtrack is decent, with some original riff rockouts and remixes of jams from ancient series that sound good in the moment but kind of leave your head immediately after they’re over. Overall, Double Dragon Revive doesn’t have the visual identity that 16-bit Double Dragon Gaiden or even the pastel-punk Double Dragon Neon have, let alone its peers like Shinobi: Art of Vengeance and Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound from this year.
The stages you travel through have a much wider variety. The colorful Japanese pagoda-style tower with a fun change of perspective halfway through is basic, but much more moving than a nondescript level of highway, even if there’s a wrestling ring at the end. Some of these zones require platforming, which I was never content with, but fortunately in compact bursts. It’s a bit perverse that most of these stages are just typical locations from the series, this time without much of a novel style added, but it’s really disappointing how many of these locations are just dull and lifeless.
And not being one of those “the story in this fighting game sucks” weirdos, but it’s true. It’s not that the plot is nonsense, the characters are dull, and the script is destitute, but more that Revive lacks the confident and cluttered energy that’s necessary to sell this kind of thing. Post-apocalyptic villain Neon was a demon knight gang leader straight from the cover of a hefty metal album called Skullmaggedon. The gang fights in Gaiden made this version of New York feel like Gotham City, with color-coded thugs and themed after their oddball bosses. In comparison, Revive is just a completely tame and underwhelming story about recurring villains Willy and Raymond, who used obscure magic and the military-industrial convoluted to experiment on humans and make the life of the Sousetsuken kid worse.
