AkelisRain
Member
Day 1 for this guy!
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Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
Double Dragon 4 (PS4/Steam) teaser trailer
- Thread starter SolidSnakex
- Start date
The Main Event
Member
I'm drooling.
Host Samurai
Member
My main problem with Neon was that it wasn't really a Double Dragon game, it was an 80s parady game that stared Billy & Jimmy as they fight Skelator in space in power ranger outfits. That ain't Double Dragon.
This is a cool surprise! Glad to see some classic sprites too. Nice that this isnt being limited to handheld too.
I'm guessing the recent Kunio-kun games have done well enough worldwide for Arc System Works to revisist Double Dragon. Crash 'n the Boys or some of the other Technos sports games next please! Cash in on the local multiplayer trend!
I'm guessing the recent Kunio-kun games have done well enough worldwide for Arc System Works to revisist Double Dragon. Crash 'n the Boys or some of the other Technos sports games next please! Cash in on the local multiplayer trend!
Manmademan
Member
Yep. Arc isn't stupid here. The peak of that series was Double Dragon II: The Revenge on NES.
DD1 was ok and all, but the sequel just blew minds in 1989. Nothing else in the series after it arcade or console is held in the same regard.
all bets are completely off as to "what counts as a Double Dragon game" after "Battletoads vs. Double Dragon" had billy and jimmy fighting bad guys with frogs in space, and whatever the hell Double Dragon 5 was. Hell, even double dragon III was "B&J team up with a ninja and a chinese fat dude to fight Marion in egypt as Cleopatra's ghost or something."
If that's the only complaint you have about Neon, it's STILL the second best game in the franchise.
InfiniteCombo
Banned
I'm a grown ass man, and I *still* play Super Double Dragon often on my Super Nintendo.
That Stage 3 (Chinatown) track... Too epic.
TLZ
Banned
That is awesome.
Heavy Iron Industries
Member
Love the Double Dragon 2 style.
You already have my money.
You already have my money.
Manmademan
Member
Bull. The simplicity of NES graphics work perfectly fine for some games, and some of us would prefer a game or two done in a similar style now and then without the slowdown or sprite limitations of the hardware of the era.
Dreamwriter
Member
I can see basing the gameplay on NES, but seems decidedly odd to not base the graphics on the arcade classics. It's not like the NES version was designed to look like that, they were trying to make it look as close to the arcade as they could do with the limited hardware (and their limited experience with it). And at the time it got slammed for having such bad graphics on NES.
entremet
Member
DDII was a huge thing in the NES era. No surprise it was included in the NES classic
That final level, tho. Nightmare platforming.
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
I don't mind retro looks, but DD4 looks lousy graphically. Wish they went for a "16-bit" style instead.
I disagree. I still like how Double Dragon II looks today. Makes great use of the NES's limited color palette.
DD4 looks kinda crap but maybe it's still really early...
Manmademan
Member
it's not odd at all. The NES games had drastically more exposure than the arcade games did and it's not even close. "Double Dragon" made it's name for itself with the home versions. DD2 and DD3 especially were MUCH better games than their arcade counterparts.
Making the graphics resemble arcade variants that very few people played in comparison to the superior versions on the NES would be a strange business decision.
The NES had limitations, but the game became their own thing despite that and MUCH more popular than the arcade versions.
This isn't exclusive to Double Dragon either. Contra Arcade is OK, but Everyone LOVES Contra NES. Bionic Commando, Ninja Gaiden, Rygar, Punch Out? Same deal. You're making a retro homage, you don't use the arcade versions for games like that.
so it's shit? :/
Same here... Loved that game. Was wishing we'd get a sequel eventually but I guess this is good too. Looks great, so I'm interested.
I'm a bit jealous that Double Dragon gets this treatment overseas while Kunio is always making baby steps, but oh well.
Dreamwriter
Member
Doesn't matter if they were better games, nobody from that era didn't know what the arcade games looked like, the arcade game of Double Dragon got way more exposure than the NES port. It was one of the most popular arcade games of the era, which is why it got ported to every home system known to man, including Atari 2600, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amiga, Sega Master System, Atari Lynx, etc. I don't know how anyone could think that people didn't know it was a port of an arcade game when Sega even ran commercials comparing the NES version to the Master System version, showing its superior graphics and two-player gameplay.
Wasn't DD2 a port of the arcade game that everyone loved? Isn't the reason that people bought nes DD and DD2 was because they loved the arcade game? That's not the same with Ninja Gaiden where the nes game was different and better than the arcade.
Manmademan
Member
you're missing the point. There are a lot of people for whom graphic superiority didn't matter, and the fact that the NES builds were flat out better games DID.
This is who they're catering to with the release of this game. People who remembered the NES editions fondly and want more of that.
And you're pretty offbase on the popularity of the NES versions vs. the Arcade editions. The NES userbase completely smokes the userbase of the Atari 2600, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amiga, and Master System COMBINED, and the Arcade editions of DD1,2,3 are afterthoughts in comparison to their home ports.
surprisingly no. The arcade editions of DD1 and 2 were nowhere near as ubiquitous as the NES ports of those games. People bought them because they were highly rated, incredibly fun games- and magazines like Nintendo Power hyped them pretty hard. The NES being as popular as it was did TERRIBLE things for the popularity of arcades. Those things were in serious decline in 1987-1988 and that didn't really turn around until the release of street fighter 2 in 1993.
most people- especially those that didn't live in NYC somewhere didn't have a huge arcade locally- it was more like a couple of arcade machines at your local convenience store, laundromat, or pizza parlor. NES rental places though? Everywhere.
Double Dragon 2 on the NES is VERY different than the arcade version.
The levels barely have any similarities.
I remember the first nes DD being a dissapointment and DD2 being anticipated only because it was finally a port of the arcade game.
crimzonflame
Member
fuck yes
No, I thought nes DD2 was a port of the the first arcade DD.
Manmademan
Member
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Dragon_(video_game)
nope. DD1 was well received when it launched. It's one of the definitive titles on the NES. We're not talking about forgotten shit like Trojan. And no, DD2 as great as it was, was still nowhere close to being "the arcade version at home." There is a HUGE gap between arcade and home titles of that era. But expectations were different.
Oh hell no. the games are WILDLY different. Have you ever played these?
Mechanized
Member
This looks goddamn amazing. Good to see they're drawing inspiration from the best version of the game DD2 NES.
Played them when they came out. ☺ Nes DD2 was the first time they copied the arcade game play then? The first nes DD had different game play iirc. It was not quite as bad as the first Turtles nes game, then the sequels copied the arcade game play.
Alex_Mexico
Member
What the hell I just checked. IGN gave DD Neon a 3 out of 10??? What were they smoking!? I bought and enjoyed that game so much! I mean it's not "great" but it certainly not a 3/10!
Jesus!
Jesus!
An absolute garbage review, just like when they reviewed God Hand. DDN was reviewed by a self-proclaimed hater of beat 'em ups.
They play kinda similarly in the most basic sense but they're still different games. And I don't think the arcade game has either the flying knee of doom or the patented flying spin kick!
Manmademan
Member
NES DD2 was the first time two players could play through the game as co-op. But the gameplay was still substantially different than the arcade. DD2 Arcade and NES were barely the same game at all- and most gamers never saw DD2 Arcade. Many people wildly overestimate just how many arcade machines there actually WERE back then.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcade_game#List_of_highest-grossing_games
while I don't see double dragon on that list, Ms. Pac Man and Street Fighter II only being around 150-200K machines should give you an idea of just how few machines of things like Double Dragon actually existed in the wild. The NES version was the ONLY one for the vast majority of people who played that series.
from Hardcore Gaming 101.
Virtually EVERY NES game had different gameplay from their arcade counterparts. There are a lot of reasons for this, and not all of them are technical. Getting gamers to drop a few quarters into a game that only lasts 20 minutes is a lot different than getting them to drop the equivalent of $70US on a game cart.
The NES versions of the games I listed are a lot more fleshed out with extra stages and mechanics that didn't exist in the Arcade. DD1 was a different experience than the arcade, but still a solid game in it's own right. DD2 and 3 are flat out better than their arcade versions and not by a small margin.
shysaursoft
Member
Or, like MM9 and 10, it's something people say they want, get, play to completion, and are glad they did. Considering on Steam less than 40% of people bother finishing games like Skyrim or even linear shooters like CoD, if you can get anyone to play anything for more than five minutes, that's an achievement even in the triple-A sphere.
It's so weird how people will poo-poo things they don't personally like or are interested in, and then pretend like the whole world has their same exacting tastes.
Skeletos311
Junior Member
I used to be a huge Double Dragon fan when I was a kid. I wanted to go to the arcade and play DD1 and 2 every weekend. I played the hell out them on NES. I remember seeing DD2 in Nintendo Power and waiting for it to come out. I remember renting DD3 and wondering what the hell they were thinking.
Dreamwriter
Member
I didn't know of a single person who thought the NES version of DD was better than the arcade. Me and my friends all thought it was bunk - it looked ugly, was only single player, and didn't start off with all the moves. People bought the NES version because they had an NES, not because it was the best version. If these guys are catering to sone mythical segment that thought the NES version was better than the arcade, they are going to be severely disappointed.
NES only sold double the Atari 2600's 30 million, and C-64 sold 17 million alone, but my point wasn't that more people played it elsewhere, my point was that nobody bought the NES game without knowing that it was a popular arcade port that was being ported to everything known to man, and knowing that it's graphics were horrible compared to the original. People don't think of Double Dragon as an NES game/series. I think most people will be like me, totally surprised by the way this trailer starts out showing the NES Double Dragon and not the arcade.
In the US arcades were everywhere, in every mall, theater, bowling alley. And arcade machines were in every grocery store, restaurant, convenience store. They weren't just in big cities, until the mid 90's arcade games were huge business. I grew up in a small town, in the mid 80's (NES era) we had two dedicated arcades in that town, one in the mall and one in a different part of town next door to a movie theater. Plus a Showbiz Pizza Place (similar to Chuck E. Cheese, an arcade-themed restaurant for kids with animatronics).
CrispyBoar
Banned
Sweet; The series is resurrected once again! First with Neon, now with this!
Can't wait to play it.
Can't wait to play it.
dragonzdogma
Member
The arcade sprites are junky compared to the NES games. Especially Abobo if he's in this game. I hope to God Abobo is in this. He's the series mascot in my eyes.
NES Abobo
Arcade Abobo
Arcade Abobo just doesn't do it the same.
No you didn't.
Never has post hurt this much since I joined gaf.
Double dragon graphics are perfect like merry popins.
Cool that the graphics are nes for dd 4 , but I did wanted arcade like graphics.
If the game play is as crisp as dd 2 on the nes we should be good to go.
Jack The Nipper
Banned
I disagree. I still like how Double Dragon II looks today. Makes great use of the NES's limited color palette.
DD4 looks kinda crap but maybe it's still really early...
does the release date being next month mean early or not to you?
Dreamwriter
Member
Abobo rocking those skinny jeans!Arcade Abobo
Manmademan
Member
we're talking about the userbase of double dragon home ports. How many people do you think were buying Atari 2600 and commodore 64 games in 1988? A dozen?
you'd be wrong. This is like saying "people don't think of Contra as a NES series!" when they absolutely do. The vast majority of the userbase for that series as well as double dragon was on the NES, not in the arcade.
I already posted a listing of the best selling arcade machines of all time, and those things weren't anywhere near as common as you're implying.
Street Fighter II is the best selling arcade machine of all time. It sold 200K units between world warrior (60K) and championship edition (140K). (edit: forgot about Pac Man and Space invaders, which were in the 300K to 400K range).
Mortal Kombat only sold 51,000.
Star Wars Arcade and Gauntlet were barely over 10K.
Double Dragon doesn't even appear, and i'd be surprised if it was over 2K units.
Comparing it to a NES game on a platform that was likely around 30-40 million units sold in 1988 is insane. even a complete bomb on NES could rack up 80-100K units without much difficulty- and nearly anyone could play anything for 3 to 5 dollars thanks to rental.
Freshmaker
I am Korean.
Criminally overrated.
