Chronicling the completion of the backlog, one game at a time.

This is Coffee from Games with Coffee, and welcome to Backlog Busting! As the tagline above says, I’m writing about the games in my backlog that I’ve completed in 2024. I’ll share what I enjoyed, what I didn’t, and whether or not it was worth my time and investment. At the end, I’ll share a Busting Grade – an aggregate rating made up of four categories: Length, Difficulty, Replay Value and Fun Factor. Scoring explanations will be found at the end of the post for reference.

The third game finished for this year is Double Dragon, the first game of the Double Dragon series. It was released on the NES and is currently available to play on the Nintendo Switch Online – NES app. Let’s dig into the report.

Here Be Dragons

Double Dragon was released in arcades back in 1987. It became an instant hit in both Japan and North America and ushered in the “Golden Era” of beat-em’ ups in the late 80s, early 90s. Technos ported the game to other consoles – the most well-know version being on the NES. The developer made many changes to the game’s story as a result of their inexperience and difficulty with developing for the system. Notably, they made Billy the sole protagonist of the game. His brother, Jimmy, became the main antagonist and leader of the Black Shadows. The game could only generate two enemies at a time and there were multiple bugs and glitches.

In the NES version, Jimmy kidnaps Billy’s girlfriend, Marian. Spurred on by her capture, Billy braves the Black Shadows to catch up to his brother and beat him up for his ill deeds. This version implements a level-up system, with more powerful techniques being unlocked as you progress through the game. Additionally, stages have been redesigned to emphasize platforming elements.

As I mentioned in my first Backlog Busting post, Double Dragon was my first beat-em’ up game. This was one of those childhood titles that I was never able to beat. It took me about 30 years to get around to it, but I finally conquered this title. Well… I had a little help from Mr. Save State and Miss Rewind haha. Whatever, a win’s a win.

Busting Report

Double Dragon, in comparison to its sequel, is a weird game. It’s also remarkably short, being four stages long. Thing is, the third stage could have been broken in half. It’s incredibly long compared to the other three. What was also interesting is that I had to level up to use new moves – something that’s nearly unheard of today. Unless I’m wrong and it existed in the past (you can mention in the comments what beat-em’ ups use a level up system!). Each move grants a certain number of experience points when they connect. You need 1000 to unlock the next move. I had no understanding of this when I was a child. As an adult, I can now see the value of these moves.

Controls are a simple affair. D-Pad controls movement. You punch with A and kick with B. You jump by pressing both buttons together. At level 2, you gain a combo finisher. You gain the ever-versatile Jump Kick and the Hair Grab moves at levels 3 and 4 respectively. Level 5 grants the Pin Punch, performed by pressing Down+A while an enemy is on the ground. Billy mounts the enemy and pummels the heck out of them until they’re unconscious. The Elbow Punch is an incredibly devastating move and is useful against stronger enemies like Abobo and Chintai. You unlock it after reaching level 6. The final move is the Cyclone Kick, an upgraded finisher learned at Level 7.

Playing this right after Double Dragon II, I realized that the series itself had platforming elements built into it. Double Dragon II wasn’t an outlier, like most sequel games. This is evident in stage three, where Billy has to jump over chasms using moving platforms. It was pretty tricky spot. I also had to navigate a surprising number of traps and obstacles – the most notable being the one at the beginning of stage four. Blocks on a stone wall move in and out of the background. Touch one of those and you get hurt pretty badly. The rewind feature on the Nintendo Switch NES app was used extensively during that section.

Billy has to deal with six enemy variations: Williams, Lindas, Rowpers and Chintai are your standard fare. Williams carries knives and dynamite. Lindas use whips. Billy can take advantage of these weapons for his use. Rowpers are like Williams, but can take a bit more of a beating. And Chintai uses punches and kicks and is a fairly strong enemy to contend with. The last two are the most difficult – Abobo and Willie. You fight Abobo most often as a mini-boss and he’s one tough customer. I had to keep my distance while using kicks, jump kicks and, later on, the elbow punch to defeat him. Willie is a cheater that uses a machine gun to fight. He’s found at the very last stage of the game, right before you face off against Jimmy Lee. The best way I found to fight him was to get above or below his line of sight before striking.

One of the best things about Double Dragon is the soundtrack. It’s flat-out amazing and nostalgic to my soul. Especially the title theme and the Mission 1 level theme . Those two get stuck in my head endlessly.

Overall, it was fun to return to Double Dragon after all these years. It’s still as hard as I remembered it, harder even than its sequel. Still, I felt it was much shorter than the sequel as well. It took me a couple of nights to beat it, as opposed to several days with Double Dragon II. This is a title that I’ll come back to in the future purely for nostalgic purposes.

Backlog Busting Grade

Length: 4/5

Difficulty: 2/5

Replay Value: 3/5

Fun Factor: 4/5

Busting Grade: C

The Backlog Busting Grade is an aggregate letter grade made up of four categories: Length, Difficulty, Replay Value and Fun Factor. A high grade means that the game in review is an excellent addition to the backlog. On the other hand, a low grade means that you can choose to pass up on this title if you wish. Honestly though, the grades aren’t meant to be taken seriously – this is just me having fun with clearing my backlog. Your mileage may vary depending on preferences, time commitments, etc.

Each category is given a score out of five. Length measures how long a game took for me to complete. 5 being extremely short (30 minutes – 1 hour) and 1 being extremely long (40+ hours). Difficulty is self-explanatory – 5 for being very easy and 1 for being very hard. Replay Value scores how likely I’ll return to play again. 5 for most likely and 1 for never touching it again. And Fun Factor measures how much fun I had with the title. 5 for lots of fun and 1 for no fun at all.