Title: Double Dragon IV
Genre: Violent, Action
Developer: Arc System Works
Publisher: Arc System Works
Release Date: Jan 30, 2017

They say you can never truly go back to your youth. That we view everything through rose-colored glasses. I think this is why the retro game revival has made so many people happy. Hell, the last two games we reviewed both callback to different times, while still being original.

Double Dragon IV tries the same thing, but something about it simply doesn’t work right. If I had to describe the game in a single sentence I’d put it like this: “I like Double Dragon IV, but…” And it’s that but that really brings down the whole experience.

We’ve covered the news about Double Dragon IV since it was announced some time back, and as with so many retro-inspired games coming out it was really fun to hear that one of the greats was returning, but keeping that classic look and feel. The idea of more core classic Double Dragon sounded nice, especially with the issues the series has had over the years (Neon aside), but maybe the past should stay, well, in the past. What may have worked in 1989 might not work so well thirty years later.

Double Dragon IV is more a mishmash of the classic Double Dragon games instead of being something completely original in the same vein. The screenshots look nice, but in reality the game never really fits like a complete puzzle. Instead, you get character designs of Billy and Jimmy from Double Dragon II that almost seem lifted directly from that game as opposed to being re-drawn.

This isn’t a big deal as Double Dragon II was the best of the classic NES series, but other characters seem to come from other games, or are completely new. This means there isn’t the visual and graphical cohesion that one would expect. It sometimes feels like a fan-game that pulled sprites from various games to make something new.

“Double Dragon IV is a masterclass in cutting corners and playing off nostalgia”

This mishmash could be overlooked in some cases, but the biggest problem is that things don’t look right in motion. This has nothing to do with the animation as it all looks fine, if basic, but with the world and backgrounds. Since this is a new game you’d expect new locations to be put together for each level, with a few classics revisited. The thing that really bugged us was with the new levels designs.

Instead of keeping things classic and creating everything like so many pixel artists do with their retro-inspired games, Arc System Works decided to simply take photos and images and simply lower the quality, add a pixel filter and call it a day. Some of these backgrounds really stand out as you can spot them from a mile away compared to the actual drawn/created sprites. There’s simply no reason that a game of this nature needed to rely on such cost-cutting measures.

Speaking on the cost-cutting, the level design is also pretty mediocre and there doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to any of it. It all sort of just seems slapped together in a hurry which is a shame as the first two Double Dragon games had some memorable moments that revolved around specific areas and stages. I even thought I glitched out during the first level when I jumped onto a floating barge.

The game locked me in place for an unbearable amount of time while it traveled to the right side of the screen. This is one of the cases of poor level design as that barge served no purpose other than to take up space. Why not let me move about or have an emery or two jump in adding some tension with the possibility of falling off? It’s simply a weird taxi service that had everyone that played the segment ask what went wrong.

The game is also surprisingly easy for the majority. This is strange as the Double Dragon games were arcade games and thus their difficulty was always on the high side. This also translated to the NES and other platforms. In Double Dragon IV I made it to level six without wasting a single continue on solo play. Everything in Double Dragon IV just feels so quickly put together that I had to set up the NES here in the office and play the first two games just to compare.

My findings are that Double Dragon IV doesn’t hold a candle to those titles and that those don’t hold up all that well themselves. Things need to make sense as a whole and this game simply feels like a lot of assets from various places mashed up.

The gameplay is at least passable, keeping to the Double Dragon basics without really adding anything new or of value. Playing the game with an Xbox One controller things came with some strange issues. There are six keys to map: a punch, kick, jump, and three special buttons.

But for whatever reason the game simply won’t recognize the triggers on the Xbox One controller. So you can use the shoulder buttons, but you’ll have to assign one special to the face buttons. Not a game killer as fighting is classic Double Dragon, but it shows how badly implemented things are in Double Dragon IV. There are also some really strange issues gameplay wise that make no sense.

The enemies in the game will not be able to touch you or come near you when you are on the bottom plane of the screen. I really got the feeling that there was nobody on QA on this title, or at the very least, nobody listened to them. The A.I. is also completely idiotic as they will simply walk right of the edge of the world.

And if you fall off a ledge you can expect a few of them to follow you along. But you can also exploit this by going to the bottom and walking to the edge of a ledge and watching enemies commit suicide, boss or otherwise (see video below). Oh, and to top it of there is no online co-op which I suppose keeps things classic, but feels like a missed opportunity.

But the biggest problem I had, and one that required me to go into the Steam forums for help, was that fact that the game starts windowed with no video options anywhere in the menu to adjust. The square tab to make the window bigger was even grayed out. The game does have a video options menu but the only thing you can adjust is the filters for the game. How does a developer drop the ball so much that your game can’t play in full-screen mode? Thankfully the forums had the answer and hitting Alt + Enter will get you into full-screen.

The sound is also inconsistent in the game. The new music is okay for what it is, and you at least have the option to switch on the retro tracks for a more authentic experience. Where the game screws the pooch is in the sound effects. For whatever reason there are a number of sound effects that simply aren’t in the game. Elevators are deathly silent and the massive chopper early in the game must be running in silent mode. There are just so many weird issues with the game that keep pulling you out of what should have been an incredible experience.

A number of issues with Double Dragon IV can be worked out with a patch, but I don’t know if fans will have the patience to wait that long. I know the game is only $6.99 but there are free fan games of the Double Dragon series out there that are better, more polished and more fun than what we get here. I should also note that there are a number of extra modes like a cool VS Mode (probably the best part of the game) and Tower Mode, but these are extras and if the core game isn’t that good these all the extras in the world make up for it.

It’s a shame that Double Dragon IV couldn’t live up to anything it was trying to do. It’s not a terrible experience (just a bad one) but it misses that mark of what makes NES-inspired retro games good in the modern-day. Stick with Double Dragon II or if you really want, or pick up Double Dragon Neon. Look, I’m a sucker for nostalgia but I simply can’t overlook the amount of cut corners that Double Dragon comes with on PC. I love going back to the past, but it’s 2017 and we’ve come a long way. I don’t want my new retro-inspired games to play like its 1989, I just want them to look like they were made then.

“Double Dragon IV is a masterclass in cutting corners and playing off nostalgia”

Final Score:
2/5

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