When a game begins with the player's girlfriend being punched in the stomach by the bad guy, you know immediately that you're playing a one-of-a-kind game. Almost immediately after beginning to play, I was reminded with fondness of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle game that I once played at Chuck E. Cheese's. The games had strong similarities, even outside of both having fascinating storylines. Both are side-scrolling, fighting games that incorporate different types of enemies and environments. In fact, other than some minor additions in TMNT, there is really only one major difference between the two: Double Dragon came first.
A game that produces sequels can generally be interpreted as a successful game. Once that is understood, the examination can be focused on why that particular game was successful. In the case of Double Dragon, it was primarily the innovation and layout of the game that piqued the consumer's interest. Double Dragon was not the first side-scrolling fighting game to be developed, but it was among the first. Its quality was distinguishable from the others as well as other aspects that were involved in the game. For instance, Double Dragon used a highly interactive environment such as usable weapons to use and ladders to climb. This offered more variety to gamers, and as Atari so readily demonstrated, games that are supposed to be different need to have noticeable differences if companies expect consumers to purchase those games. Double Dragon was able to accomplish this by offering more interactive gameplay.
Of course, there are points in Double Dragon that can be infuriating. Once the main character is knocked down to the ground by an upper-level boss, it can seem impossible to prevent the boss from forcing the character back to the ground. After all, because it is essentially a specialized computer system, it is programmed to know, to the exact millisecond, when the character will be standing upright and vulnerable. However, with small points like that being put aside, the game is an enjoyable challenge.
River City Ransom
The theme for this week seemed to be side-scrolling, fighting games. River City Ransom certainly fits that description, but it would be folly to say that represents the game in its entirety. It actually could be said that River City Ransom has some qualities of which Double Dragon is nearly devoid.
The cast of Jershey Shore contributed to the design of the bad guys.
The most prominent of these qualities is the RPG (Role Playing Game) feature. In River City Ransom, the player is able to purchase different items that will essentially "Level up" their character. The items may boost up the player's HP, strength, or other traits, but the uniqueness lies in the player's ability to choose. This gives the player more control of the game and the path that the game will take, which is something that players tend to cherish in video games.
Another interesting quality about River City Ransom is the humor within it. There were the names of the gangs like The Frat Boys, The Jocks, and (my personal favorite) The Generic Dudes. More subtle uses of humor were the coins that would pop up from a enemy's body once they were defeated. This spot of humor in particular was actually used in "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World". The unique blend of humor, along with the RPG format, has kept this game recognizable by today's gamers and even lifted it to the lofty status of cult classic.
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