Double Dragon Neon (XBLA)

This week is still XBOX Live Demos, but we will be seeing XBOX Live Arcade games, specifically.  Slightly longer of an experience, and a higher cost in the end, but will they be worth shelling out that extra cash?  We'll see!

Hit it or Quit it?

Year: 2012 -- Developer: WayForward Technologies: Developer: Majesco

First Impression:

From the description and screen shots, the gameplay looks like pretty standard Double Dragon beat 'em up. What's interesting it that's a crazy looking cel-shaded art style. Also, it looks like there may be some shopping/upgrades involved.  Text says the game has 10 levels, I'm expecting to be able to play the first one.    I'm hoping for solid controls, maybe even some decent combos, otherwise pretty much just walk and fight, walk and fight.

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Fooled around for:  20-25 minutes, Demo ends right before 2nd level boss

Hm, where to start.. How about HOLY CRAP THIS GAME IS AWESOME!  It's not even just that I've been playing 20something year old games before graphics and even design could catch up, many of those still really fun, just lots of them aren't.  Best Double Dragon ever!  It was so much more than I even expected.  It has this ridiculous 80s vibe throughout, and the graphics style is so fitting.  It's cel-shaded, but everything still has depth and weight to it, so it really feels like you're actually hitting them.  

There are power moves and stat upgrades via Cassette MixTapes, that you collect, and the more your collect, the more that particular move upgrades.  Each Mixtape even has a song that plays as you select it, and those are almost good enough to just listen to themselves.  You can equip one power move at a time.  They are all pretty sweet so far, and help get you that edge.  The combos are fluid, and string well together.  When you successfully dodge, you get Gleam, which grants double power for a few seconds.  

The music is awesome, and cheesy, the sounds and voices are great.  There is a shop to buy MixTapes at, though they look like they can get pretty expensive versus just finding them.  The text throughout gives the impression that it knows how cheesy it is. 

Co-op is called Bro-op, if that gives any indication to how this game views itself.  And when you play Bro-op, you can tilt the right stick at the same time to do a high five.  Depending on which direction, you can share life, steal life, or something else I forget right now.  I think something with Gleam and double power.

Okay, I need to calm down, I'm just so hyped on this game.

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Hit it or Quit it? (800 Microsoft Points)

Not only would I buy this game, but I'm also going to leave the demo on here as a reminder to buy it, and also to just play the demo every now and then, it's that awesome.

Hit it like Jimmy and Bimmy hit Marian from the front and the back.. at the same time.

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One quick side note:  

I was looking up something about this game, and stumbled across the IGN review.  They only gave it a 3, saying it was awful.  They said the controls were clunky and the platforming was miserable.  They said they disapproved of the difficulty, basically saying it should have been easier, since it was a new-school remake.  Maybe later in the game, these things become more apparent, but for now, I'm sold.  It felt like Double Dragon++ so far, so if it's a little hard, whatever.  It's not any harder or more annoying than the earlier ones.  Also, they complain that it's 10 bucks for an hour's worth of game.  Yeah, grinding for MixTapes may get boring, but there is some replay in that, just to see how powerful you can get.  Also, people pay out the ass to go be entertained for 2 hours at the movies, so $10 bucks for a 1 hour shot that you can still pick up whenever you want doesn't sound like too bad of a deal.  

On the plus side, the community has it rated at 6.4.  G4 has it at 4 stars, and metacritic is sitting at 75%.  Not super awesome great, but certainly not 3. Wtf.

Alien vs. Predator (SNES)

Hit it or Quit it?

Year: 1993 -- Developer: Activision -- Publisher: Activision

First impression:
Like the last review, I know nothing about this movie except that most people seem to think I should have seen it.  Intro storyboard screens.  Aliens attacked humans, humans called for help, the call fell upon the predator.  I'm guessing platformer again, like Alien 3.

WHOOOOA, beat 'em up.  Really?? WTF.  Looks cheesy as hell, but it's definitely a beat 'em up.  Looks look sticky controls and repetition.  Not expecting much, but maybe it will surprise me.. like an alien popping out of a chest.. or something.

Also, the music is super annoying.  I can't tell if it's supposed to be the movie music, but it's just shrill, and when it's not shrill, it's repetitive.

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Fooled around for: 10 minutes
For the Predator supposedly being such a badass, in this game, he just sucks ass.  The game starts as soon as you press start, no lead-in, just a sampling of the three power-ups you can get.  One is a projectile blade thing, one is generic meat-on-bone and the other third might be the worst power-up I've ever seen.  So the predator is supposed to be awesome and go stealth, right?  Well, that's the power up, except all it does is make it so you can't even see your own sprite to fight with.  WTF!  It's more like a power down.

What a great idea!  

The controls are even worse than I anticipated.  If you are button mashing, as you tend to in games like this, you can't even turn around until you seriously just stop pressing the button for a second.  The combos are clunky, the other pick-up weapons suck.  You can start a grab by either pressing X or just standing next to them, so right as you think you are going to hit that sweet combo, you just stop and grab them and stare at them.

I tried the Continue method of Always Be Jump-kicking, and it definitely doesn't work in this game.  In a startling turn of events, the CPU enemies actually know this tactic and use it relentlessly.  And they have a longer reach than you, so they can hit you before you even get to them.

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Hit it or Quit it?
I already don't like beat 'em ups that much, unless it's really breaking the standard mold somehow, but this one not only makes me like them less, but I also don't want to see the movie.  Quit it with stealth on so it doesn't see me leaving in the morning.

Double Teamed - Brawl Brothers (SNES)

Year: 1993 -- Developer/Publisher: Jaleco

So this is a first for this blog:  I doubled teamed a game with my brother today.  Went all Family Style on it.  Other than breaking the continuity of my playlist, and handing picking a few games that were 2-player, the format is the same.  We play a game for a fairly short amount of time, make some judgments based on this short amount of time, and move on.

Also.. There's pictures!  There may not always be, but I hope to at least catch the title screen and other funny/interesting shots.

From Across The Room:
We waited and waited for a demo mode, or some other splash screens or something, and nothing.  Apparently the game does not think we need to know anything about it before hand.  Based on the name, we guess it's likely to be a side-scrolling beat-em-up.  Watch it be a Airplane Simulator...

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Played for:  15 minutes

Hit it or Quit it?
Well, it wasn't a Flight Sim.  I guess it was a beat-em-up.  Well, it was.  But, considering how many are out there, this was definitely just another generic beat-em-up.  Walk, walk, punch, punch, jump-kick, special, repeat.  I've never had much patience for these in general because from Final Fight to The Simpsons Arcade Game, they all just seem the same.  Pick a big, slow fighter or a small quick fighter.  Pick up items and weapons, and just beat up repeating enemies, and super hard bosses.  I don't know what I'm expecting for there to be different for me to be interesting. Maybe some of the extra elements that games like River City Ransom have.. Get money, purchase items, leveling.  Just something else.  Even if I was going to play something as standard as this, I would end up playing something "classic" like Final Fight or Double Dragon.

As for this game though, it is was it is, and that's about it.  Graphics are okay.  A couple characters look like rip-offs from Street Fighter:  Huge, beefy Ryu and Black M.Bison (see picture below).  The music caused anxiety and was pretty annoying.  The graphics were pretty standard for one of these, but I would say excelled slightly in the animations.  Rip-off Ryu's normal punchpunchpunchpunch combo actually had about 5 frames of different poses to it.  Also, there was a button labeled "?" in the Control Options that turned out to be some weird pose.  Caught a couple screencaps of those too, for what it's worth.

Past that, quit it.  Even double-teamed, this just wasn't that fun.  Too generic when there are other games like this to play that might even feel a little more fulfilling.

Angry Mode??

Rip-off Ryu rocking the devil horns!

Black M.Bison eating chicken.. of course!

The Adventures of Batman and Robin - SNES

To add just a little bit more oomph (Google Chrome doesn't think that's not a word.. weird) to these "reviews", I'm going to start tracking the year and the company(ies) that pop up on the splash screens.  Then maybe I can start to get to know who is to blame when a game is terrible, or who to look forward to when it's good.  Also, sometimes a came just comes out too early in the console's life cycle, and it never had a chance because they didn't know what they were doing yet with the hardware.  That said:

1994, Konami

Also, I think I might start giving a little "Book by the cover" judgement before I play.  Seems to fit with the theme, and considering the awesome cover that Actraiser didn't follow through on, and the trap that was Addams Family Values, it seems appropriate.  That said:

The music sounds good, but it's Batman score, so it should.  The "demo shot" is about 3 seconds of Batman punching a couple guys.  Looks like boring level designs, running from left to right.  Punch/Kick repeating enemies, get to the boss that's probably too hard to care to beat.  Maybe you get to use Robin, not that it would make you the game any cooler.. who wants to be Robin?  I'm also betting there won't be anything cool in the way or Batman gadgets.  The art and animation actually look pretty good though.  Let's see what happens!

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Played for:  15 minutes

Alright, well.. Boy, was I wrong.  I guess after a week of shitty, can't-stand-them games, I was jaded and assumed the worst.  I should have known Konami could put out a good game.  That 3 second demo scene certainly did not do the game justice.  First of all, there ARE gadgets!  A bunch of them actually.  It's like the game slapped me in the face with them for trying to think there wouldn't be.  They all don't matter that much at the beginning of the game, but they are there.  There are so many moves, too.  Rolling, wall-jumping, throwing, grappling with your hookshot.  It's just plain fun to play because there is so much to do.  The bad guys weren't annoying, and they went down easy.  The level design so far was pretty fun.

There's actually a story and some direction, unlike most of the games so far,  There should be with Batman, but I was worried they would just leave you hanging, assuming what's going on.

The only reason I stopped now is because of this crazy scene with the Joker while you are RIDING ON A ROLLER COASTER.  WTF!  That's only like the 2nd level too.

Graphics/Animation are awesome, the music keeps you pumped, the cut scenes are entertaining.  It controls great, there's a bunch of stuff to do.  I will definitely say this was quite the surprise.

Hit it or Quit it?
I don't know if I've got bad-game goggles on from so many horrible games before this, but I would hit again with no remorse.  It was so fun to play, I probably wouldn't even care if I didn't get any further and just played the first levels a few more times.