Double Dragon

I'm staying on my Nintendo kick at this time with the arcade beat-em-up Double Dragon.  Developed by Techno and then published by Taito, Double Dragon was originally released in the arcade in 1987 before being released on the Nintendo in 1988.  While not one of the biggest franchises on Nintendo, it did spawn four direct sequels, a movie and cartoon before the 3D era of games came along.

The game follows the brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee (Billy is the only playable character in the NES) as they fight against the Black Warriors who have kidnapped Billy and Jimmy's love interest.  You go through different levels defeating the Black Warriors before finally reaching their boss at the end of the final stage: the evil machine gun wielding Willy.  On the original Nintendo, after defeating Wily you have another boss to defeat: you brother Jimmy Lee, who is in effect a clone of you, for the true final battle to see who is the better brother.

So you start off in the streets and fighting a few random goons.  They aren't too difficult to defeat, but with each one you beat another enters the screen until they are finally complete.  You move forwards from their to reach the first armed enemy: the whip lashing Linda.  Linda is the only female character in the game but isn't very kind to you, she tries just as hard as anyone else to beat the tar out of you, including bringing a whip to the fight.  To make things a bit simpler against her, you can climb the ladder next to the door she comes out of and just wait for her to climb up.  Hit her when she's close and she'll fall off the ladder but leave her whip, once you pick that up, you're in good condition because you can just wait for her to climb and use it to knock her off.  Unfortunately you don't get to keep the whip past beyond the fight, so once the last Linda is defeated, whip goes byes. 

Continuing on you start fighting more enemies and by this point you should start having enough experience to level up.  Every time you beat up on enemies, you gain a bit of experience and are able to level up and learn more moves.   The levels are displayed using hearts beneath your health bar, the move you have, the more moves you can do.  You start with only the ability to do a basic punch or kick, but quickly unlock the uppercut and spin-kick and then the all powerful jump kick and grab. 

So after being up on another group of enemies you get to the outside of the warehouse and the last section of the level.  There are a few more Lindas, but the first one has a whip, so one good kick gets you an effective free out of the fight.  You beat up the girls and then the warehouse door opens for the end of the level.  After entering it, you have to fight two more goons before the boss appears:  Abobo.

Abobo is a big guy who is all muscle and he just pounds on you most of the game.  He eventually becomes a normal enemy, but for the first level he's the boss.  I started by trying to jump at him to get in close, but being the terrifying enemy that he is, Abobo just punched me out of the air.  Ouch.  But at least the game is a bit kind here, it gives you a quick way to beat him, the pit.  By getting him on the conveyor belt, you can let him sit near the edge and knocking him down once beats him for the level.  That is in fact the way I defeated him, because I don't really want to get beat on by the big guy. 

So another game is played and I shall continue on tomorrow.  I will keep moving with the Double Dragon series and continue onto the first sequel on the Nintendo for the start of the weekend.  Adios for today though.