Double Dragon II
Double Dragon II is basically the pinnacle of the beat 'em up genre on the nintendo. It came out in 1989 and the only other beat 'em up I enjoy as much as this one is River City Ransom. I've played Double Dragon II more times than I could count and I'm almost always in the mood to pop it in for a quick game before work or a night out. Obviously this is the sequel to the first game which was relatively average. This game though introduced a new system of fighting. In the first Double Dragon there was this really unconventional experience system. You couldn't even do a jump kick in the game until like the second level! That's pretty absurb in my opinion. This game does have some quirks too, depending on the way Billy is the facing, the buttons change. This might take a little while getting used to and I sometimes have Billy back kick the air when I meant to punch the thugs in their ugly faces. Oh well at least that mistake is one of the less costly ones.
Yep this is basically the story, but it's motivation enough for me to play the game again and again.
The Shadow Warriors only kidnapped Billy's girlfriend in the first game (and it is quite the site to see too), this time they've gone and killed her. Poor Billy just can't get a break in his life. Well he's off to avenge her death and if you have a buddy to play with ya, he does it with his twin brother Jimmy. Billy's all ready to go into the turf to kick some thug ass and what does he see? These thugs choose to cartwheel towards Billy. I mean seriously what is wrong with these guys? Maybe they are trying to play some mind games or something. I know if I had a girlfriend that had been killed and I saw my enemies cartwheeling towards me, I would be on the ground in a fit of laughter. Those thugs would then proceed to kick my ass. I think that's their mind game, to pysche out Billy. It doesn't work though because he turns around and gets his composure back and then beats on them. Billy has a variety of moves in his arsenal too. He can punch, back kick, and do a jump kick. Sounds pretty basic, but he knows some more advanced moves such as the power uppercut, knee blaster and the (infamous) spinning cyclone! The grab is another option, but it can't be used on everyone. This game never leaves me clueless as to where I should go because a hand pops up and points me in the correct direction, even if it's extremely obvious.
Billy continues to lay a hurtin' and yes the game has a odd glitch where the top of the screen will just appear at the bottom of the screen sometimes. I also don't know how he gets behind that chick.
Here we saw Billy throwing one of the thugs and then using the spinning cyclone to knock the butch chicks off the ladder. This is always a effective tactic to use against the enemies. Hey the game gives me four measley lives, so I need every 
advantage I can get. This first mission isn't very challenging though so losing a life on this level should not be a problem and if I happen to lose a life by some fluke (usually by falling into a pit) I reach right for the reset button. If I lose a life in the first three misions I'll just reset the game because this game really doesn't make room for any mistakes. If one is made early the game severly punishes the player for it later. That's when the lives are really needed. Also this is a pretty quick game it only takes me usually a few minutes to get back to where it was and 
it's the same thing over and over. I don't know why this game has such a hold on me. After beating on tons of street thugs Billy is now allowed to climb this ladder and of course there are more enemies to beat on up there. As soon as he gets to the top more chicks come out of this door and now they are getting serious as one is carrying a chain. After knocking them on the ground though, Billy can pick up the chain and use it on them. The chain is very powerful and anyone hit by it dies on the spot!! It's too bad that the chain just disappears out of his hand when the particular enemies that brought the weapon are vanquished. I guess that might make the game too easy, so Acclaim decides to sacrifice realism for challenge. I guess I'm okay with it, but it would be nice to use the weapon longer than a few seconds. At least I have the opportunity to use the daggers the cartwheeling thugs bring as they are becoming more serious as well, just not serious enough to stop that infernal cartwheeling. The daggers are quite damaging too. They often whip them around and I like to whip them right back at them.
Billy has absolutely no remorse over violently launching a dagger into a street thug. He then calmly ascends another ladder.
Billy uses some strategy here as he suckers two stupid thugs down the ladder and then knocks them off into a pit. Using the lead pipe would of been fun though.
After this it's about that time for the big bad boss encounter Billy was expecting sooner or later. It's basically just this big goon in a mask that has basically two attacks. He can be annoying sometimes though, but there is no real threat being defeated by him. Even if he uses a little trickery of his own. When Billy thinks he's got him defeated the guy comes back for more. Knee blasters are fun to use on this guy, but there really isn't a set way to do. Billy basically randomly does one if I have him jump around a lot. It can bring the game to a standstill, but it's sure exciting when I do deliver one and it comes accompanied with a nifty sound to tell me that I really laid the smack down on my opponent.
You're dead now man and the rest of the shadow warriors seemed to have escaped in a helicopter and I'm definitely inspired to continue playing.
Billy is now at the second mission, but it's not really anymore difficult than the first one though. This really is a pretty quick level too. This level also contains more of the thug whacking fun we've all come to enjoy so much by this point right? Regardless, two street toughs think they got Billy sandwiched here and were planning to pummel Billy to death, but Billy pulls out his back kick and knocks the guy off into the pit. He then proceeds to pummel the other guy for even thinking his miserable life was going to end at mission 2. Billy then scales up the pipe and as he is climbing up the last one a giant helicopter approaches him from the right side of the screen. In a panic Billy climbs back down and all of the helicopter's fire completely misses him and continues to miss him. I always found it funny that the helicopter seems to have no pilot. I guess that's the why the shots seem so un-aimed. Anyways it stops and then unloads thugs two at a time. Apparently that's a better idea than having them all swarm Billy. Well if we have learned anything from this coverage we know that we can use Billy's spinning cyclone to make them all look like fools and knock then into the pit. I figured though that I would have a little fun though because why play if it's not fun. I remember from past games that the chicks that get dropped off are carrying these explosives and I love using them. Instead of embarrassing that one way I shall embarass them another way.
Billy is greeted at this island by our usual thugs, but they've got concealed weapons this time. One of the thugs whips these nunchakus at Billy, but they are dodged. I was laughing at the goons for missing the nunchakus and then they came back and hit Billy in the back. Aparently these are some sort of boomerang nunchakus. I'd hate to see a army equipped with these deadly weapons. After putting all of the goons to the grond 
it's time to take the elevator down to the lower depths of this base. Things get really cramped down here as there is a very low ceiling and spikes blanket it. Right after walking out the door, Billy is greeted by the martial artist thugs that I really haven't talked about before. It's a fight for survival here as Billy must rush one of the thugs and kill him before the other approaches behind him. After beating up a few of those guys, big army dude comes out from the right. I guess I always saw him as that because of his green pants. Anyways due to the confined area this can be a really tough fight, one where a life could easily be lost. I've had Billy get trapped in the corner by this guy and he'll just deliver shoulder block after shoulder block. He also uses a chop attack often. I've established a pretty effective tactic against this guy though. I use the mainly defensive back kick as a offensive manuever. I have Billy rush the guy at the door (turn his back) and deliver the back kick while moving back towards the opposite wall. It worked better than it had ever worked before and he died just before I got caught in the corner.
There are a few things in this game that will basically make it impossible to beat the game in the first few runs. After several plays though stuff like this is laughable, but the first time I saw that it freaked me out pretty good. I also don't know why Billy's health got restored. I guess it's just to add insult to injury if Billy does fall to his doom. Anyways Billy is now in the forest of death and the chicks are here to welcome Billy to the forest with a chain to the face. Billy not so politely returns the favor and continues on.
He sees a a thug standing at the bottom just waiting for him to jump down and challenge him. Billy does one better, upon landing he immediately unloads a power uppercut on the fool. He also falls to his death as well. I guess it was tactless to do such a thing, but Billy's girlfriend had been murdered. Ethics aren't the highest on Billy's list of things to think about today. After descending down the ladder Billy takes out a few more goons and has to cross a river. This poses a bit of a problem because Billy never learned how to swim in his life. I'm not sure how deep the water is, but Billy sinks immediately if he goes in the water. He'll have to make a series of jumps to get across instead. The game presents two ways of getting across. Billy can get across in two jumps by taking the upper route or the lower route which require a few more jumps. I take the lower route as it just feels safer. I recall many times not being able to make the second jump on the top route. Regardless falling into the water always sucks and it's definitely a shame to lose one there.
There have been too many times when I had Billy battering this guy with punches and then he'll hit me with the over the shoulder toss and there goes a life. Well after that's over with, Billy continues on to the right and is introduced to some new thugs as well as a very dull background.
After defeating them a odd contraption appears. It moves back and forward off the screen, has moving belts and pipes that shoot steam. I remember this being a struggle for me back in the day, but now this is just another laughable confrontation. This odd contraption stops when Billy reaches the top and out the door come my now favorite thugs, the ones with the fire crackers. Another massacre involving fire occurs of course. Afterwards Billy kicks the crap out of more martial artist thugs and the boss of the area is the army guy again. It's funny to knee blaster this guy off the top of the contraption and watch him have to jump his way back up only to be knocked right off again. I have to give the guy credit, he doesn't quit until he's dead.
jump onto the first conveyor belt and then just jump right for the last one (skipping the middle one). Going one by one creates more problems than what is really needed at this time. After that room is completed Billy appears in a room and is greeted by the usual goons, but what makes this much more interesting is the fact that the floor starts to dissipate and it has no problem doing it right under Billy's feet. Billy is then challenged by a guy we haven't seen since mission 1. It's the masked goon and it's back for revenge. Billy disposes off him rather easily and the guy gets to rest his tired body upon the aforementioned bed o' spikes. Billy is quite the thoughtful person don't ya think? Luckily for Billy he can make it into this door without the fear of the floor going anywhere because it stops disapearing at this point. Upon entering the door it's yet another trap room and this one is pretty complex looking. He really has to keep track of a lot of things here as the gears stop and start and that spike kicks around too. The mission ends in a big room with a few confrontations with the usual crew and the army guy again. He always seems to be popping up as a boss character. Back in these days I guess it was acceptable to re-use the same boss over and over again. The Shadow Warriors wouldn't be able to get away with this today though.
