After successfully beating the bejesus out of the Shadow Warriors, Billy and Jimmy Lee were about to come face with another plot-advancing situation. Specifically, the leader of the Shadow Warriors would resurface and kill Billy’s girlfriend, Marian. So naturally, Billy and Jimmy set out to bring down the Shadow Warriors once again and avenge the death of Billy’s girl. Plot lines like this can only mean one thing…2-player co-op baby! Good news for anyone who enjoys playing a beat ‘em up with a friend. Gone is the tacked on level up system that limited the fighting techniques you could use early on in the game. In turn, you’re freed up to cut loose and make use of every skill your character was given, including a couple of new moves like the Hyper Uppercut and the Flying Knee Kick. When I first played this game many moons ago, I was happy to see that they preserved the Whirlwind Kick. It’s a personal favorite of mine.

The gameplay elements haven’t change very much since the first game. You still progressively move forward to each mini area until you’ve reached the main boss for each stage. How far you get in the game depends on the difficulty setting you select; Practice, Warrior, or Supreme Master. The practice mode has only 4 levels, Warrior has 8, and Supreme Master has all 9 stages.
Just about all of the enemy characters have returned from the original Double Dragon, most of whom received a facelift to give them a fresh look for this sequel. Williams, Roper, and Linda are back to get all up your grill; however, there are several new enemies either making a new appearance or replacing some of the originals. For instance, the character Bolo is actually the replacement for Abobo in the arcade version the same game. One of more interesting new characters to the game is Abore. This guy not only specializes in looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger fresh off the Commando movie set, but he also has a mean shoulder tackle that can do much damage if you get caught off guard. I don’t think I need to tell you to watch out for this guy.

The control layout is one that isn’t very common in games of this genre. Instead of the A and B buttons being dedicated punch and kick commands, it actually depends on which direction you’re facing. When facing to the right, A is the punch and B kicks; when facing the left direction, B is your punch and A is your kick. Sound confusing? Well it isn’t really. Even so, it can be a little hard to keep up with which button does what if you constantly keep switching directions in an effort to fend off enemies attacking form both sides. This usually results in the player inadvertently leaving themselves wide open to taking extra hits and knockdowns.
As was the case in the first game, you can jump by pressing both buttons at the same time. You can also pull off aerial attacks like the jump kick and the Whirlwind Kick. The tricky part is knowing how to time it so that the move you want to try actually happens. It can be a little frustrating when you’re tying to fight off attackers from both sides with a Whirlwind Kick, but you instead keep doing the simple jump kick. But my biggest gripe about the mid-air mechanics is when it comes to the platforming elements that were thrown into the game. It’s not so bad in the early parts where you’re jumping across a rooftop or two, but things get ridiculous later when you’re forced to jump across disappearing ledges and oddly placed conveyor belts.

The visual presentation is much more appealing than the previous game. For one thing, the story is told through cut-scenes at the beginning of each stage. While the script itself isn’t all that spectacular, the style of storytelling ends up having a slight resemblance to Ninja Gaiden and provides a nice break from the action for a second or two. More importantly though, is the work that went into the in-game graphics itself. Everything takes on more of a gritty appearance with darker outlines and color shades. All of the characters have a more defined look and less of the cartoon feel, though it’s still pretty funny to watch a Roper’s body jerk when you keep kneeing them in the gut. And of course, Billy and Jimmy look much better than they did before as well. The character sprites are bigger with more lifelike animations than previously.

Play or Stay? At the end of the day, Double Dragon II is a worthy sequel that was developed a lot better than the previous game. The 2-player co-op is a welcome addition and makes playing with a friend a much more pleasant experience. The new fighting techniques, enemies, weapons they carry keep things fresh and interesting through the entire journey. The audio aspect could have used a little more work and I could have done without those frustrating platforming portions, but neither of these problems overshadows the excellent effort that went into this particular port of the game. Will it show up on the Virtual Console? Only time will tell.