Metascore

Mixed or average reviews - based on 20 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 28 Ratings

  • Summary: Double Dragon: Neon is WayForward's love letter to the decade that spawned the franchise.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 20
  2. Negative: 2 out of 20
  1. Sep 21, 2012
    90
    This is a game that is massively enhanced by drop-in/drop-out co-operative play offline, with a future patch promising to bring the same experience to online players as well. Average players will probably complete the first difficulty level in 2-3 hours and disappointingly, the only real replayability here involves beating the game again on a harder difficulty setting. But even with that in mind, Double Dragon Neon is easily one of the most polished PSN titles available to date, and if you don't at least give it a spin (kick), then the joke is on you.
  2. Oct 8, 2012
    85
    Neon is probably the best Double Dragon game yet, and it contains enough great elements it to warrant a sequel or two.
  3. Sep 13, 2012
    72
    The controls are not refined, but it's nostalgic, engaging, and worth the ten-dollar asking price.
  4. Oct 9, 2012
    40
    It's the grinding that honestly made this game more of a chore for me than an enjoyment. If you need that old-school fix, there are better ways to do it on both PSN and XBLA, and you can just download and listen to the songs through your iPod or something if you really need the flashback. I just can't recommend it beyond the die-hard Double Dragon folks… if any of you are still out there.

See all 20 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 9
  2. Negative: 1 out of 9
  1. 10
    A surprisingly excellent game. This game should not be seen as some cheap port or a quick cash grab for nostalgia. This is not the failure of the TMNT remake from a few years ago. Instead, it is a lovingly produced game with many references to Double Dragon and many other classic video games, and comedic (and sometimes just silly) use of the 80's setting. It takes many cues from classic beat-em-ups but adds a nice upgrade mechanic and a number of selectable special attacks. This adds enough depth to motivate you to play all the way though as you enjoy the scenes, over-the-top story, and amazing music. Don't be put off by some of the screenshots or gameplay videos, it plays great. Cheap, deep enough, and super fun! Enjoy! Expand
  2. MFZ
    8
    I'm on the last stage as I write this. If you like the old school game, you'll love this. 'Nuff said, really. I don't know why people are writing a huge amount about this game. The graphics, sound, control, and gameplay are solid. Don't let some of these weirdos steer you away from this game with their ridiculously negative reviews of it. There are very minor issues with hit detection, but not what some of these guys are blowing it up to be. Expand
  3. 5
    I can't help but feel that this childhood memoryn has been somewhat diminished, the game is way too easy even on max difficulty and the audio of the game is plain awful, cheesy one liners and an evil guy with a British voice. On the Plus side, the fighting is solid and entertaining but that's as far as it will stretch. Expand
  4. Imagine, if you will, an 8 year old little boy sitting on the floor of his brown carpeted room surrounded by GI Joes and Ninja Turtles in front of a 300 pound, 24 inch television. He inserts his neighbor's copy of "Double Dragon" into his NES and presses the "on" switch. The screen blinks green and black repeatedly. So, he takes the game out of the system, blows on it and puts it back in. He hits the power button and it works!

    After getting through the title screen and its kickin rad intro music, he marches his in game sprite to the right, punching and kicking his way through street thugs. Then, he loses a life. Then another. Then another. Then he gets a "game over" screen and has to start over from the beginning.

    4 hours later, this 8 year old has had one of the best times of his short life, even though he barely made it past the 2nd stage.


    I have a lot of fond memories of wasting away hours playing really hard, really bad videogames. The nostalgia is wonderful and it fills me with joy to remember the innocence of my early days as a gamer.

    However, those memories are just that: memories. My gaming palette has evolved. In 2012, I expect a game to have responsive, smooth controls. I expect collision detection to make sense. I expect QA to eliminate game breaking bugs.

    Double Dragon Neon fulfills none of these expectations.

    2D beat em' ups died sometime around the end of the Super Nintendo's life cycle. Games like Final Fight, Streets of Rage, and Turtles in Time had pretty much evolved the genre as far as it would go. Somehow, this game takes the innovations of the 16-bit era and discarded them entirely and decides to be a neon colored, clunky mess.

    Take the controls, for example. While the button layout is pretty natural and fits with the style of the game, the execution of the button presses feel like sludgy trash. This, coupled with the awkward collision detection, make the game a frustrating nightmare. You end up taking a bunch of damage from enemies because of delayed reactions from your character. You miss hitting guys because you are outside of their hit box even when you are right in their faces. You miss hitting guys because they were immune to your swings, even though they didn't give you any kind of visual cue. Even Mike Tyson blinked before he beat you up in "Punchout"! Bad controls are 1988 jank that have no business in a 2012 release.

    Even with the control issues, I was able to finish the game in 2 hours. For a 10 dollar price tag, this is entirely too short. They try to encourage multiple playthroughs by adding in powerups, co-op and unlockable difficulty settings, but none of these things make the game not play like hot garbage.

    I ran into a few game breaking bugs, including one where an enemy would get stuck on the environment and would not allow me to advance in the level.

    To deviate from the original game, they added unlockable power ups and stores to buy things within the levels themselves. I bought a bunch of extra lives. When I continued my save the next day, all of the lives I purchased were gone.

    I get that nostalgia is all the rage, but putting out bad titles and slapping familiar names on them is insulting to our intelligence as gamers, and I hope that people will stop encouraging these lazy cash grabs by putting their wallets back in their pockets.
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See all 9 User Reviews