Double Dragon Trilogy
At this point in the history of the franchise, you either “get” Double Dragon, or you don’t. This is a side-scrolling beat-em-up in it’s purest and simplest form. You can punch, kick, jump, jump kick, and do a scant few other moves. The enemies you’ll face all have personality, but it’s of the behavior-based variety. The game is challenging, particularly on the Original and Expert difficulties, but can be finished in a short amount of time… even shorter if you become particularly skilled at the game and the nuances in it’s play.
– Real player with 19.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Beat 'em up Arcade Games.
In theory this collection should be a great experience. That’s what I thought when I booted it up. As soon as I tried to adjust the resolution, the game proceeded to crash, forced me to verify files and turn off my virus protection as a content lock occured.
Once I got it back up and running with controls set comfortably on my 360 pad, it worked well. Well enough for what feels like a lazy attempt to wrap three arcade roms into a stand-alone executable.
The Time and Score text overlay is really weird and doesn’t mesh well with the rest of the visuals. The options feel kind of barebones, there’s no intro videos or explanations or anything for any of the games, nothing. People coming into this without knowing about the games will have no idea that you can do super moves, like hitting punch and jump together in DD1 for the game-breaking backwards elbow. Or how DD2’s controls are odd. Or how you can flipping run in DD3 by double tapping move (the previous two games didn’t have it, so unless you did this by accident how would you know?).
– Real player with 8.1 hrs in game
Gekido Kintaro’s Revenge
Gekido Kintaro’s Revenge is an okay Beat ‘em up game, so it’s time for the story.
After stopping the evil Kintaro, our hero Tetsuo returns to his sensei’s house were all is quiet for a year. But soon his sensei feels a dark, ominous and evil presence returning, he sends Tetsuo to a faraway farming village outside the city to see what it is.
Now let’s talk about the likes. The game play was simple, but fun. Some of the enemies were cool looking. Game was not too hard and the cutscenes were nice to look at. Survive mode in the game was okay.
– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Beat 'em up Action Games.
I was craving a simple beat ‘em up and the colorful retro graphics of Gekido caught my eye. I have to say I sure am glad it wasn’t more expensive as I frankly hate this game. The stages and enemies were designed to make every death feel incredibly cheap and infuriating. Every trap is guaranteed to hit until you know their exact placement ahead of time, and even then it’s a toss as they appear just off the screen so you often can not be precise enough. Both the enemy AI and your own combos tend to place you overlapping an enemy sprite, rendering you incapable of striking that specific enemy regardless of the direction you’re facing, while the said enemy has no issue striking you. The jumps are imprecise and will leave you wondering whether you should keep trying or if the gap really is just too big. The hit boxes on some objects make absolutely no sense (a falling rock will hurt you even though it misses by a half an inch on the screen), and the game even has a habit of forgetting to let you move after you clear the screen of all enemies making you restart the stage. Do yourself a favor and replay Streets of Rage 4 instead if you need a simple but properly made game.
– Real player with 5.0 hrs in game
Double Dragon: Neon
A fun, absurdist beat ‘em up with some glaringly rough edges. Neon is one of the better beat ‘em ups out there, peppered with jokes lampooning its own franchise as well as the ’80s in general, counterbalanced by some irritatingly sloppy pieces. Namely all its cutscenes, ending, and 8 company logos being unskippable. Since so much of the humor is based on novelty, there are a lot of diminishing returns that just aren’t designed for these drawn out, repeat viewings… which the game is centered around with a stat-grinding system.
– Real player with 20.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Beat 'em up Co-op Games.
I’ve read and heard many criticisms about this game and do not quite understand them. I will try and address them and give my opinion as to why this is probably one of the top three Double Dragon games.
**Graphics:
Solid art design, although some of the enemies are a bit more cartoony than previous DD designs, the colors, backgrounds, animations and effects are pretty solid. The game mixes 3D models with the occasional 2D background object, The alley level is particularly nice. Varied environments and enemies with vibrant colors.
– Real player with 17.4 hrs in game
Skirmish
SINGLE-HANDEDLY DEFEAT YOUR FRIENDS
With a single button, you control multiple characters and all their actions. Yet it can be learned within seconds. This makes it the ideal party game to play on a big screen.
WHOSE BLOOD IS THAT?
Hack, smash and blast through rows of enemies! Missing a leg? It’s but a flesh wound!
Chop until you drop!
MASTERY
Time your spins, rolls and attacks right to chop off limbs and be victorious!
OLD SCHOOL COUCH GAMING
Play through the co-op campaign to unlock new characters, arenas and factions; duel it out with 2-4 players in the arena mode or play a knock out tournament with unlimited participants!
EXPLORE, DISCOVER, ENCOUNTER
Travel across mountains and forests, swamps and settlements. Meet the locals - and wipe them out!
Some of them will join you on your conquest against evil.
The Wonderful 101: Remastered
I’ve been playing this game for YEARS back when it released on the Wii U. I never thought in a million years that The Wonderful 101 would have an official PC release. And yet here we are. So how does it hold up?
Maybe I’m being biased here but I genuinely believe this is PlatinumGames and Hideki Kamiya’s magnum opus. The combat system is extremely intricate and complex but damn does it feel satisfying to master. This is NOT a cutesey wootsey Pikmin-style adventure game. This is very much an action game that ranks up there with games such as Devil May Cry and Bayonetta (2 other games Hideki Kamiya is responsible for. Go figure.). This is a game that does NOT hold your hand whatsoever nor does it do any spoonfeeding. You’re gonna get punished. You’re gonna get destroyed. You’re gonna get nothing but consolation prizes along the way. You’re probably also gonna get frustrated with the weapon switching gimmick and say the controls are bad and that it should’ve stayed on the Wii U where it belongs.
– Real player with 308.1 hrs in game
At first this game can seem very inaccessible due to its abnormal controls and original home on the Wii U. Hopefully this review will clear up some misconceptions as well as highlight, in short, what makes this game so incredible.
TLDR: PLAY THE DEMO, it will give you a basic feel for the gameplay as well as a showcase of the game’s spectacle. Any fan of Bayonetta, DMC and the likes should play this game right now. This game is incredible and my favourite of all time. The controls are responsive (when played with a controller) and the combat is incredibly mechanically deep, combined with an immense level of spectacle through its 20 hr story. It is just Wonderful.
– Real player with 113.9 hrs in game
Yakuza Kiwami 2
Two dragon’s
Born from sorrow
One of anger and envy
Another of kindness and wisdom
Both with honor
In another life, comrades and friends
But here, only one dragon may live
– Real player with 111.3 hrs in game
Was going to write a long review but I think it would just be better to say that this is the best game I’ve ever played and end it at that.
– Real player with 75.1 hrs in game
Zeus Begins
You know, I grew up playing games like Golden Axe and the Streets of Rage series, so side-scrolling beat-em-ups games are kinda part of my gaming DNA. So imagine my overwhelming sense of nostalgia when I first booted up Zeus Begins and was greeted with a story told in pictures with text at the bottom of the screen, and then the opportunity to punch random bad peeps to a pulp!
I honestly had a blast playing this, it brought back so many memories, and there are some lovely little added extras (like every boss having it’s own unique little style, and some bullet-hell vertical-scrolling shooter stages between main levels that are reminiscent of games like 1942). And getting to play as an actual god, being able to kick some serious butt only adds to the value!
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
Zeus Begins isn’t a bad game. It just isn’t very good either. Kind of bare bones in the fighting department, which is the whole reason anyone would be playing this really. Some good ideas, like the shooter travel portions and the unique boss fights, but only barely implemented in a successful way. Solid starting point for future projects, but not worth the asking price.
Full Review: http://www.retrospekt.com.au/2019/08/review-zeus-begins/
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
3dSen PC
3DSen is one of the greatest emulators I have ever used. Keep in mind that this emulator does not come with roms, you will need to provide those yourself. This emulator works great I haven’t encountered any graphical glitches or slow down. The 3D looks really good too. It really looks and feels 3D, and it only uses the rom of the game your playing. There are a least 70 games that support 3D, just link a rom to the correct profile and you’re ready to go. The 2D mode works well too. If a game doesn’t have 3D support yet you can load the game in 2D mode. 2D mode allows you to play the game in it’s original 2D pixels. I tried games that don’t support 3D and they work great. They run at full speed and graphics look great. I even tried mods like SMB Peach Edition. I recommend running these in 2D mode so it doesn’t cause issues with the SMB 3D profile. I haven’t tested SMB mods with the 3d profile. In the end I can’t recommend this emulator enough.
– Real player with 21.6 hrs in game
For someone who grew up with NES and games like Zelda, Mario, Mega Man and Faxanadu and who still plays those classics occasionally, this little piece of emulator software seemed very intriquing from the day I heard about, which was way before the launch day. I participated to beta testing, so my time with it is much more than that almost 8 hours that Steam shows. I have to mention that I’m also a big fan of stereoscopic gaming and Nvidia’s 3D Vision, so when I got 3DSen to work in stereoscopic 3d it was like a dream come true: Finally I got to play those childhood classics the way I play games these days!
– Real player with 11.2 hrs in game
Yakuza Kiwami
the comical eye-patch man comes out of the sewers
– Real player with 65.8 hrs in game
I played Yakuza 0 prior to this one and I must admit that I was not prepared for the difference between Majima’s style at the end of 0 and at the start of Kiwami.
This being said, loved the game and looking forward to the following ones….
– Real player with 61.5 hrs in game
Armed with Wings: Rearmed
Having played the original Armed With Wings and its sequels as a kid, I was really excited when this was greenlit for Steam. I always wondered how a small 30min or so flash game would fare and what kind of final product the developers could create.
I gotta say, the final result exceeded my expectations.
SPOILERS BELOW (Though really, the original game has been out for so long that it really doesn’t matter)
The lore behind the first game and its sequels really created a lot of creative potential in expanding the idea of this game. Now that I think about, the gameplay in the original Armed With Wings was a lot less dynamic then its successors. It got to the point where I was confused at how the Lone Warrior was able to defeat Vandheer when he was so powerful in the 2nd game.
– Real player with 20.4 hrs in game
I dsicovered the armed with wings series by pure accident and I played the games since they were released on armorgames.com. I played a bit of the first one,but I wasn’t all too into it. The next game in the series I played was…blood moon I think it was called? It was a good game,but I wasn’t all too into that one either. I was able to tell they were the same game however. Next up,I played armed with wings two,following the story of vandheer lorde. It was right up my alley. The boss fights,the atmosphere,the enemies,the five main weapons of choice you could pick. (One was endgame.) However,it didn’t have it’s own soundtrack at this point if memory serves,just used other music. Didn’t really phase me however. It had been a few years and I had found the third game of the series,this one adding some new twists on the combat system,which I loved so much. You fought with not only your sword,but now with different martial arts styles. (The god styles were the most powerful of course. What would you expect?) Lastly was culmination,which was essentially armed with wings 1 with more polish I guess? I dunno,the game was confusing to me.
– Real player with 12.1 hrs in game