The next meeting will take place on November 1st at Vocari Hub. It starts at 1 PM and ends at 10 PM, but you don’t have to stay the whole time and can come and go as you please. The featured game is Double Dragon Revive which is a two player brawler like Streets of Rage or Final Fight and I will have it set up on at least two PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X systems during the party. You can also play any other game I have installed on any system that’s setup at the party if Double Dragon doesn’t interest you. I will provide four pizzas, cola and bottled water for guests to eat during the party.
Double Dragon Revive is by my count the third attempt at a 3D version of Double Dragon. The first being Double Dragon Neon and the second being the ill-fated Double Dragon 2 Remake for Xbox Live Arcade. Revive is developed by famed wrestling game developer Yukes and once again published by Arc System Works. Although the game has 3D player movement the gameplay mostly consists of moving from the left side of the screen to the right beating up everyone in your way. There’s also the occasional platforming obstacle course with ladders, boulders, guillotines, and disappearing ledges. The game is unfortunately only two players despite having at least four playable characters although there is online co-op. There is a good variety of mostly returning weapons from prior Double Dragon games that can either be found mysteriously on the ground or commandeered from would be attackers like knifes, swords, whips, baseball bats, sledge hammers, and tonfas.
Since I haven’t played the game yet I’m not sure how many attack buttons there are, but I would guess at least two, one for punches and another for kicks. There also must be a jump button. There are several kinds of special attacks. First there are Hyper Blows which will stop anyone attacking you in case you are getting stunlocked by a big group of thugs. Then there are Air Hyper Blows which is a really fancy way of saying a ground pound that is started while jumping. Critical Assaults are counter attacks performed when a boss character turns blue and the player attacks at just the right time. Stage Gimmicks are places in the background or wall hazards that enemies can be grabbed and thrown into to increase the player’s score and instantly defeat them. Lastly there is a Dragon Orb Gage which does a screen clearing finishing move that is filled by diversifying the skills you use to defeat opponents.
The plot of the game is that the Shadow Warriors have once again kidnapped Marian and it’s up to the twin Dragons Billy and Jimmy, plus their ninja friend Yagyu Ranzou to save her. The curious thing though is Marian is the fourth playable character, so why would she need to save herself? Also Marian no longer uses a handgun like in Double Dragon Gaiden and I also don’t know if you can play as bosses like Abobo like you could in Gaiden. There are also timed challenges and mini games in the Extra Mode which unlock back stories for some of the characters and enemies.
Lastly I wanted to mention that I will probably have Virtua Fighter 5 Revo World Stage on most of the PlayStations and Xboxs at the party as well since it doesn’t cost that much and should be pretty fun too.
