Review: Return of the Double Dragon by Mr. Q

[Damon Caskey]

Return of the Double Dragon by Mr. Q
Review Key:

5 - Beyond superb, a new standard has literally been set.
4 - Excellent, certainly the best among any offerings so far.
3 - Of average quality, not bad, but could be better.
2 - Poorly executed, and defiantly needs work.
1 - Shows almost no effort and is a perfect example of what not to do.

Creativity: New ideas, or the 15?th remake of the same game? Are features being used in a new way, or is it the same old punch, punch, grab N? throw?
Execution: Offsets, collision detection, animation and editing.
Presentation: Cut scenes, graphic and sound quality.
Game play: In game mechanics, character moves, enemy stylistics, control.
Overall: The total package, NOT an average. This is also my vote in the rating poll that will accompany every review.


After a long absence of BOR mods, an old master, Mr. Q has stepped forth to deliver another clinic on MOD making. This time he is revisiting Double Dragon. Along with other mods in progress, this work has been highly anticipated. Does it live up? Let?s find out.

Creativity - 3: Let?s face it, even Double Dragon is starting to get a bit of overexposure in the BOR community. Including this module, I count 3 Double Dragons, and I believe a few more are in progress. It?s not a bad thing, not at all. But by the numbers, I have to count it as a strike against creativity. The score comes right back up though in the way this module was put together. It?s like a sweet mish mash of Return of Double Dragon and Double Dragon Advance rolled into one, and that is a nice touch.

Execution ? 4: Almost perfect. There are two bugs to be found; one of which (infinite knives) is out of the creator?s control, but the other isn't and docks this from a 5 to a 4. Spoiler

The Dragon Master is never available without modifying the mod due to a small oversight.

Everything else has all of Mr. Q's usual quality; Weapons work as they should, offsets are spot on and so is the timing of every single animation.

Presentation ? 4: If this game used a different base set of resources rather then early 16bit era material, it would equal almost any professional job out there today. As is, it is certainly capable of standing up to the best material gaming era it was taken from ever produced. The cut scenes are astounding in their simple beauty, and the level design at this point has no equal. Only the sprites graphic quality themselves lower this to a 4, and even that is more of a stylistic choice.

Game play - 4: I was just a little bit disappointed here to be honest. The main issue is that with only one main and one secret character to speak of, I expected them to use everything in BOR?s arsenal, and well, they don?t. Don?t get me wrong; the extra grab moves, super attacks, and commands that are there certainly surpass offerings so far, I had just hoped for more considering the advances of the engine. Spoiler

Another small gripe is that Master is more or less a clone of the Dragons with a few style differences splashed in. Not a problem on it's own, but when that is the only alternative, it's a touch boring.

However, this rating still deserves a 4 because what is there ROCKS! Make no mistake, this is not your daddy?s mod. A true fighting engine has been established, and with practice you can create your own combos and really tear things up. The enemies are challenging, but in a fair way, and for once just punching is not the best tactic; all the various moves/effects have a use at some point. Button mashing = death, mastery of character = matrixeqsue beatdowns. Sublime. Oh and did I mention the characters actually USE the weapons instead doing the same stupid swing with everything? There is nothing quite as satisfying as showing Chin how those kali sticks really work.

Overall ? 4: It?s only the vast untapped potential in OpenBOR this mod doesn?t quite unleash that makes me give it a 4 and not a 5. But this is a matter of taste. Mr. Q does what he does better then almost anyone else, and it shows.

Bottom Line: You want to have a blast and get a glimpse of things yet to come? Grab this mod and play it. Now!

[Hanzo]

i give this 4/5 as well because the mod is excuted well without two but minor flaws

the infinite knives gives the mod a bit of easier setting while being crowded with enemies

and the only one character select with the Master character... Where is jimmy lee!!!

and Double dragon is getting a little stale as well

but these minor problems wouldn't keep this mod being a fun and challenging experience

[kbandressen]

The infinite knives thing is the engine's fault not Mr. Q's, so this mod shouldn't get marked down for that.  Going by Damon's standards I'd give this a 4/5 as well (Excellent, certainly the best among any offerings so far).  It doesn't do much that hasn't been done before but it takes the good elements and polishes them until they shine.  The extra effort put into this one makes the game a lot of fun even though I've played through Double Dragon, its sequels and ports and remakes and mods many times before.

[Mr.Q®]

About the lack of Jimmy Lee...well, every ddragon game (except for super double dragon, which only have one different attack chain between characters) has the same moveset for both players, so Jimmy is kind of there, just get a 2 player mode and that's it XD. Didn't like the idea of having 2 different dragons in a ddragon game...they're twins after all XD...also did anyone noticed that my main ddragon character has edited colors? Also about my Hidden character XD, he has tons of edited moves...I feel like sharing my master sheet for those, I'll look into that later.

Oh yup, knives used to work ok as they currently are in my txt's, so it's an Openbor bug.

Sorry for the people who wanted more moves and such. This mod was being planned to use on Dreamcast, so the more stuff I would add, the less compatibility & long loading times (and possible cuts from people wanting to sort the mod to wok on DC). Then I got delayied by lots of devbuilds, so I got a big hold with this. Then the engine got more stable again and I released this one . I wanted to make some innovations for ddragon moves, but always trying to keep close to the feeling that a ddragon game has, specially by my endless requests about adding already coded BorHED's more buttons so I could have a kick & block separatedly (yes, since that time the mod was actually finished XD), so I didn't want to put any more pressures and just released this thing that had lots of time of being stuck.

Anyways, Enjoy the mod and thanks about all of your comments!

PS: Oh btw, the name is Return of the Double Dragon, not Double Dragon Returns...LOL sounds like Batman 2 XD

[Damon Caskey]

Sorry about the name mixup. Fixed it. 

[Damon Caskey]

Who here voted pitiful? I can't believe that was a legitimate vote. Will you perhaps explain why or is it a spam vote?

DC

[rakshou]

Who here voted pitiful? I can't believe that was a legitimate vote. Will you perhaps explain why or is it a spam vote?

DC

Funny thing about that vote, it's one of the few things you can't get banned for.

[Damon Caskey]

OK, 1. I'm not threatening to ban anyone, but I do think someone is being a jerk. Even if you don't like the mod, you just about have to be blind not to see it's quality compared to the poo that still represents about 75% of the current library. If someone wants to make a vote that is very obviously against the mold, they may not have to explain it, but they should, and then it wouldn't seem like a spam vote or a personal cheap shot.

And 2., you may not like the rules, but compare the quality of posting here to that of BOR Rev and BOR Gen, or even the brief flame wars that started here before a policy was laid down and it won't take you long to understand why things are the way they are. The free form posting model has been tried three times; it doesn't work. Now we have firm guidelines, and a far more mature and purposeful board to show for it. The rules stay.

DC

[Kythring]

Honestly, I'm a lil' disappointed but it's still very good. Not to mention, it's better than all the other Double Dragon mods (as well as most existing mods in general). Where are the oil drums, explosives, bo staffs, boomerangs, etc? Plus I kinda expected more attacks. Also, I'm kinda annoyed that Billy and Jimmy share the same sprite. It's a bit of an eyesore. I mean you ripped every other sprite from Double Dragon Advance. Why leave that one out??? You really should consider fixing that. While it's true that there are way too many DDragon mods, Mr.Q? is the only dude making ones that are worth playing IMO (DD is my favorite beat 'em up franchise). I look forward to your NES Double Dragon mod!

[Mr.Q®]

Honestly, I'm a lil' disappointed but it's still very good. Not to mention, it's better than all the other Double Dragon mods (as well as most existing mods in general). Where are the oil drums, explosives, bo staffs, boomerangs, etc? Plus I kinda expected more attacks. Also, I'm kinda annoyed that Billy and Jimmy share the same sprite. It's a bit of an eyesore. I mean you ripped every other sprite from Double Dragon Advance. Why leave that one out??? You really should consider fixing that. While it's true that there are way too many DDragon mods, Mr.Q? is the only dude making ones that are worth playing IMO (DD is my favorite beat 'em up franchise). I look forward to your NES Double Dragon mod!

Sorry, I dunno if I have already said this before but, the mod was already done lots of months ago, so...there you go. I didn't feel like adding anything else. I dunno if you didn't read my explanation about not adding Jimmy Lee as an original 2nd character with extra attacks and such, it's 'cause, like you probably know since you say you're a big DD games fan, they always both shares the same moveset and by doing a separated clone would just be a RAM waste. I still added lots of sprite edits too, if you didn't notice :/ so it wasnt sth done just like ripping everything. Colors in Billy Lee character were edited too...Belive me, it wasn't easy changing his boots from brown to white.

Oil drums, boomies, new attacks, more buttons, etc, they all are probably very doable using script by now, but I still resist to use it unless it gets sth like strictly necessary, 'cause that means more  loading while playing, and I just have a DC for playing my own mods, I don't play on my PC since everyone in my house uses it for working matters, so if you feel like buying me an Xbox or a new PC well thanks and be my guest XD.

Plus, I don't think I'm updating this, so if you also feel like it has not much things on it, then try adding some yourself, this is Openbor community anyways, about free stuff.

I'm trying to update that Nes DDragon mod to this latest exe...Kinda hard, since it has 3 modes and i need to check every stage again & weapons, projectiles, etc. Will take some time, but then again, the mod is already done...never felt like releasing it 'cause of big bugs on the engine, so if you find in this DDragon mod that I didn't added more moves and such, then try to figure out from now about what would you say when I release it, well if I actually get to XD.

[Mr.Q®]

Oh I forgot to say...too many DDragon mods?...I just count 3 so far :/

DD Extreme
DD Advance
DD Revolution

 

[Kythring]

...I dunno if you didn't read my explanation about not adding Jimmy Lee as an original 2nd character with extra attacks and such, it's 'cause, like you probably know since you say you're a big DD games fan, they always both shares the same moveset and by doing a separated clone would just be a RAM waste.

I'm aware of that and I wasn't suggesting that you give them separate/different movesets. I was just saying I wish you included both Lee sprites. I assumed simply adding the other Lee sprite wouldn't take up a lotta space considering all the sprite edits you added, but I admit I'm not an expert on mod making.

I can't argue with the rest of your post. Sorry if I was a little outta line.

[Gza]

I say thank you for it Mr. Q! I topped 4 one with it. I missed the barrel from the game, box, dynamite, than it is in original one. I hope for it these will be in him soon.

[Gabo-Hanzo]

Oh I forgot to say...too many DDragon mods?...I just count 3 so far :/

DD Extreme
DD Advance
DD Revolution

 

thank you for remember my mod
congratulation friend

it's a great release

[Mr.Q®]

It's ok mate hehe. btw any thoughts about the dragon master character? I love his cheap moves hehehe