/vr/ - Retro Games

>>8961130
It's much more obvious in the arcade version, when it starts just like in the first game, but it shows Machine Gun Willy gunning Marian just before Billy and Jimmy leave the garage.

>Spent the first game trying to rescue Marian from the Black Warriors
>Gets gunned down by Machine Gun Willy at the start of the sequel.
I'm talking about the Arcade version of Double Dragon II, of course. The NES version doesn't even show her being gunned down (it's just tells you what happened with static images and text) and the ending adds some Disney bullshit where it turns out that the Ultimate Warrior (a character who never existed in the arcade games) simply put a sleeping spell on her all this time.

>Spent the first game trying to rescue Marian in the first game
>Gets gunned down at the start of the sequel.
Arcade version, of course. The NES version of the opening is just static images with text, and the ending adds some Disney bullshit where it turns out Marian was just in a magic coma all this time.

>>8636347
I don't know for certain, but it was by the same director who did the arcade versions of the first Kunio-kun and the Double Dragon games. DD2 on the arcade had Marian being gunned down by Machine Gun Willy, but on the NES they changed it so that she was actually under a sleeping spell instead.

Is there a better beat-'em-up duology than the arcade versions of Double Dragon I & II? I don't think there's any other game that perfectly captures the cycle of revenge as well as it does.
>The Black Warriors kidnaps Marian.
>Jimmy and Billy Lee fight their way into the gang hideout
>The gang's leader, Machine Gun Willy, challenges them.
>Willy is defeated and Marian is saved.
>Sequel is made.
>Willy retaliates for his defeat in the first game by gunning down Marian in cold blood.
>The Lee brothers fight the Black Warriors again.
>After Willy is defeated, the true final boss emerges, a manifestation of Jimmy and Billy's guilt over their failure to save Marian.
>The ending is a photograph of the Lee brothers and Marian during better times, as she sheds a tear forming the words "The End".

The NES versions of Double Dragon I & II are probably much better known than any other versions due to the popularity of Nintendo's console and the lack of proper console ports of the arcade games prior to MAME, but they feel very disconnected from each other and the second game cops out on the revenge theme with a sudden happy ending.

The first NES game changed the game's story so that one of the Lee brothers turns out to be the gang's leader and Machine Gun Willy is just kinda there as just another lackey you fight before the final boss.

The second NES game might as well had been its own game, considering Jimmy is a good guy once again with no explanation for his change of heart and instead of Machine Gun Willy at the end, you fight a kung-fu wizard and once the Lee brothers beat him, Marian just wakes up from a beauty sleep as if nothing bad happened to her. No consequences at all.

>>8506516

The arcade version of Double Dragon I & II is such a perfect duology. I don't think there's any other game that perfectly captures the cycle of revenge as well as it does.
>The Black Warriors kidnaps Marian.
>Billy and Jimmy Lee fight their way into the gang hideout
>The gang's leader, Machine Gun Willy, challenges them.
>Willy is defeated and Marian is saved for now.
>Sequel is made.
>Willy retaliates for his early defeat by gunning down Marian in cold blood.
>The Lee brothers fight the Black Warriors again.
>After Willy is defeated, the true final boss emerges, a manifestation of Billy and Jimmy's guilt over their failure to save Marian.
>The ending is a photograph of the Lee brothers and Marian during better times, as she sheds a tear forming the words "The End".

By contrast, the two NES versions feel really disconnected from each other. The first NES game made one of the Lee brothers made into the bad guy and the second NES game ignores that completely and features a new final boss that leads to a cheesy happy ending.

>>8457267
Arcade version of Double Dragon II was more hardcore in general. Machine Gun Willy just guns down the girlfriend and there's no magical kung-fu guy who brings her back to life at the end.

Shame the Mega Drive port is kinda rubbish though.

>>8360616
>I can kick major ass in DD2 NES but I never beat DD1 and DD3.
DD1 has level grinding, but you can gain most of your moves by the end of the first area, since you get experience by the attacks you land, not the enemies you killed. Just spam punches on the same few enemies until you level-up.

As for DD3, the cyclone spin kick is your friend.

>>8321176
Penetrating they did.

>>4472409
>>4472439
Indeed. The NES versions of the Double Dragon trilogy are ports-in-name-only (and probably better for it).

>>4456305
Unlike the NES version, the arcade version of Double Dragon II didn't take no prisoners, literally.

No more Marian panty shots. ;_; Unless you're playing the NES version.

>Oh boy! Here were go again. They're just going punch her in the stomach again and take her to the hideout like they did in the first g---
Be honest. You were shocked by the Double Dragon II intro the first time you've played it.