A Bro-Op Story – Double Dragon NEON Re-Review

WayForward’s reboot of Double Dragon was previously reviewed here a long time ago as a single player title, but this week, a friend of mine and I decided to revisit this title and give it a run in the bro-op mode (co-op).

The story follows the classic recipe for the original Double Dragon, starting with Billy’s girlfriend getting kidnapped by the Shadow Warriors gang and the courageous brothers setting out to rescue Marian.

As far as gameplay goes, the traditional punching and kicking is present along with jumping and aerial attacks as well which definitely comes in handy with the pesky jet pack using minions! There was a few things added to fit the current modern genre like running, dodging and special skills. Dodging at the right time will grant a buff called “gleam” which increases your attack for a short period, alternately, in Bro-Op, you can High Five your bro to trigger the buff.

The game features multiple levels that can be accessed through the over world map that come in varied environment going from normal American looking town to space rocket martial arts dojo and even underground hidden laboratory.

All the game’s environments are highly stylized to fit each stage’s theme. Most sections of the maps are wide areas giving plenty of room to dodge around and fight while some areas feature a view that places the characters in a more narrow straight path and obscured in shadows. The graphics were definitely designed with intent to give homage to the classic but improved enough not to look as if they were just recycling the ideas for the sets.

The Bro-Op mode is offline only for consoles while the Steam release features online play. From the personal experiences I’ve had with the online play, I would advise against it. During a 3 hour session of gaming, only 1 hour of it was spent playing the game while 2 were dedicated to reboots, restarting modem and general frustration from getting disconnected over and over. I personally would advise picking it up on console and kick it old school couch co-op with a friend if you are interested in the title. The Bro-Op mode features the same level of difficulties as the single player and offer the option of enabling friendly fire if you really want to suffer from accidental friendly kill. WayForward was also wise adding an option to come in as a “Shadow Bro”, meaning player 2 will have all the same skills unlocked as player 1 when he joins in but will be unable to save the progress which makes it great for a friend coming in to play a bit into the game.

Ultimately, WayForward’s reboot of Double Dragon pays a fine homage to the classic while bringing it forward into the modern era. The best way to enjoy the game’s hilariously bad (but in a good way) story is to play through co-op mode. The game features 3 levels of difficulty and to unlock them, you must clear the game’s previous difficulty. For those willing to make things harder, enabling friendly fire and going on the hardest difficulty will prove to be a quite a challenge.

The full playthrough of Double Dragon Neon, warning, there is plenty of cussing: