This 1-star has nothing to do w/ the GOG client; it's just the game.
I really enjoyed playing Double Dragon back when I was a kid, but this brings all of the bad issues back along with it. Along with the input lag that this game always suffered from, this port just doesn't give a shit.
- It skimps on title screens (there is only a still image on a main menu for the game select, and that's it).
- The resolution options don't work for 21:9; the menus will be at the correct resolution, but when you start the game you get it all stretched out.
Overall it just feels slapped together.
Playing Double Dragon and Double Dragon II again reminded me of how much different they were to other early beat-em-ups. I think you had to be a bit more strategic in Double Dragon than say Final Fight, to avoid a combination punch from the enemy or dodge their weapons. Double Dragon was the first game I completed at the arcade and like many, I found the major gap in the enemies' artificial intelligence. They were not well capable of avoiding or countering your elbow smash. However, I did also enjoy learning to use all the other martial arts attacks and having the game at home is a good way practice them. So I've enjoyed playing through the missions from the start, trying to get better at moves. I like that DD II is much the same as DD, but you have new attacks, some of which are much more impressive, like the hurricane kick(which had already appeared in Street Fighter in 1987 at the arcade).
I was also impressed by the remixed theme music. While I felt inclined to stick with the original mix, I found that the remix really took me back to the '80s(Double Dragon II's remixed Stage 1 music has a very clear resemblance to ''Easy Lover"[Phillip Bailey & Phil Collins, 1984]), with the realistic guitar and saxophone.
Double Dragon caused a bit of controversy in it's day for it's realistic violence, particularly the violence against the kidnapped Marian at the start. I think the way it was made, makes one feel like they're really getting ganged-up on and beaten up.Marian is given a rough treatment by the game designers. Dressed up like a cheap hooker, beaten down and carried away with her bare legs and underwear showing and then flashing her underwear again at the end. Some would've appreciated it if they had made Marian a playable character in this one. At least, just a slightly modified clone of Billy and Jimmy, same clothes as their's except maybe pink like her dress and same moves. Of course, it's not too for someone to program that in.
Nice for a few minutes of nostalgia, and this release is well done, in my opinion. But the game just isn't very fun nowadays. I remember I loved it when I was kid, but I played it today and thought, "Why did I like this so much?" You just walk around and try to position your character and time your first attack so that it hits before the enemy's does, then mash punch/kick until he falls down. Then repeat. Try not to get surrounded. Oh and there's jump attacks and weapons that aren't especially great or fun to use.
I didn't have to install the GOG Galaxy client to play the game, but I did have to install a different version of Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable to get it working. The version that's packed with the game causes it to crash in Windows 10. FYI, you need to install the Visual C++ 2013 x86 version if you're using Windows 10.
