Double Dragon Revive

Double Dragon Revive is the sort of game that’s just damningly mediocre. It doesn’t fumble the ball too hard in any significant way, but neither does it really excel at offering a fun and engaging beat ‘em up. Interesting gameplay ideas are held back by uneven execution, and the uninspired graphical style kind of takes some getting used to. This will have its fans, and it’s worth purchasing on a deep sale someday, but it’s definitely nowhere close to the list of games I’d recommend to someone wanting to expand their beat-‘em-up collection. Perhaps Billy and Jimmy will wow us with their inevitable next outing, but this one is just 'alright'.

The word “slop” has recently been overused to the point of death, and that’s a shame, because I’d very much like to call Double Dragon Revive slop. It baffles me how you can put out something this ugly and unenjoyable without attaching an apology to it instead of a price tag, but that's videogames for you.

Double Dragon Revive isn't a disaster, but it's not the revival the series deserved either. You can see the love for the franchise and there are some interesting ideas, especially in the combat and visual art. But the execution is uneven: the controls aren't polished, the balance is broken, and the level design is uninspired.