Double Dragon: Neon

Unaided solo players at the moment will either have to grind through normal to upgrade specials and stances to overcome the higher difficulties, or just take their chances alone. That aside, this is a smart, funny and faithful update to a game that hasn't aged well, and another feather in WayForward's retro cap.

Double Dragon Neon might be a slight package, but as a reminder of one of gaming's purest pleasures it is a cheerful success.

Double Dragon Neon revitalizes the classic franchise, but a few missteps derail the silly fun.

Double Dragon: Neon is in an awkward position. It may be a bit too Double Dragon for today's generation to understand, yet not Double Dragon enough for hardcore fans to eat up. This is far from the long-awaited Double Dragon revival, but it's a great opportunity to revisit the Lee brothers (or to be introduced to them for the first time). Regardless, Double Dragon: Neon is a challenging, fun game definitely worth looking into.

While Double Dragon Neon is definitely entertaining (and priced perfectly), it's unfortunate that a few design quirks weaken it. The promised online play should make it more beatable, but the poorly balanced soloplay does dim Neon's shine.

For the two to three hours it will take for you and a willing co-op partner to make your way through the first time, seeing the next thing will probably be enough to offset how crushingly familiar everything seems after just a few minutes. But other than the true masochists who plan on grinding through Double Dragon Neon's additional difficulty levels, there isn't much more than nostalgia to mine.

Not anywhere near as good as Streets of Rage 2, which came out 20 years ago. That said, it's fun, and more importantly knows that it's outdated. [Issue#91, p.87]

Fine combat, badly balanced. [Dec 2012, p.103]

Everything is exactly how you remember it from the classic arcade game. Not bad, but nowadays you can find games that do this much better.

If you love the genre of scrolling beat em up, you grew up with Jimmy and Billy and you want that the memories of those wonderful years remains clear in your mind, stay away from this game.

I feel Double Dragon is a game that should have been left alone, and Neon proves it by showing that 25 years later, the beat-em-up genre just doesn't have the chops to cut it anymore with current expectations.

Double Dragon Neon isn't the best reboot of Double Dragon series. This game is too short and has some control problems.

As an old-school beat-em-up Double Dragon Neon delivers – sort of. But if I have the choice I rather turn to Shank, Scott Pilgrim – The Game or the Streets of Rage-Compilation…

Even though it was developed with the benefit of over twenty years of hindsight, it's a game that ignores fundamental lessons of the brawler genre. Excellent presentation doesn't change the fact that Double Dragon Neon just isn't very satisfying to play.