Double Dragon II: The Revenge (Japan) - MAME machine

Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Double Dragon II - The Revenge © 1988 Technos Japan Corp.

Following his defeat at the end of the original Double Dragon, Willy, the leader of the Black Warriors, retaliates against Billy and Jimmy Lee by murdering their friend, Marian, leaving the brothers with the task to avenge her death.

The sequel to Double Dragon is essentially an upgraded version of the original game, but with with a two-way attacking system similar to one previously used in Technos Japan's 1986 arcade game "Renegade". Many of the attacks and combos from the original "Double Dragon" are retained, as well as new techniques including the invincible Cyclone Kick.

The stages and weapons are redesigned versions of items previously featured in the original game. There are a few new traps such as a bulldozer in the middle of Mission 3 and all of the transition sequences between stages are now done with the character entering the next level via a lift, making it impossible to carry one weapon to the next area.

Most of the enemy characters return from the original Double Dragon, with some given facelifts, but the stage bosses are all new. The enemies are as followed:

• Williams - Has a wilder face and longer hair. He can now run towards the player and do cartwheels. He throws his knives in mid-air and sometimes carry a shovel which he throws towards the player.
• Rowper - Has a beard and eye-patch, but otherwise is more or less identical to his original self. He carries shovels and can sometime pick up large objects.
• Linda - She now has a mohawk and face paint. She can also jump off platforms and do the elbow strike against the player. In addition to the ball and chain, she also carries grenades and knives.
• Oharra - A strongman with a clean-shaved face. Replaces Abobo from the first game and has the same attacks.
• Bolo - A head-swap of Oharra with long hair and beard. Replaces the mohawked head-swap of Abobo from the first game.
• Jeff - Same as his original self, but now carries grenades.
• Burnov - The boss of Mission 1. An obese wrestler whose face is concealed with a mask. He grabs the player and throws similar punches in the face. After dying, he will stand up and yell, disappearing in front of the player and leaving only his clothes. In later encounters, he will revive himself at least once.
• Abore - The boss of Mission 2. A huge suspender-wearing strongman with Terminator-like sunglasses. His slaps and shoulder tackles do massive damage to the player.
• Chin Taimei - The boss of Mission 3. A Chinese martial artists armed with twin kali sticks. In addition to his energy-draining stick combo, he also has a jump kick and sweep kick.
• Willy - The boss of Mission 4. Looks like he does in the original game, but now dresses in red. He still uses the same machine gun from the first game.
• The clone - After defeating Willy, the player will have to fight their character's evil self. This clone has all the techniques the player has, but can also throw energy beams and possess the player's body to drain his energy.

TECHNICAL
Game ID: TA-0026

Main CPU: HD6309 (@ 3.579545 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound CPU: Zilog Z80 (@ 3.579545 Mhz)
Sound Chips: Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.579545 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 8 Khz)

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 3
→ Punch, Kick, Jump

TRIVIA
Double Dragon II was released in December 1988.

The yelling sound heard when a coin is inserted comes from an enemy in the game called 'Chin Taimei' (the mission 3 boss that fights using 2 sticks).

Billy and Jimmy trade their original blue and red outfits for black and white respectively in the game. They appear in the game's ending wearing their original colors. Marian wears a yellow dress in the game and her character sprite is slightly redrawn from the original game.

Unlike the original "Double Dragon", the controller configuration for part two were changed from standard punch and kick buttons to less conventional left attack and right attack buttons.

In the same way the original "Double Dragon" paid tribute to the laserdisc game "Road Blaster", Double Dragon II features a similar homage to the laserdisc version of "Cobra Command" ("Thunder Storm" in Japan), which was Yoshihisa Kishimoto's debut game. The helicopter inside the garage at the beginning of the game is the same helicopter from Cobra Command.

Double Dragon II originally began development as a chip upgrade of the first game. Originally only the stages were going to be changed, but there was an incentive to add more features to the game, such as new attacks and enemy characters, which required the game to be developed on a new hardware.

Isaiah Johnson holds the official record for this game with 47,880 points on May 31, 2008.

Meldac / Nippon Crown released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Double Dragon II The Revenge - MECG-28001) on March 3, 1990.

SERIES

• Double Dragon [Model TA-0021] (1987)
• Double Dragon II - The Revenge [Model TA-0026] (1988)
• Double Dragon 3 - The Rosetta Stone [Model TA-0030] (1991)
• Super Double Dragon (1992, Super Famicom )
• Double Dragon V - The Shadow Falls (1994, Super NES / Jaguar )
• Double Dragon (1995, AES / NEO GEO / NEO GEO CD, 1996, Playstation)
• Double Dragon Advance (2004, GBA)
• Double Dragon (2009, Zeebo)
• Double Dragon (2011 iOS / Android)
• Double Dragon Neon (2012, PS3 / Xbox 360)
• Double Dragon II: Wander of the Dragons - (2013, Xbox 360)
• Double Dragon IV (2017, PS4 / Nintendo Switch / iOS / Android / Windows)

STAFF
Sound Programmer: Michiya Hirasawa
Director: Yoshihisa Kishimoto

PORTS

• CONSOLES:

[JP] Nintendo Famicom (dec.22, 1989) "Double Dragon II - The Revenge [Model TJC-W2]"
[EU] Nintendo NES [AU] (1990) "Double Dragon II - The Revenge [Model NES-W2]"
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (dec.20, 1991) "Double Dragon II - The Revenge [Model T-74023]"
[JP] NEC PC-Engine CD (mar.12, 1993) "Double Dragon II - The Revenge [Model NXCD2010]"
Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] [EU] [AU] (feb.26, 2016) "Arcade Archives - Double Dragon II - The Revenge [Model CUSA-03938]"
[JP] Sony PS4 [PSN] (feb.26, 2016) "Arcade Archives - Double Dragon II - The Revenge [Model CUSA-03573]"
Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] [AS] (feb.26, 2016) "Arcade Archives - Double Dragon II - The Revenge"

• COMPUTERS:

[EU] Atari ST (1989)
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1989)
MSX [EU] (1989)
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1989)
[EU] Commodore C64 (1989)
PC [MS-DOS, 5.25"] [EU] (1989)
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1992) "Action Masters"

• OTHERS:

LCD handheld game (19??) released by Tiger Electronics.

CONTRIBUTE
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