Double Dragon Revive

• Genre: Beat 'em Up
• Spoiler Free Review: Not much to spoil.
• Time Played: 3-4 Hours
• Partner: Alice
• Too Short/Long: Pretty standard for a beat 'em up. I would have been happy with more though, it certainly didn't feel like a slog thus far.
• Soundtrack: Some of the tracks are really good, but it's hard to mess up the standard Double Dragon fare. It doesn't do much to set itself apart though.
• Why I played: I like the beat 'em ups.
• Did I cry: Nah.
• Jank: It's a little janky. The controls and feel of the game are generally pretty fun, and you'd think being 3D as opposed to sprites might fix some alignment stuff many beat 'em ups are plagued with, and it does. But it just has different alignment issue instead. Some relating to range, some just with the graphics depth perception. Outside that, they wanted to include some gimmicks in levels, but they're generally kind of janky. Not entirely failures, but they could have cooked a little longer. There was also once or twice we had to restart a mission or do some weird awkward stuff because of glitches.
• Difficulty: Mostly pretty standard, and what you should expect, with a couple difficulty spikes that seem unreasonable. A mid-game boss was probably the hardest boss fighter, and the second hardest is one it just throws too much on screen at once and there is little way for you to avoid it. Usually it's best in these games if you get some kind of invincibility frames after being hit, even if it's just recoil, but nah, you get juggled pretty badly.
• Recommend to others: Despite the jank and difficulty spikes, it was a very fun game overall. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is a fan of beat 'em ups, just maybe not at the 35 dollar launch price. Feels more like a 25 dollar game tops that you maybe wait for a sale for around 15 if it's not your top priority.

Feels weird that it's called "Revive" when the last Double Dragon game was just two years ago, and there wasn't a key element of revival in the story. It's in no way a big reboot of the series. It's not the first game in a long time, it's not the first 3d game, it doesn't make super major changes to the game play. I'm not sure why it's called Revive. Maybe the devs thought they were doing more than they did?

What is cool, and a great addition, is how much of the environment is interactable. Throwing enemies into objects, kicking chairs at enemies, vaulting over object, jumping off walls - all great additions to make a beat 'em up more dynamic. Some of it could have been a little less janky in execution or less ambiguous whether it would work or not, but overall pretty cool, and that's probably part of what kept the gameplay feeling fresh and why I would have liked to have seen more. I would have even liked to have seen more gimmick stages - if they were a little better executed, but overall I don't have many complaints in the design and probably would have been happier with another hour or two of levels. Also there is a character who I felt like should have clearly been unlockable, and I'm mad he wasn't. Not that I'm complaining too much, because I loved playing Marian and Alice was pretty happy with Junsuo Ranzo.

It's only two players, and might have been a little too chaotic for 4 players, but I can't help but wonder... ideally the game comes out with an update to fix some of the jank, add that other character (or two), 4 player mode, and an extra stage or two and we can pop it back in for another go.