28. Return of Double Dragon (SFC) 12/26

Managed to sneak one last entry in before the end of the year.

The recent rerelease of Super Double Dragon and Double Dragon Advance piqued my interest because SDD has an option to increase the game speed up to x2 (all while keeping music and sounds at regular speed). I was debating on buying it so I went back and played the original for a refresher. I had never played the superior SFC version, so I tried the "Kencho Hacks" version of it along with patching some Game Genie codes in to arrange the music back to the US release. The Kencho Hacks version has some great quality-of-life improvements that make the game a lot better; normal blocking, easier weapon swaps, changed control scheme, just all around positives.

However, I had forgot how much of a slog SDD is. It's in such an unfinished state that it makes it feel like a homebrew demo or prototype. I'm sure the adjustable speed in the modern release probably makes the game much better, but not enough to make me want to play it more than once every few years. Long, flat, boring stages combined with fighting the same 3 enemies over and over just don't cut it. There's a hundred fan-made OBOR mods that are better than SDD in every way.