Double Dragon IV

Double Dragon IV
How could Arc System Works butcher a game series this bad? Genre(s): Beat 'em up
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows PlayStation 4 Nintendo Switch Release Date: PlayStation 4 WW: January 29, 2017 JP: February 8, 2017 Microsoft Windows January 30, 2017 Nintendo Switch September 7, 2017 Developer(s): Arc System Works Publisher(s): Arc System Works Country: Japan Series: Double Dragon Predecessor: Double Dragon Trilogy (by release date) Double Dragon II: The Revenge (chronologically)

Double Dragon IV is a side-scrolling beat 'em up game developed and published by Arc System Works (the developers behind the BlazBlue and Guilty Gear franchise), after acquiring the rights to the franchise and purchasing the long-bankrupt Technōs Japan, the creator of the series. Most of the former Technōs Japan staff assisted with the creation of the game.

It was released for the PlayStation 4 on January 29, 2017, with a PC port releasing a day later. A Nintendo Switch port was released on September 7, 2017.

Why It’s Half than Double

1. Style over Substance: The game is heavily made around nothing but nostalgia fuel for older fans of the franchise, with very little content.
2. All of the character sprites in the game are literally ripped-off from the NES versions of the previous games, which is nothing but signs of laziness.
3. Screen tearing is very rampant in several levels, which is unacceptable for a modern game, especially since it uses the Unity Engine.
4. The game, for odd reasons, disowned the canonical Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones and continued the story from Double Dragon II: The Revenge, which can be confusing for some fans.
5. Due to the bad graphics, there are some very obvious spot effects during the gameplay.
6. The game looks like more fan-made game maker game than an official sequel, which means that the game either rushed to coincide with the anniversary of the original game.
7. The game is full of bugs at launch, (PS4 and PC only), the later released Switch port is bug/glitch free thankfully.
8. There are very few special moves to unlock and obtain, but they're extremely under powered compared to the punches and kicks.
9. Input lag is very obvious between the button presses and the moves' execution.
10. The stage-ending bosses are ridiculously easy to defeat as all you need are repeated button mashing to kill them.
11. Very stiff animations for all of the characters in the game.
12. All the enemies have the same generic designs, as a result of using the same sprites for the NES games.
13. Unfair difficulty spikes. The off-screen enemies are unforgiving as they can toss projectiles at you with pinpoint accuracy, but once they get onscreen, they'll reduce themselves to nothing but punching bags for the protagonists.
14. Ear-bleeding static sounds that accompany the sound effects.
15. Very repetitive; you'll end up fighting the same enemy types numerous times throughout the game.
16. The hitboxes are very crappy, as your punches and kicks can sometimes don't register properly, even if you are attacking the enemies point-blank.
17. Some of the regular enemies require a lot of punches and kicks in order to stay down permanently, as they get up way too quickly and easily.
18. Some of the enemies will deliberately wait on top of ladders or over your body so as to deal more blows against you.
19. There's already a Double Dragon 4 called Super Double Dragon, so the title is kinda redundant.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Awesome rock soundtrack. Too bad that it is ruined by the random static sounds.
2. The game did a good job at recreating the older games in the series, but only visually.

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