Double Dragon Neon Switch Review

 Double Dragon Neon
Developed By: Wayforward
Published By: Majesco
Date of Release: December 21, 2020
Price: $14.99

Ahh, the 80's. The golden era of pop culture. It brought us many wonderful things such as the NES, Ray-Bans, Transformers, and bigass hair. It also brought us an arcade classic, a 2-player beat-em-up known as Double Dragon. It got everything right, from smashing gameplay to perfectly executed co-op mayhem. And now WayForward has stepped out of the DeLorean to hand us their throwback to the past: Double Dragon Neon. This magnificent tour-de-force blows the 80's head off with a rocket launcher, builds a cyborg out of it's corpse, and then puts said cyborg on a surfboard to the future to kick modern gaming convention in the cojones. All while listening to hair metal on a boombox. It has been a long time since I have seen a game that has this level of insanity taking itself with a gospel level of seriousness. And now for good measure, it's available on the Nintendo Switch!

And what would Double Dragon be without the twin heroes, Billy and Jimmy Lee? WayForward has brought the original dudebros to life with amazingly detailed cel-shaded models. All the classic enemies are here, from the lowly street thug cannon fodder, leather-clad whip-cracking bondage babes, and the infamous Abobo. Add to that the main villian, Skullmageddon, who could easily be described as a skeletal version of The Shredder from TMNT. That is if The Shredder was batsh*t insane, fond of femur-based double entendres, had Skeletor from He-Man voicing him, all while tripping balls on LSD. This guy is pure evil though, and he makes no bones about trying to pun you to death. Again, the voice acting for this dude alone makes me glad they opted for voiced dialog. On the music front, Jake Kaufman (AKA Virt) has brought the sound of the 80's back to life with a massively awesome mixture of vocal pop and hard rockin' hits. The complete soundtrack is downloadable at his Bandcamp page for the low low price of NADA, so check it out!

The gameplay in Double Dragon Neon is largely unchanged from the style of the original Double Dragon games, however there are a few new addons that change things up considerably. As you make your way through the game, defeated enemies will drop mixtapes. These audio treats come in two flavors, upgrade tapes that add to your stats, and Sōsetsuken tapes that add to your special attacks. Be sure to grab as many as you can, because you can stack each tape to further upgrade your stats and moves! The special attacks are quite varied, ranging from a classic cyclone kick to a hadouken-inspired fireball. Be sure to listen to each mixtape as well, the lyrics are good for a chuckle.

Back at the time of the original Steam release I started out playing Double Dragon Neon hoping to play a decent tribute to a beloved game, and I was not disappointed. That feeling of wonder still holds true to this awesome Switch port. WayForward has ripped the 80's a new one, and yanked this glorious beast out of the gaping void. The only thing really missing is the online co-op, but the local experience more than makes up for it. So if you are pining for the days of synthpop music, big hair, bad puns, and beating the ever-loving crap out of big dudes named Abobo, Double Dragon Neon will NOT disappoint. And it's only gonna take up $15 of your hairspray budget!