Double Dragon is often questionably crowned as the first brawling title to be released. I feel it is the first “modern” brawler as there were other brawlers, particularly by Taito, that were released before. That aside, Double Dragon is still a seminal release. You either love it or find the gameplay too archaic to enjoy. Me, I am in the latter category and been there from the first time I played DD in the front of a Safeway in Northern California. That doesn’t mean I cannot appreciate the place in history Double Dragon enjoys, nor do I discount the improvements it brought to the genre. Now, a fan has created an AGA port to the Commodore Amiga computer for fans to enjoy (there is an official port from the late 80s also available).
In the mid to late 80’s the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was often perceived as the best way to bring the arcade home. I remember reading gaming publications that covered computer games and seeing arcade ports on the Amiga and Atari ST and thinking they were, at least, MUCH better looking than the 8-Bit NES ports. I was obviously in the minority, and screenshots never reveal how well a game actually plays. Something I would learn years later as I got into gaming on computers over consoles.
This fan port, available on itch.io, does require a 3-button joystick, Amiga CD32 gamepad, or the clunky keyboard to play (not recommended for brawlers). It is mentioned that this port runs on the A1200 with 4MB of fastmem. Got that setup then you can enjoy full sound effects, music, and near arcade perfect colors.
If you are a fan of brawlers and came in on newer releases such as Mother Russia Bleeds, Streets of Rage 4, the Double Dragon 4, etc then you are going to be horribly upset at Double Dragon.
Considering the age of this game, I am confident not many reading this will fit that category but just in case, I wanted to include a disclaimer.
Double Dragon is old, it is archaic, it is tough as nails and unfair as often as is possible. It is an arcade game after all. A quarter muncher through and through.
If you enjoy the classics then give Double Dragon AGA a run.
