Title: Double Dragon Advance
System: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Price: $6.99
Release Date: 11/09/2023
Story
In this redux of the original Double Dragon, Billy and Jimmy set out to rescue their girlfriend Marian from an evil gang, only this time they go through more than four stages, taking double the time and going through eight of em.
Presentation
We have the same quality wrapper as the Super Double Dragon port here, and it pretty much works with all of the features you’d expect, though the speed toggle is replaced by an option to slightly improve the audio quality over the scratchy GBA original. A decent addition, but as a GBA kid I always find myself sticking with that original compression just for nostalgia sake.
Visually, the game itself looks really good, bringing back a lot of older background assets and stages from across the franchise and giving it a nice 32 bit makeover, with sprites that really pop and look way better than they have any right to be. There are still images between stages to act as cutscenes, and these are pretty OK, but nothing to write home about.
The soundtrack in general? Pretty alright. Way better than Super, but a lot of these tracks are remixes from prior games, and I felt a lot of those sounded better in their original forms anyhow. That being said, the penultimate boss theme is excellent, and is an amazing remix of the NES Double Dragon II final boss song, so there are still some very good tracks that shine even with the GBA sound.
Gameplay
Starting up, you have three modes to choose from, with the usual 1P and 2P belt options, along with a new Survival mode, having your focus being on staying alive and knocking out as much foes as you can. The main game is where the real fun is though, and there’s even a 1P variant of the co-op mode available if you want to be able to switch between the two brothers.
Still, whether you want to go for a solo experience or a classic co-op offering, Double Dragon Advance plays like your typical entry in the franchise, even starting off with a pretty faithful remake of the first stage from the Arcade original. Only now instead of the basic attacks you had in the original Double Dragon, you have a bunch of extra moves you can perform via button combinations, along with the new ability to dash, also granting a new assortment of attacks.
From the classic spin kick, dashing tackles, the counter block, rising knee, and many more techniques, Double Dragon Advance doesn’t hesitate to let you play with your full arsenal right from the start, a far superior play experience compared to how the downgraded NES port handled your moveset. You even have plenty of returning weapons from not just the original Double Dragon, but even future entries like Super, since those lovely nunchuks that come in handy there make a comeback in Advance, so even the weapons feel great and fluid to use here, and beating on foes is just super satisfying with all of the options available to you.
Upon clearing the second stage, you’ll be greeted by a brand new environment not present in the original game! Indeed, Advance extends the full adventure to eight stages by throwing in remixed locales from across the series, and part of me feels it’s an attempt to redo what went wrong in Super as a few of the level themes come straight from that game, only with a lot more polish and better level design. Considering the same lead worked on both games, that isn’t surprising. As a result, the eight stages mix new and old together very well, creating a very fun ramp up to the final stage. With the extra moves alone the playability is just way better, and they didn’t need to expand on the game, but they sure did, and they managed to do it in a really good fashion.
Even more of a pleasant surprise for this version? The local Co-Op support! GBA games don’t typically support the link cable function in reissues due to how tricky it can be to reproduce that effect in emulation, but somehow the porting team at ITL managed to nail it, allowing this game to be played like a classic couch co-op experience as if it was always a console game from the beginning. It may not sound like much to celebrate, but this really is something to commend, and it works great with another player.
Conclusion
Double Dragon Advance manages to be quite the surprise, especially with reproduced local Co-Op! For a GBA port that is very impressive, and with the same sort of solid wrapper here as in Super, this is a wonderfully emulated version of this GBA hidden gem.
Being the first time I played this entry, I was pretty amazed by how well it felt like a “best of” the franchise. Even if some aspects seem a little disjointed, this truly does feel like the ultimate version of the Arcade original, and with local co-op being easier than ever, plus a fun survival mode, Double Dragon Advance is an outstanding beginner point for the series, and just a plain steal all around for belt scrolling fanatics! It may stick to basics and refine them, but that isn’t a bad thing at all when the combat is incredibly satisfying like this.
I give Double Dragon Advance a 9 out of 10.