Revenge of the Wounded Dragons

PlayStation 3 owners have a chance to play some old-school side-scrolling action on their system via PlayStation Network. Revenge of the Wounded Dragon (ROTWD) developed by Wanako Studios and Artificial Mind and Movement; ROTWD is an open love letter to the nostalgic era of beat-em-up arcade classics. The most notable comparison would be Double Dragon. When I first heard the title, I thought it was a sequel to the classic or a redux version most classic games are getting the redraw HD graphics and Dolby soundtrack. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the case, the phrase ‘often imitated, never duplicated’ applies here to ROTWD. What was an open love letter to Double Dragon, turned into a checklist of what I am going to in this game but try to enhance it; emphasis on the ‘try’.

It has beautiful HD graphics and vibrant colours in the game. The level design highlights the visuals of the game; the backgrounds stand out more than the foreground. You’ll battle in swamp areas to construction sites and you’ll be impressed with the amount of detail the developers put into the background. Yet, you’ll also notice that the character models don’t take up much space on the screen in fact all the models are small and don’t carry the same amount of lustre than what was produced in the background. It would have been nice to see more attention on the foreground rather than the background.  There’s a sense of scale that's lost here in the side-scrolling action. Where the camera should have been more up close to the action in the foreground. Games like Bionic Commando Rearmed zoomed out to inform the player a large boss character was approaching. In ROTWD that wasn’t the case, more like to show off HD background visuals. camera zoom in and out of control would have been more beneficiary here.

The game possesses very little sound effect and poorly deliver dialogue that was phoned in.  In fact, speech is none existent in the in-game cut scenes. At one point in the game, you see a cut scene where the two brothers are interrogating one of the henchmen. He moves his lip but no voice or even text is given. Granted there is a scene showing what is happening to your sister but why didn’t the developers put in at least some text, it would have been nice and it requires little to no effort. The cut scenes are well-drawn in a comic/anime style, but it does take you out of the moment when you see a character move lips and no text or speech is provided. The story doesn’t have to be compelling but it does need to be told in a better manner than this. The music gives you that classic funky soul vibe you’d hear in old kung fu films from the 1970s. Yet if was usually the same rift used in level after level, it got tiresome.

The game composes itself with very simple gameplay mechanics. You use the square button to punch and the triangle to kick. The X button is for jumping from platform to platform. During your encounters, you get to pick up a variety of objects and weapons such as nunchucks and guns with the circle button. Shaking the controller via some rarely used Sixaxis function allows you to activate a power-up bar. As you start the game you notice that there is no block button to defend against oncoming attacks. Believe me when I say there will be many waves of attacks that you find yourself becoming numb to the action. ROTWD does have interesting ways to evade oncoming attacks. You can use the right stick to evade attacks to get some of your space back to do some attacks. The animations from these commands look fluid and are impressive to watch.  The best part of playing this game is you and a friend team up to clear the streets. The game offers 2 player co-op and players can do co-op moves such as jump over their friend’s back and launch into a flying kick. Also if one person is failing in health you can transfer life from one individual to the next to keep him alive. ROTWD also offers a bunch of split-screen mini-games where you and your buddy can compete in mundane tasks like who can collect the most lanterns in a set amount of time or fight against each other in a one-on-one fight. Now if only they added an online co-op, how that option wasn’t included is beyond belief. With the standard left to right side-scrolling action, a few ladders and holes give you some vertical and jumping platforms to switch up the pacing.

Where the gameplay suffers is that the game gets repetitive that you get tired of seeing the same faceless thugs, the same bosses, same weapons. The game allows you to create combos but even that got boring and the highest combo I could score was 7 hit combo. The game does have finishing moves that can be performed on enemies, which range from breaking their necks to doing a Bruce Lee one-inch punch. Don’t kid yourself, while these move sets sound great and easy to perform, like the gameplay they get repetitive. That is because certain moves are easier to pull off than others. It's not a matter of levelling up, it's usually an issue with the controls connecting together. There is some enjoyment to be found not a whole lot. Every time I broke a thug's neck you hear the announcer in the background say “Bamboo Breaker” after hearing it the first 10 times I wanted to break bamboo over my head.

While the game is impressive it still carries a formula that hasn’t changed much since the last time I saw Double Dragon in the arcades. If you need to spend $10 then expect to get at least 10 minutes of fun for this title. There isn’t much replay value here unless you want to get the trophies and get the collectable items. There is an online leaderboard to post scores from the mini-games but is anyone ever going to bother with this option? A story that revolves around 2 brothers with no names, going out to rescue their sister from a crime boss that killed their grandfather. that’s what’s about, from the non-narrated cut scenes. The fun runs out fast and there is nothing revolutionary in this downloadable game. If you’re craving a side-scrolling beat 'em-up then you buy the Sega Genesis Collection released a couple of months back.