Mortal Kombat for Genesis had identical gameplay with Arcade Revision 3.0 with noticeable shorter recovery time for almost every single move. You can do such ridiculous stuff like Uppercut, RH (or aaLP/aaHP), Spear with Scorpion in the corner and etc and on the other hand some simple combos like aaHPx2, Teleport Punch with Scorpion will not work (because of the characters' size, they are smaller). Some sound tracks are changed - although there are quite a few sound really nice (like the background sound of The Pit). What is weird is that the throws are actually performed with HK button if you are using 6 button controller. There is no blood and Fatalities are censored but you can fix that easily with a Blood or DULLARD codes. The code notably spelled out "ABACABB" was a nod to an album by the band Genesis, obviously having the same name as the console. You can't knock out two heads with Cage and the broken throw stuff exists in this version too. Sub-Zero has the same stance as Scorpion. Although the game looks faster than the Arcade, it's actually slower (LOL). The animation is choppy and the controls are not that good either. Overall - its not a good choice for a serious gameplay.

Mortal Kombat II was much better than Mortal Kombat 1. The music of the game has remained true to the original and sounds really cool. This version became famous with the whole Fergality thing. No one knew what it is. I remember people swearing they saw Jax taking out an RPG and shot his opponent!. By activating a cheat menu in the options screen, Dan Forden's "Toasty" image is replaced by a crudely drawn sprite inserted by one of Probe Entertainment's programmers. This image, apparently drawn by the programmer's son, was intended as a replacement of Dan Forden toasty image as a way to connect the game to Probe, rather than Midway. However, in the final version, this was just left as a secret in the game. The game is slower than the arcade version but with faster recovery time. You can do for example RH, aaLP, Double Fireball with Shang Tsung in corner (while in the arcade version you would be able only to add HK) or the Spear Infinite with Scorpion in the corner. The lying frames exists here too. What is a real crime here is that they removed the crouch punch (D+LP) for some reason. Goro's Lair is missing and replaced with a blue version of The Portal stage. The whole game is running at lower frame-rate than the arcade version. While the first MK had nice shadows for the characters here they all share just one black spot. A lot of sounds are missing and lots of animations are cut or swapped. The Shang Tsung's victory stance, where he is laughing is just a still image. The laughing animation can be seen in PSX and Sega Saturn versions and only during the credits of the Arcade and MAT ports. The animation exists in the Sega Saturn version too. Baraka's winning stance also ends with him bowing forward with his swords pointing down, instead of ending with him standing straight with his swords crossed over his chest and Cage's victory pose ends with his hands up.

Mortal Kombat 3 was an incomplete game, but in my opinion, better than the SNES version. Well you got the duck punch now (down + lp) but it seems that the game was not tested enough and the pushback in corner was not activated after this hit. So, what that means is that everyone has an infinite in corner just using duck punches. The whole gameplay is choppy, some special moves and fireballs are harder to perform. The game is faster than the arcade. Almost everything that works in the original works here too, plus of course many broken things. The sound was not good. The poor quality of the sound and the graphics is really noticeable in the version. The Lost stage where you fight against Smoke and the Graveyard arenas are missing. Jax just disappears and then smashes you with his giant foot during his second Fatality, Stryker's Friendship uses dogs instead of characters, Liu Kang's arcade machine smash Fatality uses MK2 and not MK1 machine. Another difference in this home version is that some of the special moves actually have a second, alternative, key combination. Example here is Kabal's Blade Saw, instead B, B, B, RN you could execute the following: hold Back,Run, Run, Run. This technique works with all special moves which execution includes B,B or F,F. Special Moves that requires to hold a button could be performed by tapping twice Back or Forward and pressing a specific button (like Jax's Ground Pound F,F,F+LK). The final result of the execution of some moves is different too. Cyrax's throw for example will not change the on screen side of which the opponent is. On the good side, the developers did not forget to include some extras: you can play with the bosses. Unfortunately because of the crappy gameplay you can't enjoy them much. A lot of kodes and cheats were added too in order to make the fun last longer.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for Sega Genesis was a good and a bad game at the same time. In order to fit the big amount of additions the team had to remove other things. A lot of arenas are missing (although their background musics could be heard in the secrets menu). Sheeva was removed as a playable character and her place took Noob Saibot and Rain. Animalities and Mercies are also missing but hey, at least you get a brand new Brutalities, right? There are some special moves for the old characters that were added. Shang Tsung can morph into Robot Smoke, Rain and Noob Saibot. Nightwolf has the Red Shoulder Slam. The musics for some arenas are wrongly placed. For example the music from The Temple will be played on Scorpion's Lair. There is also that "Toasty" Brutality exclusive which I actually don't know how it works. This version also contains a rendition of Pong entitled MK4 which is the same as the one that appeared in the Genesis port of Mortal Kombat 3. Shao Kahn's treasures are only 10 instead of 12. Mileena, Ermac and Classic Sub-Zero are playable without any need of codes. The name of the characters are no longer announced which is really bad. Uppercutting in the Subway and Soul Chamber does not take the player to the level above. Scorpion's hellraiser Fatality is different. It just takes the opponent back to the hell stage where they simply catch on fire and explode. Sonya's friendship is her MK3 one not her Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 one. Air juggle combos are easier to do than in the Genesis MK3 version. In fact they fixed a lot of stuff that was wrong in Mortal Kombat 3. Kitana's kiss of death only inflates heads. Few words about the gameplay. It' s ridiculous that the duck punch (down + LP) infinites are still in the game, the pushback is smaller. Noob Saibot is so fast and broken that he quickly became God Tier. Human Smoke is not fast like he was in the Arcade and has the same combos Scorpion has. Although it's a big improvement from Mortal Kombat 3, it's still not a good port for a serious play.

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Double the dragons, double the fun

A lot of people have heard of this game and it is one of the most popular games ever released on the NES to my estimation. It took a while, but I finally got the opportunity to play this oft-praised beat 'em up and I have to say that I'm not at all disappointed. Since I have been reviewing a load of retro games lately, I just had to get my thoughts in on this great title.

The main game can be played with either one or two players, but it's always more fun to play with a friend, isn't it? However, here is where my biggest complaint comes in and where the reason why the game didn't get a better score comes into play: the multiplayer is not simultaneous. You take turns just like in Super Mario Bros., but why did I dock the game because of this? Apparently, the Arcade version and the Master System version both offer cooperative play, so it is a bit disappointing that the NES version does not feature this simple mode, but it doesn't subtract from the fun too much.

Right when you start off the game, a short cut-scene plays and right after that you area acquainted with the how the game is played. Basically, one or two enemies of various types try to beat you up, but you have to take them down first by using a surprisingly deep combat system for a NES game. While there are only two buttons, the punches and kicks work perfectly and you can also do a flying kick to knock some of the enemies down to the ground.

What makes the combat system deep, though, is that Double Dragon borrows elements RPGs. By hitting combos and defeating enemies you can experience points. When you get 1,000 points, you gain a heart. As you gain hearts you learn new fighting moves, and this definitely makes the game feel more immersive. On top of that, though, is the fact that you can also use weapons, which I'll get into next.

There is a variety of weapons for you to use, and you can gain them by either knocking down an enemy who has one or they can sometimes be found lying on the ground. At your disposal are weapons like oil drums that you can throw at enemies, whips to keep them on the ground, dynamite to throw in their face, and bats (among other things) just so they know that you're the boss. The weapons do disappear, though, which can sometimes be a little irritating.

You can move freely up and down the screen, so it's not your typical side-scroller. You have to defeat all of the enemies before you can head to the next screen, and at the end of each mission is a boss. You can climb ladders and fences and jump over bridges, which may sound simple, but they help make this beat 'em up a little different from the tons of other games that are similar.

Various environmental tricks are also present in the levels of Double Dragon like conveyor belts that you can trick enemies onto so they end up killing themselves, saving you some time. There are also various pits that obviously equal your death and you can take advantage of them to get rid of enemies as well.

While the main game is pretty fun, it does get a little repetitive when you die and have to go through it all again. The game is too slow to provide the same replay value as Super Mario Bros. and once you find the strategy that works, you won't ever deter from it since the goal is obviously to get as far as you can without losing a life. Thankfully, Double Dragon does what a lot of games do wrong and that's heal you after each mission in order for your experience to feel a bit more fair and the checkpoints are brilliant; you never feel cheated. It's a shame that developers didn't take notes from Double Dragon in order to make their games provide easier, but still challenging, gameplay.

So, once you get bored of the main game, there has to be an alternative for you, right? Well, if Double Dragon was a lot of other NES games, the answer would be no. Luckily, Double Dragon provides a simple two-player versus mode where you can pick from the game's protagonists or various enemies. Sadly, these fights are always done in the same level and both players always have to be the same characters for some weird reason. To mix it up a bit, though, by picking certain characters, weapons will appear in the middle of the level to make your fights a little more interesting.

Instead of the "save the princess" routine found in a ton of other NES games including Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, Double Dragon has a different take on the same basic tale. These two guys aren't special or royalty of any kind, so they aren't going to be saving a princess. On the contrary, the goal is basically to save your girlfriend, Marian, from a group called the Black Warriors. The Black Warriors obviously have a motive behind this kidnapping, and their motive is clear: they will return Marian in exchange for the protagonists, Billy and Jimmy Lee, to teach them their secret martial arts style called Sosetsuken. While this actually sounds like a pretty advanced plot for a NES game, you wouldn't know what was going on story-wise unless you read the manual as there are no cut-scenes in the game except for at the very beginning and at the very end.

Double Dragon's graphics are a mixed-bag. While the environments are more fleshed out than usual and very nice looking, almost SNES caliber, the characters look terrible. The enemies look even worse and some of them look like walking freaking tigers. Glitches can sometimes ruin the gameplay experience as I once fell right off a scaffolding into a pit to my death for no reason at all. Still, you have to admire what they did with the environments as, like I said, they are exceptional for a game released on the NES.

I wish I could say that Double Dragon had a memorable soundtrack, but I can't. The game's tunes aren't very catchy and all of the sound effects are too simple, even for the NES, to really be considered all that great.

Double Dragon will take some time in order to complete and the inclusion of multiplayer for both modes of play definitely racks up the replayability. Unfortunately, the main game does get a little on the repetitive side, so for a nice distraction there is the overly simple, but fun, one-on-one versus mode for your enjoyment. This adds a little more replayability, but unfortunately, the game doesn't offer much to unlock, but there is a surprise or two that can be found in the game for persistant players.

It took me a long time to finally get to play this game and while it does have some flaws, it does provide an extremely entertaining experience that is definitely worth it. While the graphics could have been better and the lack of cooperative play is somewhat of a letdown since other versions of the game include this, the sequel will hopefully fix these problems and bring an even better game to the table. It's sad that this franchise hasn't seen a recent release, but I would love to see this game remade for seventh generation consoles, and hopefully a game developer reads this and makes it happen.

Rating:      4.0

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The plot is that Dracula, right before he died in Castlevania, placed a curse on Simon that would kill him. Obviously not wanting to die, Simon sets out to resurrect and then re-kill Dracula by collecting his body parts (collecting Dracula's body parts would pop up again in some later games in the series).

To do this he needs the help of various villagers. Some give helpful tips, others sell Simon weapon upgrades, Holy Water to throw, or other items. This is where a significant flaw becomes apparent: the text was written by somebody with seemingly no grasp of the English language, meaning some villagers that give necessary hints spew complete nonsense. This makes the experience extremely confusing and hard to figure out at times.

When you are inside towns or travelling outside killing monsters, every five minutes or so a box will pop up in the air which tells you that it's becoming day/night (during this you can do nothing for about 10 seconds). During night-time monsters are stronger, houses/shops are closed and enemies even appear in towns. Killing monsters will eventually level up Simon, making him more resistant to damage and giving him more life, while these beasts also drop hearts with which items can be bought.

In mansions there are some stronger monsters, while your objective is to find a salesman somewhere who will sell you an Oak Stake. With this, you have to go to the end of the mansion to find a glowing orb — throw the Stake at this to break it open and find one of Dracula's body parts. Only two of the five mansions actually have bosses, although they can just be walked past. Defeating them gains you a special item, but this is unnecessary. An annoying part of mansions, meanwhile, are invisible pits - it is impossible to discern normal floors from blocks you can fall through. Sometimes this means you will have to constantly throw Holy Water to make it through a whole mansion (as the bottles will fall through fake floors). Some jumps in the game also require you to be pixel-perfect, or else you'll fall down a floor and have to backtrack, or worse, you die.

After collecting all of the body parts you must go to Dracula's castle which, strangely, just consists of empty hallways with no enemies at all. When you reach the end, Simon will use the bodyparts and Dracula will appear. Disappointingly, Dracula is very easy and can be killed in no time with a certain trick, which will make him never get a hit in; after this, the ending is shown. There are better endings if you took fewer days to kill Dracula.

One thing worth praising is the music: this game has a fantastic soundtrack and formally introduces one of the now most frequently used Castlevania tunes - Bloody Tears. It was used before in the arcade game Haunted Castle, but not many people have played that particular machine.

Castlevania II, while introducing some neat ideas, ultimately doesn't feel that much different from other classic Castlevania games, other than the use of items and the overworld (which has some ideas that would be reused in "Metroidvania" Castlevania games). The game is relatively easy, possibly the easiest Castlevania game, though if you lose all lives, you lose all your hearts (which act as money). This can be frustrating if you do die frequently.