Double Dragon II: The Revenge (NES version)

“The Revenge” is an interesting sort of frustrating. Strides are made to make sense of the odd control scheme of the first title, with several encounters requiring the long reach provided by the back kick to safely approach enemies before properly pummeling them, representing a sort of strategy often absent in these old brawlers. There’s also, however, bullshit platforming sections and traps that practically necessitate losing a life, to say nothing of the countless waves of enemies that don’t seem placed to facilitate interesting fights but instead to suck up your hit points. Still better than the first game, though.

5