Bios- Billy Lee

Height 5'10"

Weight 165 lbs. 

The Hero of our story, he began his Kung Fu training at age 12 and became a Kung Fu-Sosaiken Master at 20.

Super Joanie loves Chachi

I'm not into sports. Wrestling is the closest I come and that's not really the same thing. Athleticism, sure, but not really a sport. I'm obviously not playing many sports based video games. There's a few I do enjoy, and it's not really the actual game that I mind... it's just I'm largely not interested. One game that's technically a sports game that I do like, however, is Super Doge Ball/Nekketsu Kōkō Dodgeball Bu. Just in-case the name wasn't clear, it's a dodge ball video game and part of the Kunio- Kun game series.

You know, I appreciate the Kunio-Kun games so much that one day I should take a deep dive into the series proper and not just the old Nintendo Games. I didn't even know it was an ongoing series as a kid, I just noticed all the characters in the seemingly unrelated games looked alike. I got some insight (thanks to the internet) and I for the most part like all the games in the series I've played (Renegade, not so much). So maybe a deeper dive should go in the 'to do' list.

Double Dragon 4: Underground Nightmare!

I was a big fan of Double Dragon as a kid. Don't get me wrong, I still love it, but back then... man. I'd draw the characters, play out adventures using action figures and so on. I still remember the first time I played Double Dragon. My brother and I would go to the neighborhood Circle K. We'd play the arcade games, eat candy, and drink Slush Puppies. It was a pretty popular place for kids in the neighborhood. Much to the obvious annoyance of the cashier.

Occasionally the games would be swapped out and one day there was new game called Double Dragon. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before (never played Renegade until years later on the NES). You had these cool guys fighting other guys, they could pick up things to hit the other guys with, and they all looked like Mad Max. It was amazing. I spent the rest of the day talking about it until I was finally told to not say another word for the rest of the night. Which I did and gt in trouble. I was surrounded by folks who never played Double Dragon. They didn't understand.

Soon enough I was hooked on the NES version and it's sequels. What really added to it all was the instruction manuals. Back in those days game manuals were usually more than just instructions booklets. Often they were the source for a lot of the games fiction. The backstory and characters would get covered with some cool art usually. It was somewhere during this time that I came up the perfect Double Dragon game. Double Dragon 4: Underground Nightmare! Being 12 and not having much of an understanding how the video game world worked, my solution to creating this game was to write and draw the story and characters for the instruction book. Then send it in to the game companies and they'd just throw it together. To be fair I was 12 and admittedly a pretty weird kid. Not at all like the well adjusted adult I grew to be.

*cough*

That story? Those characters? After the events of Part 3, Jimmy turned evil again (he was the villain of the original after all) and kicked Billy out of the Double Dragon dojo. Now homeless, Billy lives underground in the sewers (like the TMNT). It's there that he finds his long lost other brother Timmy! Timmy also is  martial arts master and reveals Jimmy has been evil THE ENTIRE TIME and was behind the events of part 2 and 3 THE ENTIRE TIME! Jimmy also wasn't really their brother, but an evil robot from the future (like T2). Now that Billy is living in the sewers and has found Timmy, Jimmy sends The Black Shadow gang to get rid of them once and for all. But now, they're all mutants!

To be honest, I kinda still want to see it made.

The Combatribes Are Good Enough

I love a good old school beat 'em up. These kind of games were the best part of an arcade back in the day. Fighting your way through hordes of bad guys before meeting the levels usually insane boss with flashy graphics and loud music blaring.

The theming of the games usually varied from post apocalyptic gang warfare to medieval fantasy. Often popular licenses would show up in the genre and those games would usually have the biggest crowds. Trust me, there's nothing better than Homer Simpson beating the shit out of a zombie.

 

The Combatribes by Technos Japan Corp was a pretty popular game that's gotten a little obscure these days. Most people see it as the spiritual follow up to Double Dragon. That's not unfair as it's got the same look and vibe of the Double Dragon games. Beserker, the leader of The Combatribes even looks like a beefier Billy Lee.

The level layout is a little more like Renegade which Techno made before Double Dragon. Instead of a ongoing scrolling level, you generally have one large area to fight the hordes of enemies before taking on the boss. Building on the Renegade play style, some levels have more than one area of bad guys to clear out before facing the boss. 

Unlike the prior Technos games, Combatribes turns the craziness all the way up. Each level you face a different street gang who matches a theme. For example, you face The Demon Clowns in a amusement park. All of the street gangs are all working under the big crime boss. However when you finally reach the final battle, he is killed by the true main villain. A cyborg named Martha Splatterhead whom you then have to defeat.

Did that sound a little crazy? That's because it is. The enemies range from bikers to cyborg army men with some roller blade punks and clowns thrown in for good measure. Facing this freak show is The Combatribes. A group former military soldiers turned street vigilantes who are also cyborgs on the SNES version. Because why not? The three members range from strong but slow, fast but weak, and the balanced leader. You have a range of martial arts moves to fight in the neon futuristic streets and can even pick up some items to use as weapons.

Some of those characters, moves and abilities are absent in the home version of the game. Another difference between versions is in the arcade your life meter is in numbers while on SNES it's a standard life bar. When you die in the arcade you're forced to continue with another quarter, but if you insert one while playing that number value on your life meter keeps going up. It's pretty fun to pump a ton of quarters in and watch those numbers rise. Technos had a great habit of putting extra effort their arcade to home conversions. Instead of simply porting it over, they'd make it fit the medium better. The original Double Dragon had a leveling up system and an additional versus mode. The Combatribes has cinema scenes to explain the story better and a versus mode as well. 

The game was fairly violent as you can imagine and featured edgier characters. The Slaughter Troops gang of cyborg army men was lead by a boss named Swastika for example. That was tuned down for the North American SNES version. Blood replaced with sweat and saliva, now the Demolition Troops are lead by Master Blaster. Probably a good idea as your younger brother was more likely to play this than in the more mature arcade scene. It's still a really good game regardless of where and how you play it.

Ringing in 2020 with Double Dragon part two

Am I the only one to find it slightly weird that it's almost 2020? I knew I lived in the future before... but this is a little crazy. As normal, I expect to see people asking where their flying cars are totally ignoring just how much they do with their phones. Speaking of phones. For those of you reading this on the mobile site, just like earlier you won't notice a difference. But for those using the desktop version of the site, under the break is the rest of the bios from the NES version of the Double Dragon instruction manual!

Ringing in 2020 with Double Dragon part one

It's New Years Eve! You've probably guessed just like Christmas last week that the holidays have disrupted things and you're totally right! Just like I'm you doing a mix of enjoying the holiday breaks and being completely confused by my odd work schedule during this time (I have no clue what day it is). But thanks to scheduled posts I can plan out in advance having SOMETHING on the site during this weird time.

During the 8-bit and 16-bit gaming eras I loved pouring through the games instruction manual. There was nothing worse when a game had a half assed manual included, because so many had great ones. More than just the basic instructions to play the game, the better ones would have all sorts of world building fiction included. The games back story, info on various items and power ups, and often little blurbs about the characters. I loved these and would read them over many over and over. Under the break (for non-mobile users) is a few from a old school favorite of mine, Double Dragon! Screen capped directly from the NES versions manual itself.

Double Dragon 2 The Revenge

This is the exact moment when shit got real.