Yamilia and myself had the opportunity to play Double Dragon: Neon over at the Majesco booth. It is a nostalgic new approach of the classic Double Dragon beat-em ups. In the demo unit we played, there was just one level, and a boss fight.

The controls were simple enough, with a punch, kick, and throw button for attacks, and jump, move, and projectile commands as well. You can pick up various garbage lying on the streets, and weapons that enemies drop after you defeat them. You can either use what you have at your disposal as a new weapon for a limited amount of time, or use it as a projectile and throw it at the enemies. It’s pretty standard from the classic Double Dragon games, and other beat-em ups alike.

The main difference is the huge graphical overhaul that the game has received. The two main characters you use are a vibrant, very finely cel-shaded in an anime style that you would expect from such games as Street Fighter IV. The backgrounds weren’t really anything to remember, but it does fit the alley style that it’s most likely going for. To quote Yami: “You couldn’t even pick up the trash cans.”

One aspect which I found awesome was the high-fives. When facing your co-op partner, if you both press the right analog stick in the same direction, it has a sort of buffer effect that allows you to aid your partner. One particular high-five we did actually split our HP bar equally, helping me, who had literally no HP left.

The soundtrack was this amazing shred-track with some 80’s style hair metal solos and riffs. You can really tell what direction they want to bring Neon in.

Overall, the experience as a whole was a pretty fun romp. It’s simple fun, and the high-fives are quite an interesting game-changer. They’ll add a lot of different strategy techniques, and make it quite fun. You can expect Double Dragon: Neon in Summer 2012.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/OMX-LJC3ta0[/youtube]