 Many franchises that originated on the NES made the leap to the SNES with great fanfare, everything from Mario to Castlevania to Mega Man to Tecmo Super Bowl, but one series that people were a little hesitant about was Double Dragon, because the last entry on the NES Double Dragon 3 The Sacred Stones was a total flop. You get one life, no continues, and the game is way too hard, plus the beat em up gameplay is too much of a departure from what makes Double Dragon great in the first place. Thankfully the developers Technus Japan went back to the series roots with Super Double Dragon. This is much more like the first two NES games rather than the awful third game, to the point that they even use rearranged themes from the first game on certain levels. That's pretty cool. This is traditional beat em up gameplay here, but arranged in that unique methodical Double Dragon style. Y is punch, A is kick, B is block, and X is jump. I know that sounds a little weird, but there is a reason for it. Progressing in this game is predicated on blocking your enemy's attacks. B when your opponent swings at you and it allows you to grab them, it's not like in Final Fight where you just walk up to a guy and grab him for instance. This game makes you work for it by timing your enemy's attack properly. Once you've got an enemy, you can press Y or A to beat the crap out of them in a nice bit of sprite animation, or press B again to toss them to the other side of the screen. You can still fend off enemies if you've got a hold of someone, by pressing the opposite direction on the D pad while kicking, and that's a nice touch. In addition to that you can also hold L or R while attacking, and that'll deliver a stronger punch or a flying kick, so in other words it's kind of like the turbo charge in NBA Jam. That's what the meter up top is for. You can hold L or R until the meter reaches halfway and do a huge spinning kick, or until the meter fills up top entirely and you can knock enemies down with one shot, and that lasts for about 10 seconds. There's also weapons here like nunchucks and kendo sticks, and of course I have to mention that this game is two-player co-op, with both the regular gameplay and the style where you can hit each other. Now, one thing that clearly stands out about Super Double Dragon that can't be ignored is that this game plays at a very slow pace, especially compared to other beat-em-ups. I mean, take a look at Turtles in Time, or even stuff like Ninja Warriors. Now go back to Super Double Dragon. I totally understand if this game is too slow-paced for you, and unfortunately this game only operates at 30 frames per second as opposed to 60, so yeah, that's kind of a problem. But the thing is, you've got to approach this one differently than you do other beat-em-ups because of what I pointed out earlier. The block mechanic is so important to progressing in the game. There are other moves here like holding down and pressing kick, but you still leave yourself open to take damage. You got to utilize the block function if you want to progress in this game. And personally, I like that about Super Double Dragon because it makes it stand out as something a little different, and because all the fundamentals here are executed so well. The hit detection and the timing are consistent, and the shoulder button and special attacks add a little bit to the gameplay as well. And sadly, I got to point out another flaw here that makes itself known pretty quickly. The enemy design here is very limited, even by beat-em-up standards. There's only about four different enemy patterns in this game, and man, when you're slogging through a beat-em-up, that gets old pretty quickly. Still, Super Double Dragon stays true to its name, and it reminds me a lot of the first Double Dragon game for better or for worse. Yeah, it sucks that this game runs so slowly at 30 frames per second, and there's seven long levels to get through with no passwords if you want to finish this one. But it's a beat-em-up where the combat is actually a little different for once, and it's still a fun time with a second player.