S U P E R (aka Return of) _____ ____ _ _ _____ _ ____ | _ \ / __ \ | | | | | | ` \ | | | __/ | | \ \ / / \ \| | | | | | / / | | | _| | |_/ / \ \__/ /| `-^ | | | \ \ | |__ | |__ |____/ \____/ \___/ |_|_/_/ |____/ |____/ DRAGON --------------------------------------- F A Q by: hundley4ever@lycos.com V e r s i o n: 1.1 D a t e: 10.15.00 --------------------------------------- < W h a t's N e w ? > Version 1.1 (10.15.00) - Contact address changed. Version 1.0 (7.13.00) - Initial version of this FAQ. < C o n t e n t s > 1. Introduction 2. The Story 3. Movelist 4. Weaponry 5. Enemy Guide 6. Tips 7. The Japanese Version ==> Introduction In 1987, a game was released that would pave the way for a new big genre in videogaming. That game was Double Dragon. Featuring big graphics, three buttons, a cool soundtrack and a large variety of moves as well as two-player simulataneous play, it was a big hit among arcade goers. The gameplay was prety simple, you played a tough martial artist who had to fight his way through 4 missions to rescue his gal pal. Kill all the enemies and the boss in a mission, and the mission was completed. Though it sounded like a simple premise, Double Dragon's AI made playing through the game quite a task. The enemies in the game didn't just walk into your punches, they were defensive, sly and cunning. They could even pick up and use weapons. That's more than you can say for AI in beat'em ups that followed Double Dragon. Of course, you could use the cheap elbow trick to get through the game, but that would kill all the fun. 5 years and two bad sequels later, Double Dragon returns, this time on the SNES. With Super Double Dragon, developer Technos Japan went back to Double Dragon's roots and put together a very good game that is worthy of the Double Dragon name. ==> The Story Most beat'em ups have a paper thin plot. Double Dragon on the other hand, does not. As a matter of fact, Technos decided to skip over the process of providing Double Dragon with a plot. There are no cinema scenes, or even interludes to tell you why and who you're fighting. This is much unlike the last three Double Dragons, which each at least had some semblance of a plot. The basic plot of Super DD involves Billy and Jimmy Lee, the fighting brothers returning to rid the streets of the scourge of Duke and his gang. If you really need a plot to play the game by, here's one I crafted myself as follows: The city never truly sleeps. Crime, violence and injustice reign supreme while the law turns its back. The streets are infested with a disease that seems to have no cure. Death, destruction and decadence are left in its wake. If crime is truly an illness, then the filth from which it comes from is Duke, leader of the largest criminal empire in the world. His gang has grown to become a worldwide epidemic, sweeping order on the streets in one fell swoop. Who will stop him? The authorities are powerless, the officials just don't care and ordinary people are too frightened to walk the streets. Enter Billy and Jimmy Lee. Since saving their friend Marian twice and finding enlightenment on a worldwide quest for the Rosetta Stone, the Lees have gone into hiding. Truly legends of the street fight, there are rumors that the heroes have long been dead. As if they heard the world's plea for help, they re-emerge out of the ashes and return to the streets that they once called their home. Any rumor of their absence is extinguished, as they journey around the globe to rid the cities of the menace of Duke's gang once and for all. Criminals everywhere, look behind your backs. The Double Dragon have returned. ==> Movelist Billy and Jimmy basically have the same moves. Their combos are different, but otherwise they have the same moves. Dragon Power Meter info: The Dragon meter is new to Double Dragon. You charge it up via holding the L or R button and increase your "dragon power" The meter depletes while you release the button, when you get hit or while you're in the air. You can't charge it when you're holding a weapon or attacking. Controller: Y - Punch | X - Jump B - Block | A - Kick Hold L or R to charge up the dragon power meter. Moves: The moves are sorted by position. (note: a comma means "then", i.e X,Y = X then Y) ======== Standing ======== Y - Punch Combo A - Kick Combo X, Y - Jump Kick (press pad in opposite direction for back kick) Jump towards a wall and while touching it, press X again to do an off-the-wall leap press punch or kick after the jump to perform a jump kick. (note: attack combos may vary with distance, i.e close up the punch combo ends with an uppercut, while from afar the combo ends with a high punch) ==== Grab ==== To grab: Connect with a hit from your punch or kick combo, press control pad towards your opponent. Y - Punch Combo to Head, ended by elbow to the back of the neck A - Headbutts X - Throw Press pad in direction opposite your opponent with an attack button to punch or kick other enemies while stile holding your opponent. ============= Counter Block ============= Note: You can only counter block when you block a punch by certain opponents. Y - Punch Combo to Head, ended by last punch barrage to head A - Kick Combo to Head, ended by last kick barrage to head X - Throw ============ Dragon Moves ============ You have several dragon moves. They vary with how much dragon power you have and which button you press. Meter filled about 1% - 50%: Y - Backfist A - Flying Kick Meter Filled about 50% - 99%: Y - Hurricane Kick A - Hurricane Kick (note: press pad direction before button to determine direction of kick) Meter Full: Y - Knockdown Punch A - Knockdown Kick ==> Weaponry There are a variety of weapons in Super Double Dragon, each very devastating. However, you'll find that all of them are initially in the hands of your enemies. Most times you'll have to beat them up to make them drop the weapon. Use the punch button to use the weapon once you've picked it up. (note: for all weapons, excluding the barrel and the rock, you can still use your kick combo by pressing kick.) Knife: The knife is a very good weapon that can kill most enemies in one throw. However, if the enemy hits you with it, it can take away about half your life! To get it out of your enemy's hands, try jumpkicking him to knock him down. If you can time it right, you can also deflect it with an attack while it's being thrown at you. Nunchaku: These old martial weapons were a favorite of Bruce Lee. Now you can do the weapon justice by using them to unleash a quick, unstoppable combo on your opponents. This weapon is as close as the game gets to an invicibility powerup. Walk up to your enemies and press punch rapidly to unleash a devastating nunchaku barrage that's almost unblockable and that does plenty of damage. Boomerang: This faithful weapon returns to you after it is thrown. It hits opponents on the return as well as the initial throw. To catch it, either keeping standing in the direction you threw it, or walk in the direction you threw it in to grab it more quickly. Staff: The staff is a slightly useful weapon with limited range but decent attack power. If it's the only weapon available, it's worth using, but if there are other weapons on the screen you're better off picking up them instead. You attack with it slowly and it takes away your quicker, much useful punch combo while it's in your hands. Bomb: The bomb does a great amount of damage, but is very hard to use. After it's thrown, it bursts into a moving mass of flame that moves in one direction. While it can clear out a good number of enemies at once, you're usually best off trying to avoid it instead of picking it up. The flame travels in the direction that the grey part of the bomb points. ==> Enemy Guide I don't know the names of most of the characters, so I just made them up. "Rock" - "Rock" is a guy wearing a yellow-colored jacket and has bushy hair. He likes to use his punch combo and a hop followed by a kick, which he sometimes ends his punch combo with. If he hits you several times with the punch combo and you're dizzied and then he goes for the hop kick, try holding the pad in the direction opposite Rock to escape. Try to anticipate his punches; you can block and then counter them. "Sonny" - "Sonny" is the guy wearing the headband with the red sun from the Japanese flag. He likes to use his sweep attack, punch and hop kicks a lot. "Sonny" is quite similar to "Rock" and you can also counter his punch off a block. You can defeat him and "Rock" pretty easily if you don't let your enemies superior numbers overwhelm you. "Lance" - "Lance" is the guy with the swords. He has a variety of sword slashes, including aerial ones. You can actually block most of his sword attacks, but you can't counter them. He too should be easy to defeat. "Jim" - "Jim" is the guy in the black jacket and black pants. He seems to a be a skilled martial artist with a good variety of kicks and other attacks. He is susceptible to jump kicks and backfists. The "backfist combo" (see: Tips) should work well with him in most situations. Keep your distance from him and work him over with the jump kicks and backfists. "Leo" - "Leo" is the kickboxer with the taped fists and black tanktop. He has a variety of kicks and loves to uppercut. Keep your distance from him and use your kick combo to knock him down. If he blocks, retreat and try again. "Chan" - "Chan" is the martial arts guy in the apron-like uniform. Don't use your kick combo on him; more often than not, he'll counter it and flip you onto your back. Keep you distance from him and use your punch combo on him. Jumpkicks seem to work well against him too. "Al" - Big "Al" is the rotund clown-like guy with the green hair. He loves using his spin attack and can also pick you up and throw you. Just use your punch or kick combos to beat him. Jumpkicks work well too. Be careful when he blocks, he may follow it up with a spin. "Mr. Big" - "Mr. Big" is the tall guy with the red jacket and the sunglasses on. He is extremely vulnerable to your punch combo. Duke - Duke is mad boss of the gang. He has blond, knotted up hair and wears yellow pants. He seems to be a kickboxing-type. Oddly enough, he's not too tough to beat. He should be defeated easily with your punch and kick combos with a few hurricane kicks here and there. The hard part is tending with his cronies, who gang up on you when you face him. ==> Tips - Don't approach the game like you do with Final Fight and similar game of that nature. This is just like the original Double Dragon; enemies are defensive and swarm in on you when you're vulnerable. Tend to opponents on both sides with punches or kicks. If you're in trouble, the jump kick is great for making room to move and the hurricane kick is great for moving to a less populated side of the screen. - Whenever the screen is not full of any enemies, take this opportunity to charge up your dragon power meter. - The knockdown blows that you get when you charge up the dragon meter aren't worth it. The hurricane kick does more damage to more enemies and allows you to escape a gang of enemies surrounding you. - The elevator battle in the first level can be quite hard. Try to charge up your super meter at the beginning of the sequence and hit the first two enemies with a hurricane kick. Don't pick up the staff; it's way too slow and you don't have room to manuever to avoid a counterattack if you miss with it. - Use the speedbags in Mission 3 to your advantage. Position youself a safe distance away from the bag so it does not hit you when it bounces back towards you. Now hold L or R and press punch repeatedly. You'll hit the bag which will hit any enemies in front of it multiple times for good damage. - CHEAT: Unlimited Continues When both players are dead and one credit is left, press start on both controller simultaneously to continue and get seven more credits. - CHEAT: Unlimited Lives Using your Pro-Action Replay device or the rom patching feature in your emulator, enter the following replay code: 7E00DC09 - CHEAT: Game Genie Codes Using your game genie device or the rom patching feature in your emulator, enter the following codes to get the specified effect. DF8C-070B 1 extra credit--2-player game A DB86-070B 9 lives--1-player game D186-070B 6 lives--1-player game DF86-070B 1 life--1-player game DB88-0D6B 9 lives--2-player game A D188-0D6B 6 lives--2-player game A DF88-0D6B 1 life--2-player game A 4A86-6F05 Infinite lives--player 1 DDB3-A7F1 Dragon power increases faster 1D7B2-A7B5 Prolonged maximum dragon power ==> The Japanese Version The Japanese Version of Super Double Dragon is a little different than the American version. It is called "Return of Double Dragon" and is subtitled: "Sleeping Dragon has awoke". Here are a few differences between the two: - The title screen is different; the original Double Dragon theme plays instead of the new track in Double Dragon. Also, the screen says "Return of Double Dragon" and you can actually SEE the Double Dragon logo on this screen. - Demo of the first level is a little different. - "Return of Double Dragon" had an option menu with the ability to change the difficulty, # of credits and music and sound tests. Super Double Dragon only allows you to change the Stereo/Mono setting on the main screen. - Enemies in "Return" are less aggressive on default difficulty. In "Super", you can't change the difficulty level and the enemies are more aggressive and use different techniques at times. The game is as hard, if not harder than "Return" on its hardest difficulty level. - Enemy layout is different. - The music in Mission 3 is different from "Super". Instead of playing the music from Mission 1 of the original Double Dragon, it plays a new track. Just like in "Super", the music from Mission 1 of the original DD shows up in Mission 5. - The music in Mission 7 is different. While both games play the tune from the title screen in the last mission, the tune from the title screen is different in "Return", so it plays the theme from the first Double Dragon instead of the original tune. The tune from the title screen in "Super" is in "Return" and can be accessed via the music test, as can other tunes that weren't used in the game. - Mission 7 is longer in "Return". Unlike in "Super", where you fight Duke in front of the double doors with the dragon on them, you fight him in a room with spikes on the walls in "Return". You enter the double doors when you get to them in "Return" and you further explore Duke's lair. The area after the double doors is a weirdly contructed area. There are pits, but you can't fall in them. There are also stairs, but you have to climb them by jumping on them. - The last battle with Duke is different. First, you face some of the regular enemies, then you face the "bosses" (such as the kickboxing guy you first meet at the end of the second level) one by one as they come out of the door. Then, you face Duke. - The ending in "Return" is a little different than the one in "Super". All you get is the credits. In "Super" they actually gave you something resembling an ending, although it was just a few paltry lines of text that said something along like the Lees defeated Duke and rid the streets of their gang and the Lees were never seen again or something.