Roots over Reboots: Talking Double Dragon Neon with WayForward's Sean Velasco

Double Dragon Neon’s beating up people this September in a world where brawlers aren’t the mainstay. We get the occasional one that breaks the mold of not only being just a brawler, but also offering deep combat like Castle Crashers or the River City Ransom love letter in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. But all those brawlers modernize elements found in classic 80’s brawlers.

Double Dragon Neon instead, goes back to its roots to include the 80’s flavour to make the throwback more authentic to the gameplay. Double Dragon Neon was developed by WayForward, a developer who knows their way around 2D with games with Mighty Switch Force and Bloodrayne: Betrayal. I talked to Sean Velasco, the game’s director, and discussed about how going backwards ultimately made it more authentic to the Double Dragon name.

“The very first pitch for Double Dragon Neon was 80’s themed, and Majesco was all over it. The game also has the blessing of Kishimoto, the original creator of the series.” It even allowed them to create new enemiessuch as with the main villain of the game named Skullmageddon.

It didn’t stop with just the game engine and setting. They managed to add in things never before in the series from high fives that unlock special all-around attacks that all draw from some brand of 80s entertainment. Whether it be movies or music with the added mix-tape system that allows players to buff themselves like perks. Velasco also said they have taken cues from other classic 80’s games but still feels the gameplay stands on its own. “The 80’s theming is just icing on the cake. The theming draws people in, but the gameplay hooks ‘em!”

This got me thinking for a minute. What if Double Dragon was rebooted today? Not in the throwback sense that WayForward is going for but for a 2012 audience? It would suck just like when Ninja Gaiden 3 tried to appeal to a more modern audience. It would most likely add unnecessary emotion, unskippable cut-scenes and narrative, which Double Dragon had very little to none of.

I posed the question to Sean, and he offered a great food for thought.

“I count Ninja Gaiden Black as one of the best games ever made. When I played [Ninja Gaiden] 3, I nearly began to cry at what happened to the once-amazing franchise. The endless quick time events and brain dead combat show a fundamental lack of understanding of what made that series great in the first place.”

Sean talked about how he was a “firm believer in tone over narrative, and player growth over in-game character growth”. Double Dragon Neon accomplishes this through the weight of the characters you know from your childhood, since I grew up with Billy and Jimmy Lee on my NES, and they’re emulated great here in terms of who they are and what the tone that the series conveys.

Double Dragon was never cut-scene heavy. The first one had your basic opening of a dude punching your girlfriend, then the garage door opens and you’re beating thugs up. There’s no jokes, there’s no banter, it’s just beating up dudes uninterrupted.

Now imagine being interrupted after every battle? Being told the main characters motivation each time? Not every game needs to be filled with narrative, and I don’t need to know about your life story. I just want to beat up people as they disappear, and to collect some health or a whip. That’s how you feel every time you pick up Double Dragon.

Sean understood my frustration and said “some games are very well-served by narrative; Mother 3 was probably the most emotionally engaging game that I’ve ever experienced.” But he ultimately knew that Neon wasn’t the case. “It’s more about spin kicking thugs in the face and feeling like a badass.”

The narrative of the entire game’s core was never important to Double Dragon and it’s the same here. We don’t get an introspective look into the psyche of Billy and Jimmy but see them go from the factory to the sky in a span of a level. Sean’s directed Contra 4 and A Boy and his Blob with WayForward and knows that narrative isn’t center stage here. “The stories of old arcade games are purposefully ridiculous. The president has been kidnapped by ninjas! A guy socked your girlfriend in the stomach and ran off with her! You get sucked into a time warp and still fight the same enemies for some reason! Double Dragon Neon embraces this.”

Sean also said that the story is woven into the stages to show rather than tell. People don’t want to be told what’s going on every 5 minutes and Neon wants you to remember the story through the levels.

The game does have cut-scenes, however, “Overall, there are fewer than 5 minutes worth of cut scenes in this game”. That’s what a true brawler sounds like, you won’t get a near 20-minute cut-scene about the characters motivation because you already know it. Rather, you’ll get a nice breather from the action but nothing that’ll make you put your controller down.

But will these things fly with the brawler audience? Sean said there really isn’t such a thing as a brawler audience. The ideals from most brawlers are now imbued into modern gaming. Uncharted 3 had sections of just fighting with your fists. “Brawlers sort of transmogrified into fighting games and action games like the aforementioned Ninja Gaiden. However, we are doing our damnedest to assure that both sides love this game.” But added that the presentation is much more polished than its predecessors with a level-up system, online play and more difficulties.

Don’t forget that Billy and Jimmy still have a personality at least. You never properly learn about them and won’t be told their life story either. “Double Dragon Neon is way more Bill and Ted than Nathan Drake. However, Billy and Jimmy are not simply avatars. ”They’re more expressive and vocal than ever before, including the bosses and enemies that makes the world of Neon feel much more lively. But Sean states that the gameplay is “pure knock-down, drag-out awesomeness. We took Double Dragon and imbued it with the last 20 years of game design advances”

Double Dragon Neon takes what we know about brawlers and the series’ history. Instead of adding things that don’t feel true to the series’ narrative, it’s going back to its roots of scrolling to the right while adding in new gameplay tweaks and using the 80’s motif to drive the throwback point across. Sean and the team had so much fun making it that he said “we’d love the opportunity to do a sequel. Double Dragon Neon II: The Search for Sensei’s Gold? Hell Yes!”