How to beat NES "Double Dragon" the easy way

[mbd30]

I've been playing a lot of Double Dragon for a contest on another board, and I've learned some tricks for making the game much easier to beat. This might be helpful for anyone who is having trouble. I could never beat it as a kid.

 

1.) Punch all enemies in the first two levels. Only use kicks to disarm enemies or when you're almost out of health. You need to build up hearts before the third stage. You can also totally cheap out and use a well known glitch to max out your hearts, but that is so lame that I never do it.

 

2.) Use elbow smashes to make quick work of the Abobos and Chins on the third stage. It only takes four elbows to kill an Abobo.

 

3.) The blocks in mission 4 aren't as random as you might think. When a top block pops out, it's usually either followed by a pause and more top blocks, or quickly followed by lower blocks. So wait for a top block and then a pause, and pass through. If a top block is quickly followed by other blocks, just stand there and wait some more. Do this for both sets of blocks. This strategy will let you pass unscathed most of the time.

 

4.) Probably another glitch in a broken game, but Machine Gun Willy can't shoot you as long as you're standing on a certain horizontal plane. Make sure your feet are roughly aligned with where this arrow is pointing. Now just keep walking up to him and kicking away. He can't hurt you. I don't know why this trick isn't all over the internet. It's on par with glitching that dude off the screen in 6-2 in "Ninja Gaiden."

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 17, 2016 by mbd30

[DuggerVideoGames]

I've done #1 for a lot of years in this game. I'll do several punches without knocking them down, then back away from them, and then resume punching them when they walk towards me. It's an easy way to rack up the points to build the hearts without killing them. Using the whip is better than the punches, if I remember correctly. I believe the punches are 25 pts apiece and one lash of the whip is 30 pts.

[bomberpunk]

the revised version:

 

Step 1 - Don't be a pussy.

 

 

 

but seriously, just use the baseball bat trick in Mission 2. get all your hearts right then and there.

[mbd30]

the revised version:

 

Step 1 - Don't be a pussy.

 

 

 

but seriously, just use the baseball bat trick in Mission 2. get all your hearts right then and there.

 

But that's so cheap that it doesn't even seem right to do that, haha.

[bomberpunk]

if we're defining the "easy way", you can't get easier than that!

[DuggerVideoGames]

I always wished we could throw a knife at Machine Gun Willy. This way, I could say I brought a knife to a gun fight and won.

[Austin]

I guess the "bat trick" isn't really legit, but it's still hilarious. I didn't know about it until this past weekend where a friend of mine told me about it and posted a video showing it in action:

 

[mbd30]

I guess the "bat trick" isn't really legit, but it's still hilarious. I didn't know about it until this past weekend where a friend of mine told me about it and posted a video showing it in action:

 

 

Hey Austin, I was participating in a Double Dragon low score contest on another board. You might want to try the low score challenge. Beat the game with the lowest score you can without exploiting any weapons or hearts glitches,without re-entering rooms for health, and without using headbutts (because they can be used to lower your score). The lowest I could manage was 29k, but it's actually possible somehow to beat the game with under 20k. Figuring out how to lower your score that much almost turns it into a puzzle game.

 

Practicing for this contest sure made me good at DD. I don't have much trouble beating it anymore.

 

http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?StartRow=1&catid=31&threadid=160757

 

Anyway, yeah, DD is glitchy as hell. I once encountered a glitch that took me back to the title screen. Maybe it was rushed. It's a lot of fun though.

[Austin]

Ha, yeah, that's an interesting take on the high-score (or a lack of) concept. What is the lowest scoring move in the game? A kick? A jump kick? I'd guess knocking guys off ledges is pretty important.

[mbd30]

Ha, yeah, that's an interesting take on the high-score (or a lack of) concept. What is the lowest scoring move in the game? A kick? A jump kick? I'd guess knocking guys off ledges is pretty important.

 

The lowest scoring and most powerful move is the elbow so it's important to getting a low score. That and figuring out clever ways to kill and disappear enemies without scoring points. Level 2 can actually be completed without scoring any points.

Edited April 18, 2016 by mbd30

[Austin]

 

The lowest scoring and most powerful move is the elbow so it's important to getting a low score. That and figuring out clever ways to kill and disappear enemies without scoring points. Level 2 can actually be completed without scoring any points.

 

Oh OK, so making enemies disappear is legal, gotcha. I figured that was against the rules, but yeah, there are several areas throughout where you can just skip enemies completely. How many points do you have when you get the elbow?

Edited April 18, 2016 by Austin

[mbd30]

 

Oh OK, so making enemies disappear is legal, gotcha. I figured that was against the rules, but yeah, there are several areas throughout where you can just skip enemies completely. How many points do you have when you get the elbow?

 

When I'm playing for low score, I might have the elbow at around 19,000 points when I'm in stage 3 before the Abobos, but it's possible to have it at a lower score if you play your cards right. Once you do have it, enemies take so much fewer hits and it only costs 80 points a hit. I prefer to have it by stage 3 even during a normal playthrough because it makes Abobos ridiculously easy.

Edited April 18, 2016 by mbd30

[mbd30]

I believe I had around 24k and two lives going into the final boss room when I scored 29k. Although some can achieve low score with multiple lives left, I can't. I like to have two lives going into stage 4 so I can suicide one of them at the final boss in order to refill my health bar.

 

I don't want to give away too much, but as you might suspect, you need to beat Jimmy with elbows. I barely scraped by him and I didn't think my heart could take it. It's a horrible way to fight him unless you need to do so to minimize score.

Edited April 18, 2016 by mbd30

[DuggerVideoGames]

Grabbing them by the hair and tossing them into the holes nets you zero points (granted, you get points from the first few strikes that you needed to be able to grab their hair).

Edit: I don't remember, but I think using a knife is also zero points. Firecrackers too, if I remember correctly.

Edited April 18, 2016 by DuggerVideoGames

[theoakwoody]

I just beat this game for the first time last week and I was so stoked! Of course i could never beat this game as a kid and the only reason I beat it now was on my everdrive with save states. I don't care if there was no coop on the nes I played the hell out of this game.

 

 

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[0078265317]

There used to be a dynamite trick also but I forget how that worked.