Recent reviews by Baloo

Bro-Tacular is the only way to describe Double Dragon Neon. This homage to the 80s has successfully put a new coat of paint on a tried-and-true gameplay style, and oozes replayability. Jimmy and Billy Lee have to save Marion as she is captured by the evil Skullmageddon. ("Skeletor has nothing on me!") Billy and Jimmy bust through through ten stages of neon awesomeness, complete with "Bro-op" gameplay, Bro-ver the top puns, and air guitar. Neon is a real love letter to the franchise, the genre, and the decade that spawned it, culminating in a fantastic game.

The gameplay is crisp and varied, but plays just the way you want an old-school beat-em-up to. Neon doesn't do anything fancy to try to change the gameplay from its predecessors, while drawing upon other legends of the genre, like Streets of Rage 2 and Guardian Heroes. Players punch and kick their way through generous amounts of baddies, the likes of which include geishas, flying robots, and everyone's favorite beat-em-up staple: Dominatrixes. Jimmy and Billy pick up "mixtapes" along the way containing different special moves (called "Magic") and stances that allow for on-the-fly changes of special moves that cater the enemy situation. Each mixtape even has its own 30-second music clip on the select screen, adding to the charm. Special move usage is dictated by a lightning bar, recharged by killing enemies. Billy and Jimmy also acquire stat upgrades along the way in the form of stances, giving the game a bit of RPG-flair akin to Treasure's 1996 Sega Saturn exclusive Guardian Heroes. The stances allow you to focus on which Money collected from enemies also allow you to buy upgrades to your mixtapes in different shops found in the game.

But what would a beat-em-up be without great co-op gameplay? Also included in Neon are a Bro-mantic Hi-Five feature that enables power-ups and life sharing during gameplay, as well as a possible rewind technique by your partner upon losing all of your health, both of which enhance the the game's "Bro-op" feel to the point that Double Dragon Neon feels empty and frustrating without a buddy, an experience I wouldn't recommend. Both local and online co-op are possible, which gives the game a lot of flexibility to be played with friends, whether they're in your presence or not. My only gripe with Neon is it's length, being a relatively short ten levels. However, the game's formidable difficulty and great gameplay lends itself to great replay value, which makes it easy to overlook.

The graphics are slick! Everything is in 2D and has a great hand-drawn look to it. Backgrounds are distinct and colorful, and and the music perfectly matches the 80s theme, with synth-hits and guitar riffs reminiscent of your Dad's old Devo vinyl. The soundtrack is great enough to stand on its own, and I recommend a download of it here: http://virt.bandcamp.com/album/double-dragon-neon.

The PC port of Neon does everything you want it to, being fairly easy to run on less-powerful computers, while still looking great. Neon also has native controller support. However, this is limited to the Xbox 360 controller, and the game does not allow for control remapping, a slight misstep for anyone without a 360 USB controller.

At $10 MSRP (Or less if you're patient enough, I picked it up for $3.75 during the last Steam Summer Sale), I heartily recommend WayForward's reboot of the notable beat-em-up series. Double Dragon Neon hits the mark on all fronts. Totally Radical Dude!

Man, this game is fantastic. Spot on controls, and different enough from the original to merit playing. Love that they got all of the voice actors back, added some unlockables, and let you dive in the money bin! Made a classic game accessible to new audiences, I love it.

This is a great little point-and-click adventure game from Wadjet Eye games, in the same vein and graphical style as some favorites like Sam and Max Hit The Road, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and Monkey Island. You play as Rabbi Russel Stone as he ponders the meaning of life as his small synagogue is on the brink of going under. Moral dilemmas occur as Rabbi Stone investigates the underbelly of the Jewish community in New York City when one of his former congregation members is murdered. My only complaint with the game was how short the game was compared to most point and click adventure games, I feel that the developers could have taken this game much farther than they did, but for $5, the game really is worth a purchase, and is a pleasant game to play through in a day. Definitely recommended for fans of the genre.