Weapons are back in full force and as mighty as ever.

It takes quite a while to charge the meter and it starts decreasing rapidly once the button is released, so it’s not always easy to make use of its strongest features. Charging it to the max doesn’t activate a special move but makes the heroes stronger for a few seconds so they can knock down enemies with a single punch. With the meter more than half full, either attack button executes a flying spin kick across the screen (think Ryu and Ken’s Hurricane Kick in Street Fighter). When charging it just a little, you can unleash a strong backhanded blow or a roundhouse jump kick. There are no more complex button combinations for advanced moves, but instead the game introduces a special meter that can be charged with the shoulder buttons. The controls are very flexible and responsive, allowing for cool maneuvers like a backwards kick in the middle of a jump or holding approaching enemies at bay with your feet while holding on to a grabbed enemy. In addition to their standard arsenal, the heroes can finally take a defensive stance to block incoming blows, which even enables them to grab their opponent’s arm for some immediate retaliation. The gameplay has returned to a methodical, slow-paced combat system with no running.

Instead of supernatural world traveling adventures, it’s back to simply beating up hoodlums in the hoods of Not New York. Developed exclusively for the SNES, it is basically a reboot reinterpreting the plot of the first game, except Marian is now a cop who was training martial arts at the Lee brothers’ dojo before vanishing during an investigation of the Shadow Warriors. After the far-out and mediocre Double Dragon 3, Super Double Dragon marks a return to form for the series.

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