Rate the Game: Week 74
 

Come one and come all, boys and girls, to this week's edition of Rate the Game. We're now less than a year away from wrapping this whole party up. Well, this latest iteration at least. Who knows if this thing winds up going into the year 2023. Speaking of the year 2023, that's when Perfect Dark takes place, which was last week's game to rate. So it looks like it's time to find out where Joanna Dark's first outing ends up on our leaderboard. A lot of love and a lot of good memories but how did it do overall. Give me some of that leaderboard action....

<select><option selected="">Rate the Game Results

<option>1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (4.8)</option>
<option>2. Hitman: Codename 47 (4.75)</option>
<option>3. Super Mario Bros. 3 (4.7)</option>
<option>4. (TIE)Chrono Trigger, Portal (4.5)</option>
<option>6. (TIE) Mega Man 2, Donkey Kong Country (4.44)</option>
<option>8. Super Mario Bros. (4.41)</option>
<option>9. God of War (4.4)</option>
<option>10. Metal Gear Solid (4.33)</option>
<option>11. Perfect Dark (4.3)</option>
<option>12. (TIE) Shadow of the Colossus, The Last of Us (4.28)</option>
<option>14. Super Street Fighter 2 (4.15)</option>
<option>15. Sonic the Hedgehog (4.14)</option>
<option>16. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (4.125)</option>
<option>17. Super Mario 64 (4.07)</option>
<option>18. (TIE) Grand Theft Auto 3, The Legend of Zelda (4.06)</option>
<option>20. NBA Jam (4.05)</option>
<option>21. (7-WAY TIE) Super Mario Kart, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Super Metroid, The Simpsons, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Donkey Kong Country 2, Resident Evil 4 (4.0)</option>
<option>28. Final Fantasy 7 (3.94)</option>
<option>29. Mega Man (3.89)</option>
<option>30. Half-Life (3.83)</option>
<option>31. (3-WAY TIE) Contra, Castlevania, Devil May Cry (3.86)</option>
<option>34. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (3.77)</option>
<option>35. Batman: Arkham Asylum (3.76)</option>
<option>36. Tetris (3.69)</option>
<option>37. Mortal Kombat 2 (3.67)</option>
<option>38. (TIE) Diablo, F.E.A.R. (3.66)</option>
<option>40. Mortal Kombat (3.65)</option>
<option>41. StarFox (3.61)</option>
<option>42. Doom (3.625)</option>
<option>43. Resident Evil (3.58)</option>
<option>44. Ninja Gaiden (3.5)</option>
<option>45. Dead Space (3.4)</option>
<option>46. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (3.39)</option>
<option>47. Resident Evil: Nemesis (3.38)</option>
<option>48. (4-WAY TIE) Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Condemned: Criminal Origins, Crash Bandicoot, Wolfenstein 3D (3.33)</option>
<option>52. Gears of War (3.27)</option>
<option>53. (TIE) Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Borderlands (3.22)</option>
<option>55. Quake (3.2)</option>
<option>56. Pac-Man (3.125)</option>
<option>57. Killer Instinct (3.11)</option>
<option>58. (TIE) Virtua Fighter, Rock Band (3.09)</option>
<option>60. (4-WAY TIE) Time Crisis, Tekken, Earthworm Jim, Metroid (3.0)</option>
<option>64. Guitar Hero (2.875)</option>
<option>65. Streets of Rage (2.84)</option>
<option>66. Dead Rising (2.71) </option>
<option>67. (TIE) Silent Hill, The Sims (2.6)</option>
<option>69. Tomb Raider (2.55)</option>
<option>70. Halo: Combat Evolved (2.5)</option>
<option>71. Twisted Metal (2.42)</option>
<option>72. Gran Turismo (2.3)</option>
<option>73. Ghosts n' Goblins (2.14)</option>
</select>


Oof, oh so close. Perfect Dark scrapes at the door of the top 10 but ultimately gets shut out and ends up at number 11 with a 4.3 average rating. Cracking into the elite crew is getting tougher and tougher even for a top covert agent like Joanna Dark. Nothing to be ashamed of as it's a pretty good spot to be in...but for how long? What will this week's game do the standings? Let's take a dive into the BOWL OF DOOM and find out....

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Presto! We go back into the deep past once again as we tread some more beat-'em-up ground with this week's game. It's the first entry in the saga of Billy and Jimmy, Double Dragon! One of the grandfathers of the genre, how does it stack up in the gaming world? Do you have fond memories of it or is it a bust? Rate and discuss and share and rant and all of that fun stuff we've come to enjoy over these many, many weeks. Until next time....

Oops, sorry; clearly I meant the saga of "Bimmy and Jimmy".

Some of the best OG gaming music, by far. The main theme alone rips.


I remember playing the hell outta this game on my Sega Master System. I remember liking it more than the NES version. Also remember playing the arcade machine at a local Noble Romans pizza joint that still stands today (and is the last one I think).


Easy 5 for me, rose-colored glasses or not. I went on to play the rest of the Double Dragon games as well, with 2 or 3 probably being my fav. Double Dragon x Battle Toads on SNES was a TON of fun.

5.

I played the fighting game based off the cartoon when we were all growing up. That's my only real experience with the franchise.

But, this is the original NES entry. Which I never played. Was more of a River City Ransom guy.

5. Half of the reason for my love of side scrolling beat'em ups when I was a kid. The other half is BAYOU BILLY.

3

Fun, but repetitive, even before it's time. DD 2 improved on it in every way.

Shit I wasn't consistent here. DD2 is absolutely a far better game. Should give this one a 4 and the sequel a 5. Oh well.

I can count your vote as a 4 if you want.

Bayou billy is such a forgotten gem

Yeah do that. It would be more fair. In the past I've never given a game a 5 if I think the sequel is way better. Leaves no room to express how much better the follow up is, ya know?

ikr. I think playing that and Castlevania 2 a lot when I was super young were greatly responsible for my gaming skill level getting as high as it was. Bayou Billy was monstrously difficult. Couldn't combo break/knock down enemies. So many enemies in the shooter levels that even Mad Dog McCree himself couldn't gun them down. And the reaction time required on the driving levels and enemies that blow your car up in one shot....fuck.

Bayou Billy was the first Souls game. Change my mind.

Megaman 2 also played a large part in developing my skills. FU QUICKMAN LASER STAGE!!! And a special fu to the disappearing block segments in Wily's fortress that had flying enemies shooting at you from unreachable places while you try to parkour on thin air >_<

This is the only Double Dragon game I have ever played

https://live.staticflickr.com/7005/6...c65950f7_b.jpg

And I remember it not being very good.....

You keep those abominations out of here!!!

Oh, no, it's very much memorable....for the wrong reasons.

LOL I had this too. And a ninja turtles one and terminator one.

They were all terrible.

The brother on the left hits women. He's holding Linda's whip.

The only Tiger game I liked was pinball.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/...YL._SX355_.jpg

Had the one for Street Fighter 2. WTF was wrong with us?

My grandparents got them for me because they thought those must be those new fangled vidya games that were all the rage. For several years there I was guaranteed to get one of these as part of my christmas. She is sweet as can be but she didn't know. She still doesn't. She still gives me a pack of hot wheels cars every year. I'm 37.

I don't think I ever got past the first stage of the terminator one. Not for lack of trying though. God it was trash.

For each mega man game, I did those sections the hard way once, just to say I did it, but it was rush/magnet beam/item for all subsequent play throughs.

I had the Street Fighter 2 one also.... I didn't mind that one too much

Never got around to Double Dragon and Battletoads. It just seemed like an odd pairing, like X-Men X Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Although, that absolutely would've blown my mind as a kid.

I had that and Bowling.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/65wAA...L5Q/s-l400.jpg

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lol I love the AVGN theme song.

Holy shit I had no idea Tiger made a shitty virtual boy ripoff lmao. Here lets take the worst system EVER and make an even shittier rip-off! That'll be awesome!

In a way it kind of demonstrates how hot Nintendo was at the time when you've got a company willing to rip-off something like the Virtual Boy in the hopes of cashing in on its potential craze.

Full version, in music video form is even better. It even has the unfortunate "Bimmy and Jimmy" typo from DD in it lol:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DszaznPWsAMATQq.jpg

NES games: they were barely able to make some of them playable, what the fuck makes you think they cared about proofreading?

Not to brag but I felt tremendous strongth flowing through me as I posted that. A winner is me!

NES Ghostbusters end screen lololol:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/be/39...fd527cec4c.jpg

And while we're on the topic, James/AVGN has thoroughly convinced me that with the exception of Spider-Man vs. Venom: Maximum Carnage, LJN in particular cared about nothing but $$$ regardless of console generation. Just don't trust the Spirit of Speed 1937 (Dreamcast) box art...they folded in 1995, whereas that game came out in 2000. Acclaim just figured their dead carcass for a convenient scapegoat, knowing the game was a shit show.

Feel like we would be letting down the Universe by not mentioning the following classic lines:

SOMEONE SET US UP THE BOMB

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US

YOU HAVE NO CHANCE TO SURVIVE MAKE YOUR TIME

In Guitar Hero 5, one of the achievements is titled "All Four Bass Are Belong to Us". One of the few instances I came close to actually pissing myself with laughter.

lol I remember that.

I miss guitar hero :'(