So don your power glove and get that pencil ready to rewind some audio cassettes: we’re about to relive the glowing ’80s.ĭouble Dragon Neon composer Jake “virt” Kaufman is no stranger to remixing and reviving classic game music, having contributed to Overclocked Remix and worked on the likes of Contra 4, Shantae: Risky’s Revenge, Mighty Switch Force! and Retro City Rampage. WayForward Technologies’ first foray into the Double Dragon universe brought with it a fantastic score that has easily become one of the best game soundtracks of the year.
Enter Liner Notes: a Pixelitis feature in which our writers discuss their favorite videogame soundtracks.)Īfter celebrating the revival of Double Dragon two weeks ago with a look back at the fantastic soundtrack to Double Dragon II, my eyes, hands, and ears proceeded to be graced by the delight that is the recently-released XBLA/PSN title Double Dragon Neon and its stupendous music.īack-to-back Double Dragon Liner Notes? You better believe it. (Editor’s note: From Final Fight to Maximum Carnage, everyone’s got at least one videogame tune stuck in their heads. I doubt the proposed Double Dragon cartoon would've been a work of genius, but at least we might've seen Billy Lee actually drop-kick some fools in a post-apocalyptic New York City.Originally published on on September 25, 2012.
It's pretty standard stuff for '90s cartoons based on frankly violent properties, and it's all terribly boring. Even the intro stresses a real Dragon Master "lives by the code," i.e. The Dragon Boys wield energy weapons they're not allowed to use and throw punches that never seem to land. We eventually did get a Double Dragon cartoon, but it's based on the softer, much more cartoony SNES games. The picture for Double Dragon seemingly echoes the classic NES games closely, with protagonists Billy and Jimmy Lee kicking the bejesus out of some bat-wielding thugs. Interestingly, there's one clear winner in the concept art collection. And here I thought things couldn't get worse than Simon Belmont becoming a bomber jacket-wearing egomaniac in Captain N: The Game Master. I think I just unwittingly described the reason for the change. Hm, that sounds kind of kinky for '90s kids TV. There are no whips, no chains, no muscled barbarians wearing fur pelts over their groin. That "honor" goes to the Castlevania promo, which features two rubber-bodied teens gawping at a collection of classic monsters ("Zoicks! Let's get outta here, Scoob!"). The Metroid concept isn't even the saddest sight in Tanooki Joe's collection of images. Heck, it still takes a strong person to finish the original Metroid quickly enough to see that special ending. Nobody had the time, the money, or the passion to play through the original Metroid quickly enough to see the ending in which Samus reveals her gender.
It's honestly the most "'90s video game cartoon" thing in the world. That's why I'm not the least bit surprised the Metroid cartoon concept casts beloved bounty huntress Samus Aran as a spaceman with a bad haircut. Shows like Captain N: The Game Master were born around untranslated concept sketches and whatever details artists could garner by squinting at the screen ("Mega Man is green, right?"). It might be hard to imagine in a world where game developers in another continent are a mere Tweet away, but in the '80s and '90s, communication between game developers in Japan and the creators of supplementary media like cartoons and comics was close to nil. None of these ever got past the concept phase. Someone just put up promo art for The Super Mario Bros Power Hour on eBay! These were concepts for other video game based cartoons to run along side Super Mario Bros 3.
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