When this was announced on PSN, I was excited. Revenge of the Wounded Dragon was described as being a classic side-scrolling beat em’ up which could be played alongside a buddy locally or online. When it was released last week, I quickly snagged it up and played through the first two levels.
One of my biggest complaints is, sadly, the visual. The characters on screen (player and enemies) are extremely tiny, which makes it difficult to see. Also, since they are small, there is little detail given to them. I would have preferred to have the characters a little bigger and more crisp, but its not so bad as to totally ruin the entire game.
As for the game itself, you play as a karate dude who’s sister (or girlfriend) is kidnapped by some gangsters, and you have to punch and kick your way through swarms of enemies across multiple levels to save her. The game has some very basic controls, relying on punch, kick, and jump. While this is all well and fine, I would have liked to see some variation. For example, maybe hitting the up directional and the kick button would result in a high kick, etc. However, the game does offer some changes to combat by allowing the player to pick up random items (like sacks of flour) and weapons (like guns, nunchucks, and sticks of dynamite) to take on your foes. There are also a variety of collectibles to snag through each level for points and trophies.
Two levels in, the game seems decent. I am waiting for Steve to come up tomorrow, and then we will blast through the entire game in co-op and see how that goes. So after that, I will write up a nice big review on the game, and let you know if the gameplay and co-op can save this visually unappealing game.
