The Knife!
An electric-blue, phallic symbol of power is all that matters in this beat-em up adventure.
Sydlexia’s Ranking: #60/100
Developer: Technos
My Rating: 
The Lee brothers are at it again. The last time I got familiar with Billy and Jimmy, they taught me that life is not fair. In this reincarnation, they really don’t teach me much of anything: there is no plot, no story, no instructions. You are just dropped off in a world of baddies, smashing your way without a care in the world…
JUST WATCH OUT FOR THAT KNIFE.
[Story] None.
Without any story, Billy and Jimmy are blank slate characters, allowing you to project your own neuroticism on them. In this particular play through, I decided that Billy had trouble with body image issues and Jimmy a lack of self-acceptance. This led both to use negative coping mechanisms of violence that doesn’t end until both pass out due to exhaustion.
There is very little that will get in your way of defeating your insecurities during your pixilated therapy. While the baddies are innumerable, they typically lack the requisite, coordinated attack to become a legitimate threat. You should have more the enough lives to make it through this game and then some.
BUT THE KNIFE.
The great equalizer of Double Dragons. Being hit by a thrown knife will reduce your health by easily over 2/3rds, and for many, it will be an instant kill. There is no skill in dodging it; the enemy will quickly appear, the bright blue will catch your eye, and you will squirm and hope its death trajectory misses. You are at the mercy of the knife — it is the only thing that can stop you from winning this game.
In one play through, I got hit by a knife, fell off a tractor trailer, and then got caught on fire. These three transgressions equaled three lives, and I was worried that I would not be able to recover from this calamity. Thankfully, the fate of the knife missed me for the rest of the game, and I was able to defeat my irrational, negative thought patterns. Cognitive Behavior Therapy never felt so good, and the knife reminds me of what Sigmund Freud once said: “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”
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