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Colors so pretty..... drool.... me like shiny colors.....

It's not meant to be funny. It's a criticism that I hope that they improve the combat. an overhaul to the combat system might make this a great game. Unfortunately in it's current state it's neigh unplayable.

As well I don't understand why the whip enemies look like Richard Simmons.

If the combat were to be enchaced to the levels of Final Fight or Streets of Rage, incorporate Super Double Dragon levels of depth, I'd gladly donate $200. Seriously, despite the fact that the iOS version of Double Dragon was only touch controls, the combat felt much better.  Go back and play Super Double Dragon, Double Dragon Advance, Final Fight, and River City Ransom.  Then return to Double Dragon One.  It will be quite evedent what is lacking in this game.

If you go back to the time period when this game was first released there was a lot of buzz and coverage about it. Now nobody is talking about this game on YouTube or anywhere else. That should tell you something.

As much as I do admire the graphics I will say in terms of style I am nostalgic for the Warriors aeaesthetic. The Double Dragon series works best when utilizing that design style. Many of the enemies seem out of place such as the Richard Simmons whip guy and the hooded guys with totally shadowed out faces. Even better are the original Double Dragon 2 designs. A mix between the Warriors and Mad Max never gets old.

Double Dragon One (Neo Geo Homebrew) – Review
Right from the title screen and opening moments, Double Dragon One looks and sounds impressive. The hand-drawn sprites, the color palette, the presentation, and the soundtrack all make a strong first impression. You can tell a lot of care went into the visual and audio side of the game.
Then you start playing.
The combat is an absolute disaster.
Only the punch button is consistently useful. Jump attacks rarely connect or get blocked. Kicks have shorter range than punches and often miss entirely. The specials are basically worthless. What you’re left with is a one-button game that pretends to have more depth. I even tested this theory by plugging in an old Atari-style controller with a single button mapped to punch. I got further, and more easily, than I did with a full Xbox-style pad using every attack. That should tell you everything.
There is no block button for the player, even though the series established one as far back as Super Double Dragon and continued it in Double Dragon Advance. Enemies, meanwhile, block constantly. Weapons are handled unevenly too: if you drop one, it vanishes. Enemies can drop and pick up the same weapon over and over without it disappearing.
The result is combat that isn’t “NES tough.” It’s just poorly programmed and unrewarding. There is no fun to be had here.
I say that as someone whose favorite genre is the beat-’em-up. This game made me nostalgic for some of the weaker entries in the genre — Double Dragon III on the NES, P.O.W., Bad Dudes — not because those games are great, but because even with their clunkiness and jank, they still feel better to play than this. At least their moves have purpose and can be executed. The Sega Genesis version of Double Dragon II, for all its faults, is still more worthwhile. And when you stack this against the games that actually get it right — arcade or Sega CD Final Fight, Streets of Rage 2, The Simpsons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the endlessly replayable River City Ransom, or my personal favorite, Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara — the gap becomes embarrassing.
Even the more workmanlike Neo Geo beat-’em-ups fare better. Sengoku, Mutation Nation, and Eight Man are hardly masterpieces — they’re straightforward, sometimes stiff, and far from the genre’s peak. Yet all three still deliver a basic sense of impact, timing, and progress that Double Dragon One completely lacks. You can feel the weight of the hits, the attacks connect with purpose, and the systems, however simple, at least function. Playing those games after this one only highlights how thoroughly the combat here fails at the fundamentals.
I can admire the amount of work that clearly went into the presentation, the music, the colors, and the sprites. It’s unfortunate that almost none of that effort seems to have gone into the actual combat. Graphics and sound can impress for a few minutes. Gameplay is what makes you come back. I can still fire up the original Super Mario Bros. on the NES decades later because the control and the gameplay are rock-solid, even if the visuals and sound chip are primitive by modern standards. Pretty sprites and pseudo-rock music don’t save a game when the core systems feel this broken.
This isn’t the kind of difficulty that makes you want to practice and improve, the way Castlevania: Rondo of Blood does. That game is hard, but it keeps you engaged and wanting to push forward. Double Dragon One just makes me want to put my head through my CRT and go play some of the worst beat-’em-ups ever made — while still finding more enjoyment in them than I did here.
There’s no fun to be had with this game. In terms of pure lack of enjoyment or any desire to continue playing, it is the worst beat-’em-up I have ever played. For a title in my favorite genre, that’s genuinely disappointing.