It takes me back to that inspirational music the 80's classics had, when we had a positive definition of "to be a man". I'm so addicted to DDN's OST, that I can't go a day w/o Billy and the Breakers Firebird. Speaking of the soundtrack, I'd be p**d if I played a DD game w/o phenomenal music and Jake "virt" Kaufman blew me away. You can high5 your bro for on-demand gleam, which seems game breaking, but fun. It's overwhelming at first, but when you get into the rhythm of gleaming, then counterattacking with a mix of your magic, and the killer soundtrack is kickin, followed by a cheesy line from the bros, it all creates a silly, clean, and wonderfully entertaining experience (pistol whipping and shouting I HUCKED A LUGER!).sadly, I have no one to play the coop with, yet it looks hella fun, but very easy. If you dodge correctly, you will "gleam" doubling your damage and increasing your battery power regen (mana). The secret to mastering it is Sosisetsu (magic), Stances (passive buffs, both illustrated as your "mixtapes", my favorite being Spin Kick and Desperation), upgrading them wisely with $ and boss-loot mythril, and use of crouch-dodge. Every mission even ends with the bros AIR GUITARING! The gameplay is punishing and brutally difficult at first.
The plot, characters, and cheesy lines are corny, silly, and one big love letter to my favorite 2 decades, all full of references to pop culture of the time and surfer-dude talk (bro, tubular, bodacious, ect).
Here I not only saw how the game didn't take a pixel of itself seriously, but it was also true to the source material a refined blend of old and new. They introduced the grunt of the baddies as "Cartwheeling Fodder: Williams" and I was hooked. It felt a little slow, but that didn't bother me. After head bangin' for a few min, I started the game. The rockin' 80s style remix of the theme roused my hope. I was especially turned off by the "fanservice" and Billy's possessed-zombie visage, but all the reviews for the game seemed harsh, and I finally gave into my inner dragon's urge. Reboots don't exactly have glamorous reputations more like reputations of butchering classics and ignoring source material in the name of $_$.
I briefly hear about a reboot of the series and shudder. I might even crown it THE greatest game ever made, however, the series didn't age well including many a black sheep entries and passed into history. It was an embodiment of all the trends in the 80s-90s with masculine dudes roughing up gangsters and hooligans on the streets, which gave it a special appeal to me: a 90s kid and 80s nerd. The music was unforgettable, the gameplay: classic, the difficulty merciless and punishing, the graphics and level design were priceless, and coop to round off the joy. Everyone has a precious, childhood game that made many life-shaping, cherish-able memories for them. Everyone has a precious, childhood game that made many TLDR: This is the most underrated game in years. TLDR: This is the most underrated game in years.