Why Is This Version of Double Dragon So Weird? | Ranking the NES, Episode 28

[@jkrycz]

You can see a lot of the Where's Waldo DNA in Starfield.

[@Discospawn]

Same procedural generation algorithm.

[@Ghadius]

This really has become my favorite thing to watch during the week. This is just such a good idea.

[@ResidentNEMES1S]

We did it. We finally made it. M.C. Kids at last. Congrats to the new #1

[@VaporeonEnjoyer1]

6:52 "You get no points for just popping pills" Popping pills is it's own reward Jeff.

[@nilstryfe7067]

dr tracksuit knew this, it's a shame jeff gerstmann and he never met

[@cybersub4693]

So does popping that poosay

[@Smeatbass]

Thanks Jeff for doing this. I just lost my mom and remembering all of these NES games we played when I was a kid - Even the bad ones - has made it a little easier. Great work sticking to this! Oh, and Dr. Mario was for moms of us NES kids (I know from experience)!

[@vincentlee8787]

Okay but Dr. Mario "Chill" theme is a BANGER

[@Fuuntag]

Godamnit I love Jeff’s genuine dedication to nonsense.

[@richglix]

The thing I like the most is when Jeff subtly implies he would enjoy a game where he gets to fire a gun at Waldo over and over.

[@ChrisLT]

When I load up these videos, I always take a Quick Look to see which game will get the hour long deep dive. Let's just say I was not expecting M.C. Kids to get that spotlight this week.

[@livinggarbagetruck]

The look of M.C. Kids really stuck with me, despite renting it once when I was like 4? My first Britformer.

[@Shiftygism]

The Double Dragon music is so rad, bro.

[@Spirit0f]

"All these O-rings were made by the lowest bidder." Too soon, Jeff. Too soon.

[@AnimatedAF]

Played a shit ton of MC Kids on the Amiga as a child, the music in it has lived in my head rent free for most of my life. Yes, it's a sickness.

[@Woowookins]

I love these videos. Kinda wish this was done during the GB era but this is second best. Keep up the good work, my dude!

[@mowkikowski]

Love watching my favorite gametoucher play these NES games

[@houdin654jeff]

My uncle owned, and was obsessed with, Space Shuttle Project. You get five lives… for the whole game. You cannot get any more. The game part between the golf mini games is so trial and error punishing that it takes forever to make progress with it. I think we made it to Mission 4 once and goddamn… it’s a fascinating thing but it is not a good video game. It does bring back some fond memories though.

[@poposterous236]

Wait, that guy's a DOCTOR now? I hope he washes his hands after he gets off his other shift.

[@dvdmike007]

Things were weirder in the 80s, the lack of energy drinks and their rankings I would bet was the issue

[@DerekQuenneville]

I enjoy Dr. Mario, but you have to start at level 20, not level 1 imo

[@micheljavert5923]

Looking back, it is almost hard to believe that the Double Dragon franchise was *so* big that it got its own movie and animated series. But that arcade game was *so* good. Double Dragon, Altered Beast, and Golden Axe were *fire* back in the day. Edit: Jeff saying that the NES port left him feeling ripped off made me laugh. Same, Jeff. Same😂

[@xtlm]

I like how he keeps saying that 1990 was late for the NES when most NES games were released in the 90s lol 258 NES games were released in the 80s and 294 were released from 1991-1994. 1990 alone had nearly more then all of the 80s at 198 games released.

[@funforalgernon]

I haven’t played Dr. Mario for multiple decades…but that music hit, and I can instantly recall the hundreds of hours I spent playing Dr.Mario. 💊

[@RonnieBarzel]

That “Double Dragon” start screen music just makes me sad that we’re likely never getting a “DD Neon 2.”

[@johnwestendorf]

Double Dragon had branching paths, right? I think you could have gone in one of those Abobo holes if you wanted.

[@ladambell]

"Abobo holes"

[@esmerylan]

I remember watching a video, can't remember who it was now, of someone playing NES Double Dragon who just kept dying over and over on that jump in the third level, so it was fun to see Jeff nail it on the first try here.

[@_MysterySock]

As a resident of Kansas. I greatly appreciate your effort

[@confetti21]

Who would have thought McDonalds would put out a substandard product

[@rizzk02]

I only knew this Double Dragon so it's interesting to here the perspective of someone who knew the arcade game prior. I loved the NES version! Lots of nostalgia.

[@Achoohorsey]

Haven't even started the video yet and see you played M.C. Kids for an hour so I know you're certified mad.

[@LordHershebel]

KEYSTONE KAPERS MENTIONED 🗣️🗣️

[@chemmystery5217]

I was surprised at the reaction Dr. Mario got. This batch of games was just rough in general.

[@scottgamedev]

M.C. Kids was actually called "McDonaldland" here in PAL land (to tie it in with its many, many home computer ports; you should check out that WILD Amiga version), so I guess we would have been like "It's McDonaldland, aye" if you were in Scotland at the time. (And Where's Waldo is "Where's Wally" here, but that's because that's the franchise's original name; it's, again, British)

[@MonotoneTim]

I made the Ambassador Certificate my favorite game on my 3DS profile.

[@schtive81]

I remember playing the Master System port of Double Dragon in two player mode, back in the day, and it was a much more accurate arcade port overall. But it was flickery as hell in two-player mode. Sega pulled off that same tactic with the first Streets of Rage. It came out around the same time frame as Final Fight on the SNES, and the SNES Final Fight only had one player mode. While Sega discreetly advertised two-player co-op for SOR1. I also remember renting that Where's Waldo NES game during a weekend and completing it within am hour or two and then never really played it again. But I do actually agree that the idea of a Where's Waldo game sounds interesting. Especially with Waldo being random, and maybe the characters in the scene doing something different at slightly different points in time. But the books are still amazing, and have some really impressive art, because Martin Handford could draw like over 1000+ people on a page, doing things in relation to each other. All in isometric perspective.

[@milesjacob4907]

lead programmer and project lead respectively of the first two Elder Scrolls games did the music to that Where's Waldo game

[@TheFizzjunior]

After this feature, I want a shirt that says Dynowarz: Destruction of Spondylous

[@teeveeparty]

I suspect science's ranking of Dr. Mario may have something to do with how much it sucks at it :p

[@furrymessiah]

Agreed. Dr Mario is friggin awesome.

[@mr.serious2618]

Lucky for science there’s yet another Waldo game on the NES

[@enemyv]

If you play Dr Mario at super high difficulty levels it’s more fun. I always play at Level 30, slow speed. When there’s more bugs there’s always an optimal place to put the pill. Chill slaps. Fever is OK.

[@enemyv]

Oh and obviously multiplayer is better, since there’s an incentive to set up chain reactions.

[@MysteriousMrL]

@@enemyv While I'll always give the nod to Tetris overall, I still really like Dr. Mario and think it's extremely underappreciated. I'd even argue its multiplayer can be more interesting than multiplayer Tetris. Though of course it depends on the specific versions.

[@Livingeidolon]

McKids!!! Hell yeah that was one of my favorites!!

[@starlightrevenant]

When I hear the Dr. Mario Fever theme it always reminds me of the version with lyrics.

[@Alucard-A-La-Carte]

There's something very "Early 2000s Adult Swim show music" about "Chill."

[@SethGolovin]

Gotta say that I streamed some MC Kids the other day and Jeff managed to last way longer than I did. I gave up once I reached the end of the first world and hadn’t collected enough cards.

[@MonotoneTim]

The Where’s Waldo music wants to be When I’m 64 so badly.

[@RW-ij1ci]

I remember getting double dragon for my birthday and being so disappointed I couldn't play two players with my dad, specially cause we loved playing contra

[@KesSharann]

NASA: Budget cuts, man. People don't want to pay taxes so we could only train one good astronaut.

[@teeveeparty]

Hey, remember when the space shuttle blew up?

[@matthewkemmer]

Someone was eating too much beans on toast when they made M.C. Kids

[@boostbeetle]

First comment on one of these (and I should've done one videos ago for getting me into Willow; that was a lot of fun!) Watching you play M.C. Kids was paaainful. Which... it can't be helped because it doesn't explain any of its hidden mechanics at all? But, like, there were a few moments where you paused, and you looked at something being off to you, or hopped on a jumper and said "this must mean something" and just moved on. It felt like the inverse of watching Bionic Commando, I game I loathe because I cannot get the handle of the claw arm and swing physics while you breezed it into number one, while you miss reversing your gravity or playing with weight puzzles which blew my mind as a kid. It is definitely a lot of jank, and deserves its low placement for how frustrating it was, but gutted.

[@furrymessiah]

Space Shuttle Project, a literal crap game, ranked higher than Dr Mario, and by a considerable amount? That's not science, that's bias.

[@Jagerbomber]

Waiting for Spencer to appear wearing a Where's Waldo shirt

[@OrinLinwe]

..I think most of my memories of Double Dragon was on gameboy, and not knowing anything about refresh rate at the time, I just assumed I wasn't focusing enough. I might as well have tried to play it on a Kindle.

[@Dr_Mel]

my mother played a LOT of dr. mario and I watched her play a fair amount and I thought it was boring because I wasn't the one playing, but no. It's a pretty basic experience. But that's what she was looking for, a simple and unchallenging activity to perform at the end of a day to feel like you got something done and keep your brain busy.

[@Jaspertine]

Players who never learned how to play Dr Mario insisting that it's actually the game's fault: A proud tradition since 1990.

[@Jagerbomber]

So they put the Adoring Fan in Starfield, what about Waldo/Wally?

[@nelson-haha89]

Did my man really just beat Waldo on stream?

[@jackmehoff9616]

The last time a clown gave me a bag of magic I was up for 3 days.

[@aceking121212]

Whats the emulator he uses for all the achievements?

[@NightmareLyra]

Dr. Mario really is only fun if you play it at the High speed setting

[@shidonidoni5704]

So desperately wanted to love Double Dragon (NES) as a kid, but man... it did not love me back

[@therealbluedragon]

British game design during the 80’s and 90’s was very mean/unfair compared to other countries of the time. When most games were about fun challenges or power fantasies, a lot of UK games felt like they were just out to trick, kill or confuse you.

[@kiloyardstare]

You would need a cold heart not to love McKids!

[@Retro64_]

M.C. Kids is called McDonaldland in the UK

[@NAP8X]

I never really understood why people like Dr. Mario so much. It’s ok, but I’d take Tetris any time.

[@BeartatoTime]

The same could be said of any videogame.

[@NAP8X]

@@BeartatoTime Yeah.

[@MissAshley42]

It's an alright versus game, and I've learned over the years that it was really big with moms (kinda like how The Legend of Zelda was the dad game).

[@sydneymeanstreet]

Dr. Mario's habit of overprescribing is solely responsible for the rise in antibiotic resistance.

[@MissAshley42]

I'd love to see a documentary sometime explaining how European platformers became what they are. Also, I think the secret sauce you're missing with Dr. Mario is the versus mode. A large chunk of its depth lies there. That said, Tetris is not only a better versus game, it's a better single-player game. Single-player Dr. Mario is just kinda sad.

[@BeartatoTime]

I can't believe that Where's Waldo game got ranked above anything, that should have gone straight to the bottom!

[@sydneymeanstreet]

Time for Ranking the C64 where Jeff will be faced with more terrible British games than you could imagine, but on the plus side he'll finally hear Kernkraft 400 when he gets to Lazy Jones.

[@nightcitywanderer]

you know what other game has that chaotic level design of UK platformers, for some reason? Sonic the Hedgehog

[@PikaGasMask]

the McDonald's game had the rawest music though

[@Shiftygism]

Dr.Mario ain't bad! Dr.Luigi is good too! Also it gave us a great amiiboo!

[@Hardworlder]

Waldo stole the Castlevania font

[@ice_queen9]

i feel really bad for anyone whose parents bought them this Space Shuttle game :o

[@MNeely]

Space Station Project should come to NSO.

[@RT55J]

Starfield... it's no Where's Waldo.

[@ianschmidt1341]

200 down, 644 to go! 🎉

[@OrinLinwe]

That "In Time" movie is the most shot-on-a-backlot movie I've ever seen.

[@JustinWillisDevil240Z]

That space shuttle game is kinda bs because the Shuttle Enterprise was not capable of powered flight or going into space at all. It was a test glider.

[@wrapitup46]

2 player Dr. Mario is great!

[@furrymessiah]

SPONDEELOOS

[@justsignmeup911]

22:21:42 Backpack

[@justsignmeup911]

I love how, when he's comparing games, he always mentions Low G Man The Low Gravity Man.

[@Jagerbomber]

Double Dragle

[@Goblin_Hunter87]

He Jeff 🎉 Can we expect Rad Racer soon?

[@tommylakindasorta3068]

British game dev: "Oi, let's put an arrow there, innit?"

[@IgnatiusAlpha]

Where's Waldo? IN THE BOTTOM 10, SUCKA! What a horrendous experience. You know a NES game is subpar when you can still snag a cartridge of it on eBay for less than $10 in 2024. I'd rather have the books any day of the week. Space Shuttle Project is interesting. Never saw that one until today. And yeah, I've heard nothing but good things about M.C. Kids, but the longer I watched gameplay of it, the jankier it got. Could be a decent romp if one took the time to get a hold of the gameplay mechanics, I guess. I had the opposite experience with Double Dragon where I never played the arcade game or SMS port growing up and my only exposure to the series was through the NES. Like the Super Mario Bros. games, I appreciate and respect Double Dragon for what it is, but the sequels are more fun to play, especially Double Dragon II. And that leaves Dr. Mario. I have always loved it and have a lot of nostalgia for it (my Mom would play it for hours, I had competitions with friends, had a complete, mint boxed copy at one point, etc), but still think it is solid without said nostalgia. It should have been higher on the list, in my opinion. I can see why people think it's "unbelievably dull", but you can say that about literally every other puzzle game. It's more fun to play when you get into a groove and clear bugs from different angles and don't half-ass throwing pills everywhere and have to deal with a mess.

[@chillybus]

hell yeah turns out 4 y.o. me really didn't know jack all about Science when he suggested MC Kids. Now that it's been touched and ranked with the hindsight of a quarter century+, it does Neat Science (being some alternate-universe laboratory-created SMB3), but clearly it's not particularly Good Science. fun!

[@fisk0]

I'm probably the worlds biggest defender of Euroshmups, but, yeah, the platformers - while often ambitious - tend to feel all too awkward to play, in part due to being designed for single button controllers. Kinda surprised Jeff never commented on the fact that the enemies in M.C. Kids respawned, but the blocks did not, meaning you could eventually use up all the blocks in the level. Maybe that's the reason the exit was so easy to reach.

[@CromulentKajiggers]

Congratulations to the NES version of Ghostbusters for no longer being one of the 10 worst NES games of all time! Long may it not reign!

[@christophernixon8088]

Anyone else not hearing audio?

[@Goblin_Hunter87]

No it’s fine

[@cajungoat]

Jeff talking shit on the British kills me.

[@JosephTavano]

Listen, I trust the science, but it physically hurts to watch Jeff play Dr. Mario. It's a common problem: people try to play it like Tetris and in doing so, miss so many opportunities and the lower levels just drag on needlessly. However, I say all that and don't necessarily disagree with Jeff's opinion on the game. It's a bit plodding, and doesn't really incentivize a player to get better. Jeff did just fine using poor strategies, and that just tells me it's a puzzle game with little to no learning or skill curve. In other words, little depth.

[@d.s.i.6722]

200 down, 500+ to go

[@drmariomariomd6733]

Growing up is realizing Jeff was always right about Dr. Mario and Yoshis Island, but also being free to play better games.

[@kentheonlywellmaybedontoo9754]

this one hurt my belly! i love dr mario and double dragon. trashed em!!

[@Jagerbomber]

Play LBP2 next, lul

[@matthewkris6055]

M.C. Kids is better than it has any right to be. It's not good but it should be way worse.

[@RetroDrew]

Say what you will about MC Kids gameplay but that soundtrack is nothing but bangers on bangers. Whole soundtrack is a certified jam

[@fisk0]

the songs were great, yeah, but it was a little odd how they were used, they've got four different songs for the levels but there seems to be no rhyme or reason on which song goes with which level. They've got some different visual themes in there, but they don't use one song for ice levels, one for caves, one for clouds etc., it just seems random.

[@Goblin_Hunter87]

Also: calling Dr Mario “dull” isn’t science, it’s just dumb

[@JazGalaxy]

The dumb thing about leveling in Double Dragon is that the enemies gain new skills when you do. So leveling up doesn’t ACTUALLY help.