Rage of the Dragons NEO Review

Originally released in 2002 to a genre filled with established fighting series like Tekken 4, King of Fighters 2002, and Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. Over 20 years later, we are seeing the title (initially only available on the Neo Geo console) come to a range of other systems, which will help it to reach a wider audience. The game was originally meant to be a sequel in the Double Dragon franchise, but (the developer) Evoga couldn’t get the rights to do that, so some changes had to be made to make Rage of the Dragons its own thing.

The main menu is animated, showing off a variety of characters in battle, with game art scrolling on the top and bottom of the screen. The music here is eclectic and upbeat, with a variety of guitars added to make this soundtrack sound unique, compared to other fighting titles that I have played. The offerings here are what you would expect: a variety of game modes ranging from Arcade, Versus, Training, and something called Dragon’s Challenges (if you really want to test your skills). There is a Jukebox where you can hear the voices for each of the characters and a music player to listen to the song for each of the stages in the game. You have the option to edit the music that plays in the main menu; there are nine different songs and a random setting if you don’t want to choose only one. The Trophies area has 35 different challenges that you can be rewarded for, ranging from winning your first fight to winning a match at the school using Pupa or Pepe. And there’s a trophy called: Dragon, The Explorer that you receive once you win a match in every stage.

Rage of the Dragons NEO offers nine different stages to battle in: Dojo, Parking, Disco, Church, Factory, Ring, School, Subway, and Palace. All the stages are detailed and look great, with animated elements in the background like paper lanterns swaying or people dancing and cheering the fighters on, along with their own music to complement the stage you are playing in. Each of these stages has walls that you can smash your opponents into or get hit yourself to do extra damage. If you don’t like these barriers, you can turn them off in the options menu.

The fighter roster consists of 16 characters. This isn’t the largest collection we have seen in a fighting title, but each of the characters has their own distinctive look and fighting style, so they all feel totally different from each other. Billy, Lynn, Sonia, Jimmy, Radel, Annie, Alice, Elias, Cassandra (her one outfit makes her look like Psylocke from X-Men), Oni, Jones (looks like he’s in the Game of Death movie like Bruce Lee with the yellow jumpsuit), Kang, Pepe (all about the abs), and Pupa, along with two characters who were bosses in the original title: Abubo (which would have been Abobo if this was a Double Dragon title) and Johann (who looks like he's too good to be wasting his time here).

The game offers a training mode where you can try out all the different fighters and learn some of their special attacks. Each character has a move list, but it's not totally clear which buttons to use. You can find a key that explains all the different icons if you search in the options menu under controls. The icons with a blue background are light attacks, and the ones with red are heavy. It would have been more useful seeing this right in the move list area than having to search for it; showing a symbol that looks like a foot or fist is fine if you tell me which buttons do a kick or punch first.

When you feel ready for battle, you can start the Arcade mode or jump into a Versus battle. The default difficulty is set to Normal (which is a five out of 10) so I left the setting on this default. I got my butt kicked so fast! so I opted to set the difficulty to easy, until I became more comfortable with the controls and combat mechanics. There is a bit of a learning curve with this title, so be prepared to try out all the different character options to find a fighter with moves you like and spend time in the Training Room to refine your skills. Be aware that no matter the difficulty setting you select, the fighters that you are facing are great at blocking and defending themselves from your attacks. You will have to be strategic to deal damage; button mashing doesn’t work as well as it does in other games; your opponent will just block a majority of the punches and kicks that you throw.

If you get tired of facing off against the CPU, there is an option to have a versus battle against a friend locally, or you can jump online to face off against someone. Unfortunately, Rage of the Dragons NEO has omitted cross-play between the different game systems, making it harder to find people online to battle with. Keep in mind that if you are trying this out on the PlayStation, you will need the PlayStation Plus service to play online, otherwise, you are stuck playing against one other player locally.

Rage of the Dragons NEO is a great-looking 2D fighter that is more challenging than your typical fighting game. Even with the easiest settings, this title isn’t a walk through the park; the CPU fighters are great at defending themselves from your attacks. If your strategy in fighting games is to constantly button-mash, you may end up having a frustrating time. To be successful, you will need to be strategic with the two characters that you select to take into battle. If you are looking for a brawl game that will challenge you and has a lot to unlock, this is a title you will want to check out, though I can’t guarantee that you will find other people online to battle against.