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If we said 'Mess with the best - die like the rest,' would it put the fear of God up you? 'Course not! But if the Dragon Lords, the roughest, toughest street gang around, approached with that motto tattooed across their foreheads, you'd hop on the nearest tube train and get the hell outta town!

Billy and Jimmy Lee, those world-famous Dragon brothers, were once friendly with the Lords almighty. However, they got too big for their boots and landed on the wrong side of the petrifying posse. Their cavalier attitude cost Jimmy his life.

Now, as Billy, you're out to avenge your brother's death. Up to your neck in martial arts action, punch, kick and somersault your way through six stages of urban warfare and tackle the odd sub-level along the way.

You start on Skid Row with three lives, each with four energy units. An arrow points the way to trouble and you set about knocking the pooh-pooh out of the Dragon Lords.

All bad guys have their own moves. Green-haired punks execute flying kicks, bald-headed beefcakes use their chests and flame-haired females swing their staffs and give as good as they get.

Of course, you don't just stand there. Press [1] to punch and [2] to leap and kick. To crouch and kick, press Down and [2]. You somersault if you run and press [2], and pressing both buttons executes your speed manoeuvre- well smart!

Keep your eyes peeled for weapons. You come across knives, swords, bats, guns and clubs. Hold onto them as long as possible.

When you've survived Skid Row, you're shown the hits you dealt and received. You're allocated points on how well you faired.

When Milt software houses realise the Double Dragon licence is dead and buried? They keep churning out games based on two of the most boring brothers in beat-'em-up history. This wouldn't be too bad if the games were any good; this release goes down as one of the worst.

The ‘action' is slow and tedious and isn't helped by drab graphics and annoying sound. The moves you execute are nothing out of the ordinary and the baddies have that 'seen it all before' air about them.

Double Dragon Xtra is a sub-standard beat-'em-up and pales in comparison to its principle competitor, Streets Of Rage. Streets isn't brilliant but it's a darn sight better than this.

If you liked previous Double Dragon games or you're certifiably insane, you might like this, but I doubt it very much.

It's Virgin's turn to breathe life into the turkey. These Double Dragon games are going to haunt us for a year and a day. Hopefully, we won't see any more on the larger consoles - I'll spit feathers if I hear the words ‘Double Dragon 4'.

Virgin claim to have souped-up the original Double Dragon game (hence the Xtra) and produced a challenging beat-'em-up for handheld owners. Well, it's fairly challenging, I'll give them that, but it's not a vast improvement on the original.

It's what I'd class as 'average'. The graphics are average (prepare yourself for a touch of flicker) and gameplay's average. Thank Heaven there's a good selection of adversaries to keep you interested. The sound's okay, with a decent theme on the title screen and gutsy, oriental ditties on each stage.

As with all the Double Dragon games, I found just a couple of moves were sufficient. The weapons are handy but it's difficult keeping them for more than a few seconds.

Double Dragon Xtra's not an all-out disaster. Beat-'em-up fans won't be too disappointed but GG Streets Of Rage is better.

A tired series. Virgin have done an OK job. We'd plump for Streets Of Rage.