The Virtual Squared Circle 11.28.07: Super Mario Bros. vs. Double Dragon - Movie Edition
Posted by Randy Isbelle on 11.28.2007
With yet another video game movie flopping on the big screen, I go back and look at the original two...so you don't have to.
Original Game
Mario - (Taken from last week..yeah yeah call me lazy if you want, but it's about the same game.) Mario made his first appearance in the video game world in the classic, Donkey Kong, all the way back in 1981. He was known simply as Jumpman and his main objective was to rescue the princess from the evil gorilla who was throwing barrels at him. However, we are going to skip this game, as long as the sequel, Donkey Kong Jr. as well as his other appearance in the arcades, Mario Bros, where he finally was given his name that we know him as today. Instead, we are going to take a look at the game that truly started the Mario craze, Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Many say that Super Mario Bros. is the reason why the NES took off as it did, and that with out Mario, Zelda and Metroid would have never made the impact that they did. The game was released back in 1985 and since then has sold over 40 million copies world wide. Super Mario Bros. used the same basic premise as Mario's original appearance in Donkey Kong, just in a larger aspect. Mario had to traverse through eight different worlds, going from castle to castle, to find and save the princess. The game was simple but affective and drew gamers into a world they had never experienced before, and they ate it up. The controls were smooth, and it was a wonderful experience back then, however the game really hasn't aged well as I can now sit down and beat the game with out really putting a lot of effort into it.
Double Dragon - Double Dragon made their first appearance back in 1987 in arcades, while getting ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and the Sega Master System the following year. The storyline is based around a futuristic New York City, five years after a nuclear war, and gangs have taken over the city. Billy's girlfriend is kidnapped by a gang, the Black Warriors who are led by Willy Mackey, who want to know the secrets of Sou-Setsu-Ken, the martial arts style of Billy and Jimmy Lee.
The game takes you through five missions, where the only big difference is the background. You go around the city fighting off all sorts of enemies, some with weapons and others with mutated bodies hiding in dark spaces. Double Dragon was one of the original origins of the basic button mashing beat'em up where there is a little bit of strategy that can help you, but just smashing buttons can get you through the game just fine.
Winner: Mario
Actors In The Movie
Mario - Bob Hoskins – Known mostly for his roles in Who Framed Roger Rabbit and (1988) and Hook (1991), Hoskins has been a Cannes Award and Academy Award nominee for Best Actor.
John Leguizamo – Leguizamo is an Emmy Award winning and Golden-Globe nominated actor, who was not as well known before Super Mario Bros. compared to after. Since this movie, Leguizamo has been a major role in Romeo + Juliet (1996), The Fan (1996), Moulin Rouge! (2001), and being a voice in the family hit Ice Age.
Dennis Hopper – Hopper has been acting in films since 1954, but is mainly known for his roles in Easy Rider (1969), Blue Velvet (1986), Hoosiers (1986), Speed (1994) and 24 (2001).
Double Dragon - Robert Patrick – Patrick is mostly known was his role as a T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), but has also stared in The Faculty (1998), Walk The Line (2005), The Marine (2006) and We Are Marshall (2006).
Mark Dacascos – Dacascos has not don't much before or after, but is known for his martial arts skills.
Scott Wolf – Wolf is mostly known for his role in Party of Five.
Alyssa Milano – Mainly known for her television work, Milano has stared in Who's The Boss and Charmed.
Winner: Mario
The Movie Plot
Mario - The story surrounds two plumbers, Mario Mario and Luigi Mario, who are down on their luck as their business is crumbling due to the Scapelli Construction Company. Luigi falls in love with an orphan, Daisy, who is digging under the Brooklyn Bridge for dinosaur bones. During a date, Daisy takes Luigi to the dig, only to find Scapelli's men flooding the site. Mario and Luigi are able to stop the flooding but are knocked out by two strange characters.
After awaking, Mario and Luigi follow Daisy's screams deep into a cave where they come across a portal, which takes them to a strange parallel world. There they find out that King Koopa had kidnapped Daisy, who was actually a princess in their world, and wanted her "rock" so he could combine the two worlds once again.
Double Dragon - The movie is set around a medallion that long ago was split into two pieces; the medallion itself would bring great power to the beholder. A group led by Koga Shuko is hunting for this medallion, and will leave no stone unturned to find it. The movie starts with members of this group in a monk village in China where they find one half of the medallion. The movie then goes to New Angeles (Los Angeles after a big earthquake in 2007, hmmm wonder if that is going to happen in the next month), where Shuko reveals his plan to take over the city (why not the world), but when realizes it is only half of the medallion, he freaks out, and uses the one half that they do have to turn into a weird shadow figure. You then come to find out that the second half of the medallion is held by Satori Imada, caretaker of the main characters, Billy and Jimmy Lee.
The city is in ruins, after the NAPD made a truce with the gangs of the city basically allowing them to run wild after a certain hour, as long as they stayed quiet the rest of the day. Luckily there is a rebel group, the PowerCorps, led by Marian who are out to fight off the gang members and keep as much peace to the city as possible.
The rest of the movie is based around Shuko chasing Billy and Jimmy trying to get the other half of the medallion, crappy fight scene after crappy fight scene.
Winner: Mario - At least it kept to the idea of Mario being from another world/dimension, and being brought in for the sole purpose of saving the princess. Double Dragon was about saving your girlfriend, not about some medallion…unless I'm missing something here.
Who would win in a fight?
Well this one is easy, if it was based on the video games…Billy and Jimmy hands down, unfortunately, it is based on the movies. If you have ever seen the Double Dragon movie, you know how horrible these fight scenes are, which is not a knock on some of the actors in the fight scenes, it is just that the choreography is so terribly bad. Oh the other hand, Mario and Luigi both really have no fighting skills in their movie, and their big move consisted of a bobomb. So even though the choreography was terrible, I still think Billy and Jimmy take out Mario and Luigi.
Winner: Double Dragon
So there you have it, Mario wins two in a row, which makes Double Dragon the WORST video game movie of all time.
Join me next week as I go back to the best of the video game world and go to the world of fantasy in what will be the most controversial battles yet.
