It is a bad port and the signs are there: Slowdown, poor quality sound and weak control. Ignore this game
Now, while the graphics appear to look on par, except with slight alterations, but unlike the arcade version, the game suffers from some of the worst slowdown that can be possibly experienced in 16 Bit games.
It is just so agonising to see how helpless you are as your character is beaten in slow-motion with little for you to do. As expected this takes a toll on pretty much the entire game.
So because of this, the gameplay feels disastrous and the control is weak to say the least. It doesn't help that the game is frustratingly hard anyway, perhaps harder than the arcade game itself even in easy mode. What is funny though, is how easy it is to exploit the AI, where you can rely on cheap attacks and kill basically every enemy by just doing that.
However with that in mind, it is quite hard to do those cheap attacks. It is never easy pulling off the manurers you want your character to perform in Double Dragon 2 thanks in part to the sluggish controls the developers tried in implant on the Genesis controller.
As a result, jumps can never be the right length as you will find out on the platform sections (which DD 2 is plentiful in), also punching and attacking in the right direction is a confusing task that takes at least 5 minutes to get used to, it'll eventually lead to button bashing and unfortunately works just as bad as the platforming.
Also, unlike any other Double Dragon game, weapons will almost prove useless to the player in this game and ironically end in your death rather than the bad guys.
It is a big burn for DD 2 because the game has many interesting weapons that can be used, especially in comparison to the original game. OK, maybe I'm being a bit harsh and the issues can be swept aside if you're a serious gamer but why should we have to have these issues?
Another big loss for DD 2 comes in the form of far weaker sound and the sound effects ultimately are weaker and missing in some places on this unfortunate Genesis version.
Fans of the arcade version will be upset by this, because many of their memorable quotes and music from the game will be heavily crippled by the weak quality of the sound. This is more of a issue of the Genesis rather than the developers, but they should of at least remixed or redeveloped the soundtrack to adapt to the capabilities of the Genesis.
The biggest fail of DD 2 has to be how short the game actually is though and simply how unacceptable that is on a home game, considering the quality of many other arcade ports at the time. Even Final Fight on Super Nintendo was developed better than this monstrosity of a port. There is also little reason to play this in multiplayer or even replay the game at all because of its issues.
So wrapping this up, there is little reason to play Double Dragon 2 on Genesis, fans of the series themselves will feel bitterly disappointed by how atrocious the game plays. Even in comparison to it's NES version, there is little redeeming quality in Double Dragon 2 for Genesis.
It is a bad port and the signs are there: Slowdown, poor quality sound and weak control all help make this one of the least desirable games on Genesis, ignore this game.