Double Dragon
The landmark beat-'em-up where brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee rescue Marian from the Black Warriors gang. Introduces combo attacks and upgradable moves in a single-player campaign.
Share this game
Story
Original series at Technōs Japan (1987-1995) Double Dragon was created by Yoshihisa Kishimoto , while working at Technōs Japan in the mid 1980s. As a designer, Kishimoto had success with the arcade brawler Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun , known as Renegade in the west, and work began on a sequel to the game. Higher figures in the company suggested that the next game should support two players, which led Kishimoto to develop Double Dragon as a spiritual successor rather than a direct sequel. The name was drawn from Enter the Dragon , which also inspired Kishimoto.
Double Dragon was released in arcades in 1987. The game was both a critical and commercial success for Technōs, in both domestic and international markets. The game popularised the genre and has been considered among the greatest games of all time . Work began on home console ports, including a Nintendo Entertainment System version in 1988, and a Game Boy version in 1990.
Various licensed versions were also produced by other developers for gaming platforms such as the Master System , Atari 2600 , Atari 7800 , Sega Genesis , Atari Lynx and for home computers. The popularity of the original in arcades began to wane after Capcom's Final Fight launched in 1989, however two sequels were made available; Double Dragon II: The Revenge in 1988 and Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone in 1990. Both of these received ports to home consoles, however the Game Boy and NES versions are greatly different from the original arcade titles. By the early 1990s Kishimoto had become disillusioned with Technōs; the company wanted to continue developing Double Dragon and Kunio-kun titles as they were selling well, but this did not afford him much room for innovation.
He also disagreed with some of the company's spending decisions including their purchase of real estate and a racing team. His last contribution to the franchise in the era was Super Double Dragon for SNES in 1992; after this he left the company. Technōs continued developing further Double Dragon titles without Kishimoto, however these were not as successful as the original title. Kishimoto attributed this to a lack of consistency in tone, visual style, and gameplay, stemming from a large range of staff working on separate projects and a lack of communication between teams.
These ventures included a humorous crossover with Battletoads and a cartoon series in 1993, which were followed by a live action film in 1994 with an "almost post-apocalyptic" tone. The fifth and final game in the original series, Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls (1994) departed greatly from the formula and featured one on one combat in the vein of Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat ; this game was a critical failure, featuring poor graphics, clunky gameplay and bizarre character designs. Technōs produced one final spin-off, an adaptation of the film for Neo Geo in 1995, but the game was poorly received. The company declared bankruptcy in 1996.
Gameplay Systems
The gameplay in most of the games takes place in a pseudo 3D perspective as seen in Renegade and later beat 'em ups, in which the player can move in four directions but is always facing left or right. In almost all cases the player moves to the right in a horizontally scrolling environment, encountering various enemies who attack and try to prevent the player from progressing. The player can perform a variety of unarmed fighting techniques against their enemies, as well as use melee weapons such as baseball bats and throwing knives normally obtained from enemies or found on the floor. In some installments, there are techniques that can be done in combination with another player, the game also has an elbow move that enables the player to move to keep hitting the enemy without getting hit when moving side to side on a fallen opponent.
About Double Dragon
Double Dragon is a classic video game released for the Nintendo Entertainment System on January 1, 1988. This title has become a beloved entry in the retro gaming library.
This wiki entry provides comprehensive information about Double Dragon, including release details, gameplay information, and story synopsis. Whether you're looking to revisit a childhood favorite or discover classic games for the first time, Emulator Games Wiki has you covered.
Some information sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 3.0.