History of: Double Dragon

Double Dragon, the essential and most well known beat ‘em up of the NES age.  With the exception of a few others, “Double Dragon” is probably, if not definetly, the best beat ‘em up of all time.  Personally, I’m more of a “River City Ransom” kind of guy, but RCR didn’t reach the kind of popularity of Double Dragon.  However, after “Double Dragon II: The Revenge” on the NES, we we’re ‘treated’ to what is known as “Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone”.  I feel that the Angry Video Game Nerd describes it better then anyone else (link).

So, what happened to Double Dragon?  I mean, did Double Dragon III suck so bad that they never made another one?  The answer is obviously no.

“Super Double Dragon” came out for the, you guessed it, Super Nintendo in October of 1992.  While the American version had a crappy “Super” plugged in fron of it, the Japanese got a more acurate title, “Return of Double Dragon”.  This game, while not being a total let down, as in Double Dragon III, was still pretty bad.  The game HAD a story, but the story was actually CUT OUT of the final game.  I don’t know about you, but I hate it when developers decide that they don’t need a story.  Now, the gameplay wasn’t awful, it added some new things to the series that were in other Beat ‘em ups, but the lack of a story really hurt this game.  However, most fans of the orginal and a group of others remember “Super Double Dragon”.

So when did we forget about Double Dragon?  Well, probably when the developers got all switched around and when Double Dragon became a TV Series.

Now, before I begin, I’m not going to lie to you: I have never SEEN the Double Dragon TV series.  I promise to watch a few episodes so I can acurately describe the show and its effects on the franchise.  However, I know it ran for 2 seasons, was animated, and made in the mid 90s.  Generally, this means one thing – it wasn’t very good.  But, I’ve never seen, so who am I to judge.

 HOWEVER, I have played “Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls” and I do know it sucks.  HARD. Released in 1994, this game was developed by Leland Interactive Media, a subsidiry of Tradewest, who produced Double Dragon (not Technos).  The game plays like Street Fighter meets Samurai Showdown meets a pile of crap.  Bad controls, boring characters, awful music.  It was a travesty to the series.

So, what was Technos doing?  They were making a different Double Dragon game titled “Double Dragon”.  Yes, they made ANOTHER game titled “Double Dragon”.  In order to prevent confusion, most people call it “Double Dragon Neo-Geo” as it was designed for the Neo-Geo, SNK’s often misunderstood system.  So, was this the great game 90% of us missed?  Well, not really.  Much like Double Dragon V, this game was a 1v1 fighter.  However, rather then being a pile of crap, this game was just ok.  Playing like the “Art of Fighting” series, this game wasn’t garbage, but it certaintly wasn’t the game fans (or anyone, really) we’re looking for.

Unfortunetly, that was the last real Double Dragon game.  Technos of Japan folded in the mid 90s and faded outof existance.  Other games were made with Double Dragon in the title or with Double Dragon characters, but only two really matter.

The first one is “Battletoads & Double Dragon”, a crossover game between the two.  It was made by Rare in 1993 and is only Double Dragon in title.  It plays more like Battletoads, which I am a much, much bigger fan of and as such, doesn’t really act as a true Double Dragon title.  However, sales of this game were pretty darn high, seing how both franchises were still popular at the time.

The other title was made for the Neo-Geo in 2002.  Created by Evoga and Noise Factory, “Rage of the Dragons” was originally planned to be a sequel to Technos last game.  However, they couldn’t obtain the rights to the Double Dragon franchise and were forced to make a game that was a “spiritual sucessor”.  RotD is a fantastic fighting game, featuring tag-team action, and is one of my personal favorite fighters on the Neo-Geo.

So, there you have it.  The history of Double Dragon is long and illustrious.  It is definetly one of the definitive beat ‘em ups and managed to last for a long time.  Only time will tell if another Double Dragon will be made.