The Double Dragon Multiverse’s Newest Addition
The side-scrolling brawler genre has found new life through the digital market in the last decade or so, after once fading from prominence. As the video gaming medium shifted from 2D to 3D, developers had trouble adapting the genre to the then-new polygonal plane, with Sega’s Yakuza series being the most prominent among the few successful examples. Now, several old brawling franchises have found new life through a renewed 2D form, and though Double Dragon never fully went away, it’s roaring back again.
The newly-revealed Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons feels like a somewhat redundantly-named reimaging of the older games through its world concept. It occurs in a devastated and dangerous New York City in the 1990s following a nuclear war, where it’s chiefly up to Bimmy Billy and Jimmy Lee (sorry, that reference will never get old to me) to take on the gangs roaming around the city. The Fist of the North Star inspiration will truly and thankfully never leave the franchise.
The word “chiefly” is important. One comparison of the synopses between the older and newer installments reveals a significant change: Marian isn’t captured this time. Story modernization partly explains this, with damsels in distress largely being played out. But it’s also because this game will have multiple playable characters. Billy, Jimmy, Marian, and Uncle Matin will be initially available, with the game having a total of 13 playable characters after the remaining nine are unlocked through earned tokens. Several of them will have different move sets, Marian in particular having an array of mid-to-long-range guns and a bazooka.
Gaiden has far more differences than the playable character slate. The character sprites are more super-deformed than any from prior Double Dragon games, which hew close to those from other brawlers and side-scrolling action games that took inspiration from older franchises. But they aren’t bad. A more important and divisive detail involves how roguelike elements will be included. The number and variety of enemies and available upgrades will vary depending on the order in which missions are chosen. There’s no info on whether the game will include a straight Arcade Mode, a “Classic Double Dragon” mode, but there’s plenty of time for them to reveal one if so.
It’s nice that we’re getting another Double Dragon game. My mind was a little blown upon realizing that Gaiden will be the first installment in about six years by the time it releases, as I didn’t remember how long it’s been since Double Dragon IV released. It’s even more interesting that what’s essentially a Double Dragon Multiverse has been established (I’m so sorry), with how many interpretations of the characters and universe there have been — especially for Marian, as hinted above.
The franchise officially came roaring back with WayForward’s Double Dragon Neon, a parody-style interpretation of the original game with 3D polygons. The story is similar, though not identical, to the original games (including poor Marian being captured), but it frequently makes fun of itself through its character interpretations and accompanying soundtrack. The game was derided when it first released, but came to be appreciated for its unique vibe and gameplay feel in subsequent years. There was also the aforementioned Double Dragon IV, made by members of the old team who realized the franchise weirdly jumped from Double Dragon III to the animated series fighting adaptation Double Dragon V in the 1990s.
It was River City Girls that threw me off when I figured it couldn’t have possibly been nearly seven years since the last Double Dragon game, because I knew I’d seen the Lee brothers more recently than that. The brothers indeed cameo in both games, with Billy and Jimmy running dojos in the Ocean Heights and Crosstown areas of the game, respectively.
The most enjoyable aspect of the Double Dragon Multiverse (again, sorry) is how vastly different the Marian interpretations have been. Neon kept her as largely a damsel in distress as part of its parody of the franchise and brawler genre, but RCG features an iteration who made sure she would never be captured again by getting martial arts training and a buff figure. Her interpretation in the game, which design-wise bears a strong resemblance to Noi from Dorohedoro in super-deformed form, was so popular that she was made playable in River City Girls 2. It’s a shame Gaiden isn’t taking more inspiration from this one, but it’s clear the development team wanted a version that bore more resemblance to the old design for the new game. There’s a big world of Double Dragon interpretations around, and that’s not even getting into the animated series and movie, both of which received game adaptations and feature their own unique Marians.
The Double Dragon franchise has never been consistent in terms of quality, but the best games are good enough that developer Secret Base Games has a significant burden on their shoulders to ensure that Double Dragon Gaiden is a quality product. The game will release sometime this summer, in both physical and digital forms.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
