It hasn’t seen much action since the turn of the century, but Double Dragon was once a huge name in gaming and one of the granddaddies of the beat ‘em up genre. In the late ’80s through the early ’90s, Double Dragon was popular in the arcades and home consoles. It even had its own cartoon show and movie, but we’re trying to stick to the positives here. Double Dragon Neon and Double Dragon IV were 21st century attempts at reviving the series, but didn’t deviate too much from the gameplay mechanics of the original games. Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons brings the Lee brothers back and tries to introduce many new features to the beat ‘em up.
Double Dragon Gaiden takes place in New York City, circa 199X. The city has become a post apocalyptic wasteland thanks to nuclear war. Gangs have overrun the city and citizens are terrified as everyone seems powerless to stop this oppressive threat. That is except for Billy and Jimmy Lee, two martial artist brothers who decide to turn vigilante and take matters into their own hands. This is standard operating procedure for them, so they take to the streets to bust some gang lord heads.
The Lee brothers won’t be alone in trying to clean up the streets of New York. They are joined by Uncle Matin, a big burly dude with a riot shield and former damsel in distress turned gun toting butt kicker Marian. At the start of each game the player selects which two characters they wish to have for their team. These four are available at the start of the game, but there are thirteen additional characters that can be unlocked through earning tokens during the course of gameplay. Each character handles differently, so it can be fun to experiment with which characters are the most fun for an individual player. Many of the unlockable characters are recognizable villains, so getting to control them is always a nice change of pace.
Double Dragon Gaiden builds on the interchangeable character idea that was introduced in Double Dragon III. Double Dragon Gaiden uses a tag team for the player can switch between two characters on the fly, provided their special meter is charged. Each character handles differently, even Billy and Jimmy who have similar fighting styles have different set up moves and for all the people who were player 2 growing up, Jimmy seems to do better in most scenarios. Matin is slower but can throw enemies with virtually no effort. Marian can pick away at enemy health bars from a distance, but is vulnerable during reloads.
Roguelite elements are another new feature brought to the Double Dragon universe. As players progress through the game they will earn money which they can use to buy power ups at the end of each level or spend to revive their characters. At the end of the each game, whether it ends in game over or a more favorable outcome, the player’s earnings will be cashed out and traded in for tokens that can be spent to unlock other playable characters or other gallery items. The cost of tokens and other purchasable items is determined by a customizable difficulty setting where players can individually adjust specific aspects of the game such as player stats, enemy stats and enemy aggressiveness to name a few. This allows the player to determine how quickly they can earn money for tokens who their actual skill plays a large part in how well the settings work. The game can still offer a challenge in later portions even with all settings set on easy, but those seeking a challenge will find New York brutal with everything maxed out.
One of the more interesting features of Double Dragon Gaiden is how it combines the ability to tackle the stages in an order of player’s choosing while still maintaining a sense of progressive difficulty. Each level changes based on the order in which a player selects it. Levels chosen later in a player’s progression will have additional sections, more aggressive enemies in greater numbers, additional mini bosses and the gang leader fight will change. If someone chooses The Killers as the first gang they wish to fight, Machine Gun Willy will be a straightforward fight, reminiscent of his debut at the end of the original Double Dragon. Save them for last and Machine Gun Willy will fly across a building top in a military grade helicopter, forcing the player to dodge his bullets and fight his goons while trying to figure out how in the world to attack him. This feature helps keep the game feeling fresh through repeated playthroughs.
Anyone familiar with Double Dragon has a general idea about what kind of gameplay they can expect. The characters move about a 2.5D plane and beat the living tar out of each other. Certain characters can take advantage of found weapons such as knives and baseball bats. Not everyone can which seems unusual for Double Dragon, but since each character has their own unique set of special attacks and several characters have their own weapons, it makes sense. Outside of the new features such as the power ups and tag team functions, it plays like classic Double Dragon where it’s primarily beating up groups of enemies while doing mild platforming and avoiding environmental traps.
Double Dragon Gaiden does an admirable job of recreating the classic Double Dragon experience. The unique approach to the changing level design based on order selected gives that old school progressive difficulty while still letting the player have control over the order in which they tackle the game. The roguelite elements of power ups also help make the player feel better equipped to deal with these challenges. The varied levels offer additional challenges in the form of floor traps, explosions and low light areas to help give the stages variety. On the flipside, while many of these new approaches to the gameplay work well, they do have some caveats. The variety of selectable characters helps in preventing subsequent playthroughs from feeling too redundant, but not all the characters are fun to play.
Machine Gun Willy, for example, is so slow that he feels at a disadvantage in most situations even with his machine gun. There were a few moments that seemed to be programmed in to appease the quarter-hungry arcade owner. There are some environmental spike traps where hitting that at the wrong time can juggle a full health character to death. It’s also dangerous to tag out over pitfalls since sometimes the new character will ignore the platform the player is standing on and fall straight into the pit before the player ever takes control. These moments may be reminiscent of the classic arcade experience, but we enjoyed the coin-operated machines in spite of those moments, not because of them.
The art direction in Double Dragon Gaiden is rather cartoonish. Initially the disproportionately large heads were off putting, but eventually grew on me after completing a few stages. The music is a good mix of new music with some revamped familiar Double Dragon tunes. The main complaints about the technical aspects probably have more to do with the system hardware than the actual game. Occasionally Joy-Con drift kicked in and caused unfortunate wandering of the character. It’s likely that other platforms don’t have this problem due to the Switch’s less powerful hardware, but the loading times when starting a new level can last almost half a minute.
Closing Comments:
Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons blends experimental elements with traditional Double Dragon gameplay. The roguelite design and the changing level structures encourage the player to complete the game multiple times to unlock all the additional characters to create experiences that feel less repetitive. This is a novel idea that works well for a couple playthroughs, but it can’t save things from feeling redundant forever. It’s fun for a couple playthroughs and does well at recreating the classic beat ‘em up gameplay. Unfortunately, it also showcases the limitations of the genre, and even with the innovation approach the developers used to make subsequent play sessions different, most players will likely get their fill long before unlocking all thirteen additional fighters.
