Double Dragon Series Continued

Double Dragon 3The original Double Dragon game was released in 1987 and it was an important title. A co-operative two player adventure where you and a friend had to brawl your way through a series of thug filled levels to rescue the girl. The isometric view on the action allowed the side scrolling levels some new depth and instead of a flat set you could walk into the environment a limited distance. You could also use weapons like barrels and knives against the bizarre array of punks who attacked. It was fresh eighties cheese inspired by vaguely martial arts styled action films and the gameplay was much admired and endlessly copied.

I played Double Dragon loads and loved the fact you could play through with a friend. It was a very famous game but did you know that there were two sequels? First up was Double Dragon II: The Revenge which came out just a year after the first game. Once again it was developed by Technos and it was built using the same engine as the original. In fact all they altered was the controls which switched from punch and kick to be determined by the direction you were facing. It meant you could do a forward punching combo or a rear kick.

The story in the second game started out brutally. There was no happy ending for you and Marian, the girl you rescued in the first game. In this outing she gets shot by Willy of the Black Warriors right at the start. This is no rescue mission, this time you are simply out to get revenge for her murder. They stirred in a few extra boss characters but this was basically more of the same and it didn’t look or play much different from the original game. If you managed to complete it by destroying your own evil clone then you were rewarded with a poignant photo of poor dead Marian.

In 1990 Technos decided to squeeze a little more from the Double Dragon franchise and they hired a developer called East Technology to make another game. That’s how we ended up with the bizarre Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones (AKA Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone). It was developed using a completely new engine and they went for a more realistic look and tweaked the controls. They also added a third character clad in yellow.

The daft story in the third outing involved globetrotting to collect the sacred stones and the final battle took place in a pyramid in Egypt against a resurrected mummy. There were also stages in the US, Japan, China and Italy. The developer added an interesting system of shopping between levels. The player was allowed to buy power ups, weapons, extra lives and new characters if they inserted more credits. It was almost like an early version of microtransactions.

The last instalment never really felt like a Double Dragon game. These guys belong on a gritty urban street cracking the skulls of garish punks, that’s what they were born to do. It’s tough to imagine them even arranging passports never mind flying to Egypt to fight supernatural creatures in a pyramid. There were various remakes over the years but for all intents and purposes the Double Dragon franchise died here.