Beat 'Em Up Classic Double Dragon Gets A Modern Revival On Switch This October

As a kid who grew up playing co-op Double Dragon, I am excited to give this a try. Wasn’t a huge fan of DD: Neon, so hopefully there is a demo so I can try it out first. Fingers crossed they recapture the late 80s magic & nostalgia.

Fun Fact:
Arc System Works ported the original Double Dragon to the Sega Master System in 1988

My mind is very in between this looks good and this looks terrible.

Huh, that looked like a combo of Streets of Rage and Def Jam: Fight for New York. I liked the inclusion of environmental weapons and take-downs.

I wonder if they’ll include a vs mode in future? That would be super fun based on my experience with Def Jam: FFNY.

Will wait for reviews. I loved Double Dragon NEON, but I think that was WayForward, and I put a lot more faith in WayForward. This new game looks... cheap. Like it was initially made for smartphones

Just so long as they don’t try to make another Double Dragon movie…..amirite? 😅

@rvcolem1 same. the mechanics look fine but the 3D looks so very janky..

kinda wish it was sprites.

The developer isn't a stranger to combat-esque games. They developed every WWF/E wrestling game on PSX, DC, PS2, GCN, 360/PS3, and PS4/X1 from 2000-2018

But they also developed the new AEW game too, sooo...

Another non-Switch-2 release. I guess if it can on the lighter consoles, they figure backwards compatibility will work just fine. But when are we going to see exclusives or even just games that won't work on Switch 1?

This looks absolutely terrible. It might feel like the best beat'em up in the world in terms of control and crunch. But if it looks cheap I don't know how long I'd stick around for the ride. Hope the looks get a over haul.

To any of the people who are going to be complaining about this game looking nothing like the original 16-bit arcade games, let me tell you somethin':

We've had two retro revivals with the likes of Double Dragon Gaiden and River City Girls - both retro style beat 'em ups paying homage to the era that made them popular with their particular sprite-based art style and gameplay mechanics.

The last time we've seen another similar mainline entry from the Double Dragon series was with Double Dragon Neon released all the way back in 2012, which also was in 2.5D art style much like with Revive. So it wouldn't hurt for the developers of this game to try to be a bit more experimental and try something new for a change - it might even surprise some of us who aren't so stubborn.

So I don't understand the hate that this game is getting. I imagine it's mostly from the old head fans who grew up with the originals and can't see anything past the graphics that this game is going for and judge it solely on shallow reasons such as that instead of what gameplay mechanics it has to offer.

If your going to be judging a game for something so superficial, such as how the game looks, then that immediately tells me that you are an extremely shallow gamer who doesn't care about anything else.

I'm honestly looking forward to this game as the last beat 'em up I played that too heavily relied on nostalgia instead of meaningfully innovating on it's gameplay mechanics was Streets of Rage 4.

And I know someone's going to be questioning why that is - well, it has too do with that game pulling too many of it's ideas from Streets of Rage 2 and not committing towards any of it's new combo-based mechanics that are new and it turns into this frustrating unbalanced mess of a game where getting hit feels like it's mandatory and you have no evasive options like Streets of Rage 3. Very regressive in design. Oh, but people will praise that game to the high heavens because it's 2D and has fancy shmancy hand-drawn graphics which mean very little if the game is annoying to play - trust me as someone who played this game dozens of times on Survival and Mania+ modes, I have more than enough credibility.

So yeah, gameplay matters more than graphics.

Looks good, I like the environment attacks. I know Marian is gonna be doing more crunches. Poor woman.

Honestly didn't know because I didn't see the Switch logo at all during the show. Although after the gameplay here I am intrigued to possibly check it out if the Switch version is pretty good because the gameplay they showed actually looked really fun

@Fighting_Game_Loser Yes, we need more optimism for a game series that wants to try something new and innovative.

@Sambuc I never knew that. I can still remember playing the opening stage of Double Dragon on the Master System for the first time. It was a great port and very impressive at the time.

I have Arcade Archives Double Dragon and I find it tough to play nowadays. I actually just played it again a few weeks ago. I didn't mind it when I first bought it for Switch and played it right through to the end, spamming countless credits but I hadn't really played many beat em ups in over 20 years. Now I've got a fairly large collection of them and Double Dragon ranks among the worst.

That's not to take anything away from its significance though. It set a new standard and was the best of its kind at the time.

Bimmy and Jimmy, revived! This reminds me of Double Dragon Neon and that’s not a bad thing. I am going to call up my beat ‘em up buddy for some arcade action!

@rvcolem1 I agree, but am trying to give it a chance. It almost looks parts raging justice and the takeover, oddly (I think). Neon as well, which is definitely not my favorite in the series (that’s Advance, and I really enjoyed my time with Gaiden). We will know in October!

In a world where Streets of Rage 4 exists, this seems very….pointless.

Long time Double Dragon fan here. I'm stoked for this and I'm glad to hear it's coming to Switch.

I've moved on from Double Dragon, the magic isn't there for me anymore. Yakuza and Streets of Rage now own me.

Something looks cheap about this game. I'm not convinced.

Fight the might, the right of the dragon!

I don't really like this franchise at all but what we will see.

I'm a big beat em up fan but Double Dragon is one series I've never really understood the popularity of. It probably didn't help that id already played the vastly superior Streets of Rage before playing any but even later entries like Neon weren't great.

This though, the gameplay looks like it could be interesting but visually, I don't find it particularly appealing

This is a no-brainer for me and it looks very interesting. Double Dragon was one of the series that I was raised on (C64, then NES) and the pre-order bonus... I love Kunio series, so I'm sold. Still, no pre-order for Switch version tho.

Double Dragon was the first huge beat 'em up.

Back then we didn't have the term "beat 'em up", we just described the Streets of Rage*s and *Final Fight*s as:

"It's like *Double Dragon."

That was the reference point.

Just like Mortal Kombat or the Neo Geo games et.al. were:

"It's like Street Fighter".

Looks kinda fun, not so sure about the art style though.. am missing a good beat em' up at the moment so will probably give this a look when it drops.

Looks fun, but not loving the visuals on this at all. Kinda the opposite the reaction to Tókon then: I dig the genre, but hate the look!

Reminds me of the cheap The Warriors beat 'em up on xbox360 arcade. Looks stiff and clunky. Beat 'em ups just don't work in 3D.

I'll give it a chance but I think I'll stick with Shredder's Revenge, SOR4, TMNT Cowabunga Collection, Marvel Cosmic Invasion for my Switch beat 'em up library.

I hope they can follow in the footsteps of Streets of Rage 4.

I am willing to give this a shot, the combat looks kinda fun and I actually don't mind the visuals, I don't think they look great but they don't look awful either imo
I'm surprised there is no Switch 2 version given that ArcSys has devkits so I'm hoping that it at least has an option to uncap the framerate

Double Dragon Advance is still the pinnacle of the series, funnily enough.
But even then, I, personally, don't get the appeal of the series. All games are kinda mediocre, imo.

This looks absolutely dated and bad graphically but the gameplay makes me wet (my appetite).

Throwing enemies into the foreground and background scenery is hilarious. Stage gimmicks like throwing enemies headfirst into urinals and refrigerators and even over the railing on a boat is just a no brainer for the genre. Cool super meter mechanics. It looks great MECHANICALLY. But damn is the game ugly bro. It looks like an early 360 game im genuinely baffled why a game in 2025 can look like this.

Watching the trailer made me feel like in the good old days. Revive will get a physical edition, so I might give it a try someday.

I think this is Double Dragon's fifth or sixth "modern revival" now. At what point does it become simply "a new entry in the long running series"?

@russell-marlow That is because people have opinions towards those games. Not everyone is a fan of remakes, remasters and changes in modernized classics (I only say Star Wars.) But I wonder why this is such a problem for.you? If you like the game, good for you. Enjoy it. Ignore the people who dislike it. But don't attack or call them "haters". This word was so much overused for the wrong reasons.

As I said, people might dislike the game. As for me, I don't like how Marian is all of a sudden a fighter, since she never was before in the original games (stop, let me explain.) She was a support character 8n my eyes, that kept the plot running... even if she merely was kidnapped. Yes, that can be a plot device, even if overused. But simply throwing her 8n the game as a fighter without any information how she trained and got better, is bad writing (just like the Star Wars sequels.) Of they can explain it, cool. If not, it is lazy and dumb
It would be same as in the latest TMNT game, we April was all of a sudden a fighter, even though the 80s version never was one like the turtles. She was , like Marian, only a support character to keep the plot going. If characters change, it needs to be explain how it happened to understand this.

@BanjoPickles That I disagree. There is a.need for more.than just one Beat' em up games. The question, however, is how qualitative the game is. Double Dragon and street of Rage are classics, that can go well or break in one simple instance. I disliked Street of Rage 4 not for the gameplay, but how the characters got displayed and the story evolved during the game. It was rushed, dumb and hollow at best.

Looks like they finally produced a DD product with a nice art style that last entry looked atrocious

@BanjoPickles Respectfully, this is a dangerous and very closed-minded thought process.

@russell-marlow
The base issue, in my opinion, with most category defining entries are that they are defined by point in time memories and comparisons to previous and current graphical and gameplay iterations. Double Dragon and then Street's Of Rage were logical iterations int he Genre with differing feature sets. As you mention, gameplay is the key, and graphics are really secondary particularly in fighting games. Where most developers get is wrong is the emphasis on graphics and environments without considering if they truly add gameplay value to the fighting gamer:

I find most of the current remakes lose sight how older games got the feel of the controls suitable for most players which game them incentive to work on button combinations and mastering deadlier moves. Graphics were important but secondary to the understanding of the game mechanics. I did like Double Dragon but eventually Streets Of Rage became my go to fighting game even to this day. I find the original style a bit cheesy but charming as well. After all I am here to fight not gaze at the scenery.

@Billy_Lee

No, I love the Double Dragon series, but this trailer is very generic and I’m getting the Takeover vibes. The series deserves better than this.

How many times will try to "revive" this franchise? Each time, they fail to reference the other revivals, suggesting that they are deemed to have not succeeded. But that hurts the appeal here, as we've heard this story before, rather than helping it, as if this is finally the real deal.

That's funny that the trailer speaks of stage gimmicks. I recall hearing Kit and Krysta explain that in Japan, they see the word "gimmick" as a morally neutral term like the word "feature," not realizing it's a negative word meaning a trick to sell you something. Then again, some of their gimmicks really are gimmicks like the anti-gravity in MK8.

I don't get the complaints about the graphics, it looks fine and it's a $35 game, and most important, the game looks fun.

I've also seen people glazing Double Dragon: Neon, and that one doesn't look better.

@BanjoPickles I totally understand - I'm not 100% in love with the visual direction (though I would argue that the level art/design impresses) and would much rather it utilize CPS2-style pixel art, but there's enough street cred with the dev's experience regarding combat, combined with environmental interactivity, that I think beat-em-up fans should reserve judgement for post-playtime.

I believe A- or AA-level games deserve as much if not more support than AAA-budget projects, especially when they're trying to keep legacy IPs alive!

I should clarify per your original comment: stating a beat-em-up shouldn't exist if it's not copying/pasting SoR4 is akin to saying, "In a world where Burger King exists, other burger joints are pointless"! The King is cool and all, but variety is the spice of life.

Is The Takeover perfect? Nope. But for a solo-dev that earned a physical release, you can be sure I supported the heck out of it (copies on both Switch and PS4), as it played well and represented the genre I hold most dear.

Double Dragon Gaiden stands as my all-time favorite beat-em-up and I'm thankful Arc entrusted a tiny development team (2 people, plus outsourcing) to push things a little with different mechanics in a genre and IP that lots of people scoff at.

I'm happy they're not aping SoR4 with DDRevive - it's truly a great game (I own multiple copies across platforms, again!), but far from a genre fave for me. There's a lot of stuff I dislike in the game, but believe me, I will be FOREVER grateful for what SoR4 did for the genre!!! Huge love/respect from me.

(Can you tell I love beat-em-ups?!)

Anyway, I went on longer than intended, but I hope it helps shed some light...
Thanks for the response/chat!

I love the music of Double Dragon Neon.

Renegade was before Double Dragon.

People speak a lot about Streets of Rage and Double Dragon but I think Final Fight was the first really great arcade beat em up.

@Billy_Lee

You definitely make some great points! I should clarify that what I meant by my original comparison to Streets of Rage 4 wasn’t in reference to the graphical style (though I admittedly loved the approach they took). It had more to do with the effort and passion that went into it. It felt like a true sequel, and it reminded me of the days when Sega would really push themselves to make top-tier games. It may have been more of an indie release, but they treated it like a viable, AAA game.

I’ve heard good things about Gaiden. I still haven’t taken the plunge. My criticism of The Takeover was, admittedly, unfair. That game, however, reminded me of Burning Fight on Neo Geo: a perfectly competent beat ‘em up, but didn’t come close to the greats of the genre. That being said, I guess they can’t all be top shelf.

Good talk, sir!

Looks incredible, when Arc is good; they’re great. I’ll definitely pre order for DD Dodge Ball. Great timing too, as I might just be done obsessing over Shinobi when this releases. The Switch has so many great beat em ups, it’s truly been a joy. No need to limit genre entries just because some great titles already exist. Play them all!

@BanjoPickles Ah yes, the game where you're restricted from running, rolling, and even jumping in certain instances; where the developers handicapped most of your movement in favor endless offense and you get heavily punished for even getting hit once making you frustrated in the process by playing by their heavily restricted rules.

They can't even remain consistent with how they want you to play because even all of the enemies/bosses can hit you out of the air because they thought it would be really funny if they increased the size of the hitboxes on enemy attacks for no reason other than to frustrate the player. Not to mention, so many enemies 1-frame attacks and most the later enemies have super armor for some reason.

Tell me, does that sound like good game design to your?

Not allowing the player freedom and instead locking them into a linear style of play because the developers of that game were too stubborn and wanted to mimic the old style of Streets of Rage 2 even if it meant shackling down the player from being able to do anything and not allowing much player expression.

Wow, what a fun game. More like an under-cooked mess.

Reading so many of these types of comments makes me legit roll my eyes that so many folks like you share the same dull layman opinion.

@BanjoPickles Too funny - I actually didn't think you were referencing the art style with your comment! (Great minds, haha!)

Side note/hot take: the artistic direction for SoR4 is one of the (personal) dislikes I mentioned in my previous comment (my friend and I always talk about things that look "FLASH"y, i.e. Newgrounds games back in tha day like Castle Crashers, although SoR4 & the Shank series I personally consider as examples of Flash-done-right), but you're 100% correct: the amount of care the devs poured into each hand-drawn frame & combat mechanics demands pure respect and I'd argue involved more passion than some AAA-titles. I fully consider SoR4 instrumental in bringing the genre (rightfully) back into the limelight!

(...Glancing over you + DDGaiden for a sec, lol!)

Definitely with you on your assessment of Burning Fight - competent/not broken. I'm not a fan of The Takeover's art style (like a more-polished Raging Justice <<< ugh!) but I feel there is a beat-em-up there with great combat and a 90s-era "OG" SoR-informed charm!

OK - now it's elephant in the room-time!!!

PLEASE make Double Dragon Gaiden your next priority - yes, even before a meal.
Keep an open mind throughout: precisely how "lite" the roguelite elements are; the clever crowd control mechanic; learning how to effectively manage the SP meter which becomes a chain-fest as you link specials into a MvC-style partner-tag into their respective special (once you've purchased the perks that help replenish said meter)...

Bask in the soundtrack (literally one of the best!); the incredible fluidity of the animation; the bass/beefiness of the hits (and hit detection/enemy stutter); the 14+ unlockable (STILL being added to!) character roster (each plays differently!); the weapons; the 60s-era Batman-style sound effects ("KLANG!!", "BLAM", "KA-CHUK!!"); the details like bodies remaining on the ground (you can toggle this, but seriously, who wouldn't want to witness the fruits of their labors?!); the awesomely-enthusiastic announcer & character voice samples (sorry-not-sorry: I will N E V E R shut off the Crowd-Control announcements, which my daughter and I quote randomly & regularly to this day, LOL!); the changing level structure/mini-boss encounters --- there is a LOT of love in this game.

>>> The dev actually funded the project himself (previous title was the highly-underrated Streets of Red: Devil's Dare Deluxe, which you should also try at some point as it parodies a lot of horror properties), and if that doesn't SCREAM pure passion, I don't know what else would!!!

I could go on, but I'm very curious as to your take on the game.
Enjoy --- let me know! (ASAP, lol!)

aesthetically the art looks not very close to the original, even if its
from a Japanese studio, looks too western to me. But at least certainly an improvement over last games that used the franchise name and butchered it. Hope Capcom makes a true sequel one day

@russell-marlow

Honestly, I was never a fan of SoR3. I applaud Sega for trying to make improvements to the series, but I thought it was bland, the music was grating, etc. It was a well-designed game, but it didn’t grab me.

I honestly had a blast playing SoR 4. Am I wrong for that? I hope this new game proves me wrong, but I’m not seeing anything that’s really grabbing me. If I’m proven wrong, then I’ll gladly pick it up. I’m a huge fan of beat em ups, so I’ll probably buy it regardless.

Question, though: what’s with the unnecessary hostility?

Yes! I love it!! And announcing Physical from the start!!! LFG!!!!!!!

@BanjoPickles Not sure what some people were expecting with a sequel to SOR2 but seems to me like some folks are just parroting opinions of others and it's usually the same talking-points when it comes to the discussion of SOR3, nothing else beyond that.

If you ask me at least, I'd rather the developers behind Streets of Rage 4 kept the mechanics of SOR3 and decided to innovate based on those systems rather than throwing them out completely and deciding to take half-measures with introducing their own new ideas that heavily conflict with the regressive gameplay style of SOR2 where you're only limited to walking in eight directions and that's it. No running or evasive roll to keep your from wasting meter just pray you don't get hit and walk away.

This is coming from someone who has heavily invested hundreds of hours into SOR4 learning it's many quirks and esoteric combos and also having played on Mania+, it just leaves me frustrated because of all the restrictions and I genuinely get annoyed whenever people praise this game for so many superficial reasons that they don't even understand how bad of a game it really is.

If I came across as hostile, then I apologize since I'm speaking passionately about this sort of subject because I feel betrayed for investing time and attention into this sort of game that doesn't leave me fulfilled with how broken and unbalanced it is.

@russell-marlow

You make a lot of good points. I apologize if I came across as dumping on something you enjoy. I haven’t invested the amount of hours into SoR 4 that you have. I’m sure that if I had, I’d notice some of the same cracks you have.

Anyway, I do hope that the new DD turns out to be an amazing game. At the very least, I’d love just a fun, well-designed game.

I’m just grateful to see the return of a genre I loved so much during the 80’s/90’s.

I honestly don't like the new designs for the Lee brothers.

@MontyCircus

I get your point and that is indeed how we referred to beat 'em ups back then, as "Double Dragon"-likes. But the term "beat 'em up" was defintely used as well. I just re-read the Mean Machines preview of Final Fight on the Super Famicom, from January 1991, and it uses the term. They used the term in their first issue, from 1990, just 3 years after Double Dragon was released.

@Sambuc Fun Fact: I quickly played Double Dragon on the Master System yesterday to test a controller with unresponsive buttons that I’d cleaned. Fun fact 2: the cleaning fixed it.

I like beat 'em ups. The more I have the more happy I become. Also if anyone think beat 'em uo don't work in 3D then take a look at Urban Reign. And yeah it's not a brawler.

I love retro games.
I love beat'em ups.
But I feel like Double Dragon Gaiden already "beat" this one to it in being the better game.

But we'll see.

This looks better than than steets of rage 4, and Battletoads 2020... Maybe they'll do another Double Dragon/Battletoads.

It looks really solid gameplay wise, but I wish they'd done more with the graphics. It looks like a PS3-era revival when we're in the middle of a beat em up renascence with lots of gorgeous & colorful pixel-art or hand-drawn looks.

Shame Yuke's got to make this, they have talent making fun games, but I can't remember the last one they made one that was pleasing to look at.

Looks good, I may pick up the Switch 1 version if it had physical edition.

See..... this is what I been going on and on about!!!!!

Loved Double Dragon: NEON!!!! Bought it for a 2nd time [PS3 & Switch] digitally, and probably going to buy it a 3rd (physically)for local co-op between 2 systems on Switch 1.... as I'm refusing to buy a Switch 2 at this time!

Really happy this is coming to the OG switch instead of the new one! Because I'm probably going to pre-order this too when I order the other!!!

Thanks for listening Arc System Works!!!! Looks fantastic!!!!